Articles tagged “vacasa”

The old boys network is still as strong as can be in online travel and elsewhere. It shows up in several ways, although it was far from a decisive factor, in the pending Vacasa SPAC deal. But those decades-old ties sure didn't hurt, either.

Riding the hot vacation rental market, TurnKey Vacation Rentals did well for its investors — especially if the Vacasa stock price holds up in its pending public market debut.

It's not just all about Amazon Web Services anymore when Amazon reaches out to travel industry customers. It is still early days but Amazon Ads may one day crimp travel brands' spending on Google and Facebook.

The vacation rental market is surging ahead, but that doesn't automatically lead to a profitable business for those operating in the space. But Vacasa's most recent quarter should give prospective investors more confidence.

What's in a brand? When it comes to those like Hotels.com, probably hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. The inconvenient truth is that vacation-rental-selling Hotels.com isn't likely to rebrand anytime soon.

Both Sonder and Vacasa need to clean up customer service issues, but they are probably not so acute as to give investors much pause.

Are special purpose acquisition companies losing their shine? We'll find out more in the coming months as other travel startups plan to go public.

As happened with major online travel agencies, there will eventually be several winners in short-term rentals beyond Airbnb. But will these come from the independent property managers trying to build consumer brands, or will the larger players take them out as is customary?

Will Vacasa and Sonder have the wherewithal as public companies to build their own brands independent of relying on Google and Airbnb, and will their business model challenges be surmountable? There's a ton of potential and so much work ahead for each of the companies.

So far this year, a dozen travel companies went public or made plans to do so. A couple of them may shine. But the odds are stacked against this year's IPOs, on average, over the long term. Find out why.