Latest JetLiving NewsLetter
JetLiving would like to keep on top of all current news events that affect the private vacation rental market and we will post current articles and JetLiving inspired articles on our website. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts. CEO Brandon Ezra.
Expedia Gunning for HomeAway
The biggest news, in my view, is the increasing attention paid to the vacation rental category by the largest online travel players. Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi mentioned vacation rentals as a major strategic opportunity for the company on not just one, but both 2009 earnings calls. Expedia’s traveler review behemoth TripAdvisor acquired a majority stake in FlipKey, a vacation rental guest review platform originally conceived for professional property managers. In 2009, they have already launched FlipKey within TripAdvisor, introduced a booking engine (still fairly scarce in the vacation rental category, where most bookings are handled offline), and opened up their platform to individual vacation homeowners with a daring new program that massively undercuts pricing by market leader HomeAway.
HomeAway, which has more or less cornered the rental-by-owner online listings market by rolling up the top URLs (including VRBO.com, VacationRentals.com, CyberRentals, etc.), charges a few hundred dollars a year (it varies by site and service levels). FlipKey has stepped in with a shocking $1.99 per month offer for homeowners. Check it out here. So assuming FlipKey’s offer gains some traction with homeowners, the key question is: will FlipKey be able to leverage that tremendous TripAdvisor community and marketing muscle to drive traffic to its vacation rental platform and make a dent in HomeAway’s market?
I suspect the answer is yes, but I also believe HomeAway has plenty of fight in them. For starters, they have some of the most aggressive SEO/SEM activity in the vacation rental category across their portfolio of online properties. But Expedia is clearly in this for the long haul. It’s worth quoting Dara Khosrowshahi from the 2Q 2009 earnings call:
Source: Phocuswright
Other OTAs Enter the Fray
Priceline signed a deal with LeisureLink, a distribution company that connects professionally managed vacation rental suppliers to GDS, travel agent and online booking channels. Priceline, which has been gaining share against its rivals amid the recession, is serving up LeisureLink’s condo content within its hotel shopping path. Priceline joins Travelocity and Orbitz, which both already have deals with LeisureLink.
I learned from Tom Botts of Hudson Crossing that Orbitz has also given vacation rentals prominent placement within the recently resuscitated Lodging.com. Lodging’s vacation rentals tab is serving up content from a handful of third-party vacation rental and alternative lodging sites through private-label metasearch Vast.com, which pulls content from a range of sources, including AlwaysOnVacation, BedandBreakfast, PerfectPlaces, Rentalo and VacationHomeRentals among others (but not, notably, from the HomeAway network). Zonder was hosting a private-label vacation rental site for the OTA, but all of the links now go back to the Zonder home page. I have emailed both Orbitz and Zonder for more information.
Source: Phocuswright