Articles tagged “homeaway”

Airbnb clearly was on weak ground against HomeAway in this trademark lawsuit, and apparently withdrew the campaign. The gloves are off, however, and the two rivals can expect to see their competition against one another get nastier in coming years.

This lawsuit marks the fact that for HomeAway, Airbnb has now crossed a line -- into HomeAway's core resort destination markets. Gone is all the talk about the two companies addressing different markets. The two companies will now play, old-fashioned country hardball.

By offering full-service support, local contacts, insider access and members' club privileges, Oasis Collections is introducing the sharing economy to a new market of international travelers.

Hotels and the sharing economy don't compete as much as they complement one another. Understanding what makes the innovators work, though, can improve the operations of hotel chains and properties.

HomeAway, which is way behind, but pushing hard to improve its e-commerce capabilities, is beginning to feel some heat from Booking.com on one side and Airbnb on the other. You could therefore look at this follow-on public offering as a defensive move. On the other hand, HomeAway's acquisition spree is an aggressive tack, and the public offering signals that HomeAway has no intention of slowing down.

In a turning point for Booking.com and the hospitality industry, the largest lodging site in the world now has so many vacation rental listings, dispersed across 193 destinations, that it is changing the nature of the online travel business.

HomeAway and vacation rentals in general could really become more disruptive to the hotel industry if HomeAway gets the sort of wide distribution on partner sites that its executives have in mind.

HomeAway's acquisition of Stayz fits very well with HomeAway's recent big push in Asia-Pacific, and also with its drive to transition to a pay-per-booking model, which Stayz has operated for years.

Expedia hopes it can repeat the TripAdvisor playbook with newly acquired Trivago. Build Trivago, spin it off one day, let the shareholders exult, and start all over again. But sometimes life and business gets in the way.