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HomeAway

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HomeAway.com, Inc.
Company typeA unit of Expedia, Inc.
Nasdaq: EXPE
S&P 500 Component
IndustryTravel
FoundedFebruary 2005
FoundersBrian Sharples and Carl Shepherd
Headquarters
Austin, TX
,
USA
Key people
Brian Sharples (CEO)
Carl Shepherd (CDO)
Tom Hale (COO)
Lynn Atchison (CFO)
Mariano Dima (CMO)
Jon Gray (CRO)
Jeff Hurst (CSO)
Lori Knowlton (CPO)
Steve Davis (CIO)
Jeff Mosler (CSO)
ServicesVacation Rentals
WebsiteHomeAway.com

HomeAway, Inc. is a vacation rental marketplace with more than 1,000,000[1] vacation rental listings in 190 countries,[2] and has 1588 employees.[3] It has operated through 40 websites in 22 languages as of December 31, 2014. The company offers the most comprehensive selection of rentals[4] for families and groups to find accommodations such as cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns and farm houses.[5] Founded in February 2005 and headquartered in Austin, the company became publicly traded company in 2011.[6] On November 4, 2015, Expedia, Inc. announced its intention to buy HomeAway.

History

HomeAway, Inc. was founded in 2004 as CEH Holdings.[7] The company acquired several sites and consolidated them into a single vacation marketplace, launching HomeAway.com in June 2006.[8]

The acquisitions that HomeAway has made include:

Date Acquisition Location
2005 CyberRentals.com U.S.
2005 GreatRentals.com U.S.
2005 A1Vacations.com U.S.
2005 TripHomes.com U.S.
2005 HomeAway.co.uk United Kingdom
2005 FeWo-direkt.de Germany
2006 VRBO.com[9] U.S.
2007 Abritel.fr[10] France
2007 VacationRentals.com[11] U.S.
2007 OwnersDirect.co.uk[12] United Kingdom
2009 Homelidays.com[13] France
2010 BedandBreakfast.com[14] U.S.
2010 AlugueTemporada.com.br[15] Brazil
2010 Instant Software [16] US
2010 Escapia [17] US
2011 RealHolidays.com.au[18] Australia
2012 Toprural.com[19] Spain
2013 Travelmob[20] Singapore
2013 Stayz Australia[21] Australia
2013 Bookabach.co.nz[22] New Zealand
2014 Glad to Have You, Inc.[23] U.S.

HomeAway moved into its new global headquarters in Austin, Texas on October 2, 2009; it was the first mixed-use project and the second company in Austin to achieve LEED Gold certification for Commercial Interior Design.[24]

On November 18, 2009, Us Weekly magazine announced that HomeAway would reunite actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in a new short film and advertising campaign based on National Lampoon’s Vacation (a movie). The HomeAway ad represents the company’s first national advertising campaign that debuted during the CBS television network broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010.[25]

Before going public in mid-2011, HomeAway raised a total of $405 million in venture-capital which was funded by venture capital firms Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures and Trident Capital.[26] Currently, Homeaway’s valuation is approximately $2.9 billion.[27] Homeaway’s IPO stock closed at $40.21 on Nasdaq, up 48.9% from its IPO price of $27. The stock price has since hovered around $35.

On 5 March 2014, the company announced that through an all-cash transaction, it acquired the U.S. mobile application ‘Glad to Have You’ (GLAD).[28][29][30]

In 2015, HomeAway invested $4.9 million[31] in CanadaStays to increase the number of Canadian properties from less than 10,000 to more than 220,000.[32] The partnership makes HomeAway a minority stakeholder in CanadaStays, who is the largest vacation rental site in Canada and based in Toronto.[33]

A summary of the company's financial information over the last four years:

Year Revenue Percentage Increase
2011 $230.2m -[34]
2012 $280.4m 21.8%[35]
2013 $346.5m 23.6%[36]
2014 $446.8m 28.9%[37]

Business model

Before HomeAway introduced its new performance-based business model in 2013, homeowners paid subscription fees which averaged out to be $442 annually, to list their own property or display their vacation rentals on the company’s sites.[3] To promote the vacation rentals, property owners and managers purchase paid listings in advance as a form of advertising to potential travelers on more than one of its website, typically for one year. Paid listings appear in search results when travelers search for vacation rentals, based on their search criteria. As of December 2012, paid listings accounted for 84.9% of HomeAway’s revenue.[38]

After the new alternative performance-based system was launched, homeowners now have two options: a pay-per booking model or the longtime subscription-fee model. In the pay-per-booking model, homeowners must now forgo a 10% commission for each booking instead of an annual subscription fee. Besides the commission, guests are not charged for any booking fee.[39] This free listing option saw that the number of listings grew by 20% from 500,000 to over 600,000 within 5 months of its introduction.[40]

HomeAway also introduced a Professional Referral Network of 40 partner companies, of whom include Evolve Vacation Rental Network, Southern California Vacation Rentals and No Worries Vacation Rentals, to work with vacation rental owners in managing their listings, guest inquiries and reservations. This arrangement charges an average of 20% per booking, where partners and owners work together in handling guest-related matters and owners continue to manage their own property.[41]

