As a holiday home owner/manager you’ll more than likely have heard of HomeAway, by far and away the largest vacation/holiday rentals online marketplace in the world.
Based in Austin, Texas since 2009, the company own numerous listings websites worldwide where owners and property managers list their rental homes for travellers and holiday-makers.
Aquisitions
Since 2005, and with funding of over €500m, HomeAway has, in their own words, ‘acquired all of the leading sites in the UK and Europe‘ in order to become the largest name in global holiday/vacation rentals.
2005 – CyberRentals.com (USA)
2005 – Great Rentals.com (USA)
2005 – A1Vacations.com (USA)
2005 – TripHomes.com (USA)
2005 – Holiday-Rentals.co.uk (UK – Re-branded in 2012 as HomeAway.co.uk)
2005 – FeWo-direkt.de (Germany)
2006 – VRBO.com (USA – largest site in the world which accounts for 25% of listings)
2007 – Arbitel.fr (France)
2007 – OwnersDirect.co.uk (UK)
2007 – VacationRentals.com (USA)
2009 – Homelidays.com (France)
2010 – BedandBreakfast.com (USA)
2010 – AlugueTemporada.com.br (Brazil)
2011 – RealHolidays.com (Australia – re-branded as HomeAway.com.au)
2012 – TopRural.com (Spain)
As well as in the UK and USA, the company also has its own worldwide network of HomeAway sites in Canada, India, Argentina, Mexico, Columbia, Australia, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.
The company went public in 2011 and usually reports very healthy profits each quarter.
Tiered Subscription Levels / Renewals
Over the last 18 months Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum subscription tiers have slowly been introduced to US, UK, France and Germany.
Annual renewal rates hover at around 75% – the goal is 80%.
HomeAway has identified the reasons for depressed renewal rates over the last year were due to significantly low renewals on acquisition site RealHolidays.com, forced migration to 12 month listings on Homelidays and the increase of €50 on subscriptions in 2012.
We would add that a noticeable backlash to some untested and hasty changes on VRBO and HomeAway did not help matters either.
Recent ‘HomeAway Sort’
In 2012 the company introduced the HomeAway ‘Sort‘. This identified the following seven most important parts of a listing which will lead to an owner/manager’s advert appearing higher on search results.
Main Factors – Displying Rates | Accepting Online Payments | Updating Availability Calendars | Tenure of Listings
Secondary Factors – Displaying Several Photos | Added Guest Reviews | Clear Map Locations & Zoom Levels
This is in line with the move towards an e-commerce model akin to instant hotel bookings.
Recent Global Bundles
The company also recently introduced bundle subscriptions whereby owners/managers could list their properties on more than one HomeAway site for one reduced cost.
HomeAway has said that this has contributed to ‘a nice acceleration in the revenue per listing growth over the last 4 quarters’ (to Q4 2012).
2013 Priority for HomeAway
The priority for HomeAway on 2013 is a move towards an e-commerce based model where ‘Property Managers’ use integrated property management software and ‘For Rent by Owners’ become familiar and comfortable with processing all transactions through the HomeAway system whilst also encouraging some to accept instant bookings without guest communication.
The company’s aspiration is to grow at around 15%.
Introduction of HomeAway’s Pay-per-Booking model in 2013
It is expected that in Q3 of 2013 HomeAway will introduce a Pay-per-Booking model to complement it’s subscription-based model. Unlike the recent changes on HolidayLettings.co.uk where both owners and guests are charged a booking fee, HomeAway have said that ‘The idea of charging travelers a fee, in the end, is short-sighted’.
The commission is thought to be a 10% fee upon each booking and will appeal to those with a restricted cash-flow and who find the subscription levels expensive.
Those who pay for subscriptions will be guaranteed positioning. However the advert positioning of those on a pay-per-booking model will be determined by what HomeAway feel ‘is best for meeting traveler demand and long-term revenue.’
Possible future moves
To encourage professional listings there is talk of introducing a spell check facility for owners
Move into Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.
Higher-priced subscription rates where supply and demand is at its highest (e.g. Diamond Tier – Orlando)
HomeAway.com and VRBO may also see the additions such as pre-booking ‘services for check-in, picking up the keys, policies, location of interest near the house…’.