HomeAway's First Quarter Profit Narrows as Paid Booking Model Ramps Up

HomeAway saw its first quarter profits narrow to $4.44 million, from $5.29 million a year earlier, as it continued to roll out its new yet optional pay-per booking model for vacation rental owners and managers.

The company's total revenue climbed 33% to $105.7 million.

Through the end of the first quarter, HomeAway boasted 227,144 performance-based listings compared with 951,843 subscription listings, which rose at a 28.2% clip year over year.

"Importantly, on the heels of our successful pay-per-booking launch in the fourth quarter of 2013, the health of our subscription business remains strong, as evidenced by two consecutive quarters of improving renewal rates, said HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples.

"With respect to pay-per-booking, while still early in the rollout, the team continued to make strong progress in both the deployment and rollout of our integrated and platform pay-per-booking products. With this in mind, we look forward to making our platform pay-per-booking product available to our largest European sites in the coming quarter."