Expedia Still Has High Hopes for a Vrbo Bounce — Next Year
Skift Take
When Expedia Group acquired HomeAway, now renamed Vrbo, in 2015, officials obviously knew they weren't getting an Airbnb. Still, they may have obtained less than they bargained for because the journey so far has been very bumpy.
In some ways, the Expedia Group narrative about its struggling alternative accommodations unit, Vrbo, in the second quarter was fairly similar to the messaging three months ago: We're working hard, and it won't be until 2020 until our labors bear fruit.
Expedia Group Mark Okerstrom said Thursday, during the company's second quarter earnings call, that the Vrbo team is working hard, and that if you take into account the Easter holiday and other adjustments, then the story was "broadly consistent."
Expedia Group rebranded its HomeAway business to Vrbo in the first quarter and took a resulting hit in its organic search, or search engine optimization, efforts, officials said at the time.
Okerstrom said Thursday that the team is working hard to get volumes from that free search engine traffic back on track, and he's "comfortable" with the effor
