After Sonder, Vacasa Receives Notice of Delisting from Nasdaq

Vacation rental property manager Vacasa received a notice of delisting from Nasdaq because the company failed to satisfy the minimum bid price listing rule as its common stock traded below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. 

This is just days after hospitality company Sonder, which leases buildings and operates hotels, received a similar notice from Nasdaq. 

Like Sonder, Vacasa also has a grace period of 180 calendar days (until October 24, 2023) to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement — where the closing bid price of its common stock should be at least $1.00 per share for at least 10 consecutive business days during this grace period. 

Founded in Portland, Oregon in 2009, Vacasa has had a rather tumultuous few years since it went public in 2021. Within a year’s time the company laid off three percent of its workforce to focus on breaking even. Another round of downsizing followed in January this year, where the company slashed 17 percent of its workforce.

Following that, Vacasa saw an increase of homeowner “churn,” namely properties abandoning its platform, in the fourth quarter and into 2023, and forecast that its average gross booking value per home would dip this year. Among a variety of glum forecasts the company officials made for 2023, Chief Financial Officer Jamie Cohen said Vacasa’s home count under management could decline in 2023, in part because of its sales force reductions, and shift in strategy toward signing up individual homes rather than focusing on acquiring portfolios of properties.

The company also announced it would shutter its real estate brokerage division in the second quarter. That unit “generated about $20 million of revenue and negligible profit in 2022,” the company said.

The property management company saw revenue jump 14 percent year over year to $218 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, surpassing its guidance range of $195 million to $215 million, even as it posted a net loss of $302 million in the last quarter of 2022. 

The company is set to announce first quarter 2023 financial results on Tuesday, May 9. 

Both Vacasa and Sonder went public through special purpose acquisition company mergers, a streamlined alternative to a traditional initial public offering.