. . . currently HomeAway.
We don't say something like this lightly. But today's news that it has invested yet more money in the European holiday rental marketplace is significant.After securing a mammoth $250 million worth of funding last November, eyes have started to open to the rentals market from other parts of the industry.
HomeAways's acquisition of continental player Homelidays for an undisclosed fee, was at to least one of its rivals in the European marketplace a bit of a shock.
"We weren't expecting them to start spending the money so quickly," our rabbit caught in the headlights admitted to us yesterday afternoon.But for some people the reason for the outlay is blindingly obvious: online holiday rentals is a burgeoning sector, made up of hundreds of small and low-profile portals and individual landlords, therefore ripe for large firms like HomeAway to start that large-scale aggregation which has featured so prominently (and successfully) in hotels and air fares.
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For a company like HomeAway, snapping up businesses around the US and latterly in Europe makes sense as it attempts to increase scale and cross-fertilise properties across its portfolio of businesses.
As we pointed out last November, the triple-figure funding round HomeAway received was probably the biggest single piece of investment in the travel space from private equity since those of the old GDSs - Travelport and Sabre - in 2006.
This, in itself, speaks volumes about where the big boys of the investment world think the biggest return is going to come (with all due respect, of course, to the trip planning sites like Tripwolf and Uptake, which have secured more capital in recent months).
However, similarly to when the online travel agency model revolutionised distribution of hotel and air deals on the web in the late 1990s and early-2000s, the little guy is getting worried.
Within hours of our story running yesterday, responses started coming in from Twitter.
Indeed, some small, independent aggregators are not entirely enamoured with the Homelidays purchase.
"Pure cannibalism" said one comment. Another simply muttered: "Big isn't beautiful." "Not good news!!"
One more: "As long as 'some' still challenge HomeAway there is hope for creativity in our industry."
The LayMyHat forums carried similar themes.
Not exactly a positive reaction, then.
The boss of another online rental firm said last night the latest move and the growing dominance of HomeAway would be "bleak" for the sector.
"They will control the future of our industry in terms of design, technology and usability," the email claimed.
This will impact on the owners and customers in several ways, the email continued, but primarily because the standardisation of the platform and design makes it harder to distinguish between properties and large resorts, alongside the theory that the user experience is diminished when they are literally hundreds of thousands of listings.
Now some might see this as simply sour grapes from someone who didn't trouser $250 million last year.
But these are the voices of people that see huge change happening in their, until now, relatively peaceful and low-profile part of the travel industry.
As other parts of the industry have discovered, events can take place which shape - sometimes driven by just one or two organisations (think Ryanair-easyJet) - an entire area of the business forever.
We certainly think that HomeAway is driving much of the change in the holiday rentals space at a structural level - for good or bad is something for you to decide at this stage.
But this hopefully explains our assertion that the company is currently the most interesting in online travel.
And this is why we have invited Brian Sharples, co-founder and chief executive of HomeAway, to speak and then be interrogated at the Travolution Summit on April 21.
This market is so exciting. I'm not sure this large scale aggregation is a bad thing - it will allow other smaller companies to split away and give a more tailored approach in differentiation.
You're right this is an interesting marketplace, but it always has been in the UK. We must remember that Homeaway are a US company seeking typically US world domination. If you read the comments on LayMyHat there aren't many holiday home advertisers too excited about this.
Homeaway doesn't mean anything to a UK holidaymaker either, so the sites that aren't owned by them will probably do better out of this than anyone else!
If they do attempt to control the sector with their functionality you'll see lots of people running for miles, because trying to find a villa on either of their UK sites is nigh-on impossible and the bigger they get the more villas there are that you can't find!
Doesn't this also take away from the core values of renting a holiday home from someone - quite a provincial practice in essence, yet here you have someone trying to turn it into a faceless business.
Here, here!
As a holiday home owner there used to be four sites worth advertising on in the UK and then gradually three of them got eaten up by Homeaway. The only one left? holiday lettings. The only one bringing me booking enquiries too, not to mention picking up the phone and actually being helpful. They spend big bucks so it seems on promoting themselves and what they do not just trying to dominate the holiday rentals landscape and they seem to have lots of rubber stamps to prove it.
I know where I'll be putting my money when my advert comes up for renewal.
Your last para is just so true Ella, so perhaps you'll be proved right and the smaller UK sites will thrive, although as always, their spending power for advertising is inevitably going to be less than that of their American big brother/s.
What I find so ludicrous about the Homeway group is the fact that properties are listed across a number of their listing sites. So if, when looking for greater choice, you in your innocence switch to a different site, chances are the same old properties come up again in your searches - squillions of them, jostling for attention!
"Not exactly a positive reaction" is an understatement of what my reaction was as a holiday rental owner. Every rental company I was listed with before which was taken over by the HomeAway monster has suddenly gone from a listing site bringing in enquiries and bookings, to a dead duck with a customer service to match. My property is now competing with 3332 others on the Holiday Rentals site in Brittany, France, so the words 'needle' and 'haystack' come to mind. Holidaylettings, on the other hand, which have an excellent customer service and who actually acknowledge that the rental owners who pay to list with them ARE their customers, only have 235 properties, so at least there is a possibility that people will actually see my properties.
I don't see how the paying customers (the rental owners) or the people looking to rent a property benefit from the monopolistic approach of Homeaway. The only people who benefit are the greedy listing sites.
Ella, I hope you are right when you say that the sites that aren't owned by them [Homeaway] will probably do better out of this than anyone else! I hardly think this is a good move for the consumer. A monster in the market means less competition, less innovation, and therefore less pressure to provide a service tailored carefully to the needs of both holidaymakers and home owners. As Tamara says, perhaps this will drive smaller sites to set themselves apart by focusing on niche sectors (if they can muster the revenues required to do so).
Maybe we are the only independent left:)
Doug
This is another step in Homeaway becoming the 800lb gorilla in the Vacation Rentals by Owner market.
With the way these guys are growing, directholidaybookings, the market is starting to liven up again!
Holidayhomelistings.com is just over one year old and has just over 1100 holiday rentals properties advertised. UK based and run by myself and the wife.
If any one is disillusioned with the US invasion, please come to our site, a lot less than half the cost to advertise, if you email me I may even give you a nice discount.
We are not the biggest and never will be judging by this article... but we do are best to help and give a personal touch, we listen to are users and are always adding peoples ideas to the site.
Andrew Brough
The monopolisation of this sector is not a surprise. The booking of holiday rentals via the internet was an obvious step, and back in the late 1990's the first sites started to appear. With luck, and hard work some sites managed to make money. Now, the sector is swamped with other sites looking to cash in.
The problem for property owners is where to advertise to get the best affect - bang for your buck. My advice would be to spread it around as best you can. A listing on the homeaway network may seem expensive, but when listing on countless sites for the same fee, it may be rewarding. Alternatively, you could use that same money, and list on multiple smaller sites, and gain a better response. As the smaller sites are exactly that - smaller, you may find that your property is more easily found by prospective rentors.
Trial, and error is the best way. Just try, and see which works for you.
Rentals365.