$250 Million……..for Vacation Rental Industry Giant HomeAway

Not sure when the last time was that I heard some good economic news.  I am sure it was a while ago.  This week however changed all that.  $250 million is a lot of money - read about HomeAway's big catch.  I have gone up and down Sandhill Road in Palo Alto, CA looking to raise money from the Venture Capital community before, it is not an easy task.  Walking away with $250 million from these folks that are pretty darn smart is a great, great accomplishment.

So what does this mean.  In my opinion a couple of things:
1.  HomeAway has some very defined plans on what they will do with that $250million
2.  HomeAway has cornered the RBO market already, so I do not believe that this money will go into the RBO line
3.  RBOs and Vacation Rental Managers split the market about 50/50 - currently HomeAway does not have much of a story to address 50% of the market
4.  HomeAway needs to address that missing 50%

I assume you can guess by now where I think that HomeAway Will invest their $250 million - they will be making in-roads into the VRMC market.  Personally, I think this is great news for us in the vacation rental industry.  The tide raise all the ships and with an infusion of $250 million into the vacation rental industry, the tide will rise.

My advice, make sure that you have a solid online marketing, online bookings, and guest management/service strategy and partner.  Partner means someone who you can trust and who will be looking out for you in this changing time.

Ralf
LiveRez