Vacasa CEO on Why a Recession Could Be Good for His Business

Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of video interviews from the Skift Take Studio, presented by KDS, that were filmed at this year’s Skift Global Forum.

During the 2017 Skift Global Forum in September in New York City, we heard from a host of the travel industry’s top leaders from across every sector.

And after first speaking to them on stage in front of an audience of more than 1,100, we took another few minutes with them to get more insight in our backstage Skift Take Studio.

In our behind-the-scenes conversation, Eric Breon, CEO of vacation rental management company Vacasa, shared his thoughts about Airbnb, the reason he doesn’t see hotels as competition, and why a recession would actually be good for his business.

“At Vacasa, we’re primarily constrained by supply, homes that we manage, rather then consumer demand,” he said. “Supply is much more readily available in a recession as people bought that house and now they’re not able to sell it. They’re under water, they’re going to look for other options, and we are one of those options where they could rent out the home they can’t afford.”

He added: “In a hot market like today, it’s a bit of a headwind. People are selling their home for 50 percent more, twice as much as they paid. Whereas if the market slows down, people would be stuck with those homes and then they’d be looking [at], ‘How can I monetize this home I’m not using?'”

Watch all the Skift Take Studio videos here.