TripAdvisor acquires Spanish vacation rental site and dramatically boosts portfolio

TripAdvisor has acquired its third vacation rental business, Niumba.com in Spain, a move that will dramatically increase TripAdvisor’s vacation rental properties.

TripAdvisor says Madrid-based Niumba, with more than 120,000 properties in Spain, and 230,000 overall, will continue to operate as a separate brand, although its listings will be integrated into TripAdvisor and HolidayLettings.

At the end of 2012, TripAdvisor counted 300,000 vacation rentals in its portfolio. TripAdvisor couldn’t immediately say whether its vacation rental business now offers 530,000 properties as there likely is a good deal of overlap.

The hotel review giant, which recently launched hotel metasearch, has been branching out into vacation rentals since 2008, when it acquired U.S.-based Flipkey. Then came TripAdvisor’s acquisition of HolidayLettings in the UK in 2010.

At the end of 2102, TripAdvisor had access to about 300,000 properties, with this base of rentals boosted by several European vacation rental partnerships forged in 2011. They included partnerships with Interhome of Switzerland, Toprural in Spain, mediavacances.com in France, and Stayz in Australia.

In choosing to acquire Niumba, TripAdvisor has chosen to acquire in lieu of a partnership this time, and will compete head-to-head with HomeAway.es and HomeAway’s Toprural.com in Spain.

TripAdvisor has been on a buying binge since last last year, having acquired Wanderfly, Jetsetter, CruiseWise and Tiny Post.

Who says there’s no money in user-generated content.