Financing

HomeAway announced in November 2006 its $160 million in financing to fund global expansion initiatives, including the acquisition of VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner).[26] On November 11, 2008, HomeAway announced it had completed an additional $250 million equity capital raise.[42] The investment was led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and with existing investors Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Redpoint Ventures.[43] In 2010 the Wall Street Journal named HomeAway one of the top 10 venture funded companies.[44]

References

  1. ^ "HomeAway, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results".
  2. ^ "About HomeAway".
  3. ^ a b "Why This Could Be HomeAway's Breakout Quarter". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  4. ^ "Priceline Could Get Bigger In Vacation Rentals By Acquiring HomeAway".
  5. ^ "HomeAway.com listings for cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns and farmhouses".
  6. ^ "HomeAway IPO Prices At $27/Share; Valued At $2.2B".
  7. ^ "homeaway inc (AWAY) Details". Retrieved Jul 26, 2013.
  8. ^ Austin Business Journal. "Live the destination: Local company launches vacation rental Web site", Austin Business Journal, June 7, 2006.
  9. ^ Austin Business Journal."Vacation rental site lands $160M, buys competitor", Austin Business Journal November 13, 2006.
  10. ^ *Austin Business Journal."HomeAway buys French Web site", Austin Business Journal January 22, 2007.
  11. ^ Austin Business Journal."HomeAway continues buying spree", Austin Business Journal May 14, 2007.
  12. ^ Austin Business Journal."HomeAway continues buying streak with UK-based acquisition", Austin Business Journal October 2, 2007.
  13. ^ Austin Business Journal."HomeAway picks up Homelidays SAS of Paris", Austin Business Journal February 4, 2009.
  14. ^ Travel Weekly."HomeAway buys B&B website", Jerry Limone March 3, 2010.
  15. ^ TechCrunch."HomeAway Expands To South America With Purchase Of Brazilian Counterpart", Robin Wauters March 9, 2010.
  16. ^ "HomeAway Acquires Largest Vacation Rental Management Software Provider—Instant Software, Inc."
  17. ^ *HomeAway
  18. ^ TechCrunch."HomeAway Broadens Presence In Australia With Acquisition Of Vacation Rental Site RealHolidays", Leena Rao April 4, 2011.
  19. ^ TheNextWeb."HomeAway acquires Spain’s rural tourism site Toprural in all-cash deal", The Next Web April 2, 2012.
  20. ^ TechCrunch."HomeAway Buys Singapore Startup Travelmob To Enter Asia-Pacific", Victoria Ho July 17, 2013.
  21. ^ Market Watch."HomeAway Acquires Australia's Leading Vacation Rental Group, Stayz", December 4, 2013.
  22. ^ "Company Information". HomeAway. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  23. ^ "Glad to Have You, Inc.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  24. ^ Austin Business Journal."HomeAway HQ nabs LEED gold rating", Austin Business Journal, April 15, 2010.
  25. ^ US Weekly. "Exclusive: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo to Reprise Vacation Roles", US Weekly, November 18, 2009.
  26. ^ a b Nuttall, Chris. "HomeAway makes $250m VC round splash", FinancialTimes.com, November 11, 2008.
  27. ^ "ROOMS › RENTALS & SHARESHomeAway CEO Challenges Airbnb to Do Initial Public Offering". Skift. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  28. ^ "HomeAway Buys Glad to Have You App". ZACKS. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  29. ^ "HomeAway Raises the Bar in Vacation Rental Guest Hospitality with its Acquisition of Mobile Application Glad to Have You™". HomeAway. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  30. ^ "HomeAway acquires vacation rental management service 'Glad to Have You'". VB. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  31. ^ "The Week in Travel Startup Funding: HomeAway Takes Stake in CanadaStays". Skift. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  32. ^ "Morning News: Airbnb Adds 1,000 New Cuba Listings". CN Traveler. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  33. ^ "HomeAway Expands North American Footprint with Minority Stake in CanadaStays". MarketWatch. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  34. ^ "HomeAway, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and 2011 Financial Results", Financial Report 2011, Retrieved April 11, 2015
  35. ^ "HomeAway, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Financial Results", Financial Report 2012, Retrieved April 11, 2015
  36. ^ "HomeAway, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2013 Financial Results", Financial Report 2013, Retrieved April 11, 2015
  37. ^ "HomeAway, Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results", Financial Report 2014, Retrieved April 11, 2015
  38. ^ "HomeAway Inc. (AWAY.O) Company Profile". Reuters. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  39. ^ "HomeAway Unveils Performance-Based Model to Attract New Customers and Short-Season Vacation Rental Inventory". HomeAway. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  40. ^ "How is Airbnb different from HomeAway and VRBO?". Quora. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  41. ^ "HomeAway Launches Its New Performance-Based Business Model". Skift. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  42. ^ "Some Startups Still Lure Investors", BusinessWeek.com.
  43. ^ Ante, Spencer. "HomeAway: A Find in Online Vacation Rentals", BusinessWeek Online, November 11, 2008.
  44. ^ DEBAISE, Colleen and Austin, Scott. "Sizing Up Promising Young Firms ", Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2010.
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