Vacation Rental Search Startups Face Intensifying Rivalry

Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway grab the headlines when it comes to the online booking of alternative accommodations. But smaller startups are fighting for dominance in the fast-growing category of price-comparison search. Just as Trivago aggregates hotel inventory and refers customers to other companies to complete their booking, these startups aim to offer similar price-comparison for non-hotel lodging. Since launching the category in vacation rental search, Tripping has been the most lavishly funded. The San Francisco-based company has raised $55 million to date, it said. But in the past year, additional venture capital funding has intensified competition among the clutch of startups that help consumers trawl listings across booking sources. The most significant new challenger has been HomeToGo, a Berlin-based startup. Five companies claim to be "the world's largest" by various measures. But a few sources at third-party suppliers who see booking volumes speculated t