HomeAway Has New Plan to Force Vacation Rental Owners to Accept Online Bookings
Skift Take
Many vacation rental owners are not going to be happy about HomeAway's online booking push -- but it is in the best interest of travelers and HomeAway's shareholders are going to back the move, as well.
HomeAway is pressuring vacation rental owners and property managers to accept online bookings in a bid to spur more bookings, ready itself for additional distribution partnerships through online travel agencies, and perhaps make the company a more suitable target for acquisition.
Behind the scenes, officials from Expedia, which partnered with HomeAway to offer vacation rentals, and executives from Booking.com, which is in "constant discussions" with HomeAway about working together, according to Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston, are undoubtedly imploring HomeAway that it must get its digital act together.
But as HomeAway today unveils a plan "to enable online booking for every property listing in its global marketplace," it is clear that enabling online booking in the vacation rental context is still eons away from what travelers have come to expect when booking a hotel online.
In a two-year plan starting in mid-2015, HomeAway's stated goal is to make each of its more than 1 million listings online bookable.
Offline Payments for Online Bookings
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