Articles tagged “someway”

It is the beginning of year two for HomeAway within the Expedia portfolio, but rival Airbnb is also getting aggressive in its digital marketing of vacation rentals and Booking.com is no slouch, either. Perhaps to the chagrin of hotels, the vacation rental category is getting a ton of more exposure.

HomeAway president John Kim, after a manner, is trying to turn HomeAway into the type of company that Airbnb is -- one that is focused on technology improvements and a great user experience. In many ways, Kim has the tougher job. He isn't starting from scratch, as Airbnb did, but is attempting to spur changes in a company that has been around since 2005 and grew through a flurry of acquisitions.

Metasearch sites such as Kayak, Hipmunk, Trivago, TripAdvisor and Tripping have a lot of heavy lifting to do because consumers will increasingly be demanding better ways to comparison-shop for alternative accommodations that are often unique and difficult to define. All things being equal -- and they aren't -- that's a big market opportunity for these sites.

Although five companies other than Expedia expressed an interest in investing in HomeAway or proposed an alternative transaction, only one, Expedia, made a full-blown acquisition proposal. That may say something about HomeAway's prospects, the very competitive marketplace in the vacation rental space and the broader sharing economy.

Expedia's launch of vacation rentals in the U.S. in partnership with HomeAway has been a relative dud as Expedia hasn't shown much commitment to the effort. But Expedia has higher hopes for Europe, where vacation rentals are more commonly in travelers' consideration set.

Airbnb, with its roughly $24.5 billion valuation, would likely be too big for most of the online travel agencies to acquire but if they are forced to enter the sharing economy in a bigger way several years from now they always have the resources to buy their way in.

HomeAway, we didn't know you had it in you. Well done.

The judge's ruling tossing out HomeAway's suit against the City of San Francisco's short-term rental law may not be the end of the story. HomeAway could still be liable for collecting occupancy tax under the city's pre-existing ordinance.