Articles tagged “vacation rentals”

Although five companies other than Expedia expressed an interest in investing in HomeAway or proposed an alternative transaction, only one, Expedia, made a full-blown acquisition proposal. That may say something about HomeAway's prospects, the very competitive marketplace in the vacation rental space and the broader sharing economy.

With the Priceline Group out of the running to get into the Expedia-HomeAway sweepstakes, it appears very likely that the deal will sail through toward closing.

Three or four years ago, when Booking.com was trouncing Expedia quarter after quarter, you might have wondered why the Expedia CEO still had a job. Now he and Expedia-Trivago-Hotels.com-Travelocity-Orbitz-Wotif-HomeAway are on a big-time roll -- a rollup that's unprecedented in online travel.

From a financial perspective, charging a booking fee to travelers was the missing piece from HomeAway -- and the company telegraphed several months ago that it was coming. Charging travelers fees will enable HomeAway to lower commissions to vacation rental owners to be more competitive with Airbnb and Flipkey.

Given their size, TripAdvisor and its FlipKey brand will weather this storm but they have some serious fence-mending to do with vacation rental property managers. It's not just airlines that sometimes cause a lot of pain when they make big technology changes.

With the relatively smallish Travelmob transaction, HomeAway is doubling down on its existing investments in Asia-Pacific.

TripAdvisor/FlipKey's challenges with the vacation rental industry aren't only technical ones. They also reflect increased supply available from individual homeowners and apartment renters. TripAdvisor, Booking.com and Airbnb are going after this sector and professionally managed properties are feeling the lumps.

There could be less than meets the eye in the new Kayak-HomeAway partnership. But even if that were true it wouldn't soften the speculation about a blockbuster deal for HomeAway.

Expect more fascinating results from this big collision happening on the alternative accommodation side, and not only will it affect the traditional online travel agencies, but also the organized hotel sector as well.

Airbnb has spawned an ecosystem of startups offering ancillary services, but Handy has a leg up on its competition with a brand and customer base already built up around the country.