Recent Investments and Acquisitions in the Vacation Rental Industry: How They Affect Local Management Companies, and Where Does the Industry Go from Here?

News of acquisitions and investment in the vacation rental industry has been pouring in since Airbnb’s IPO: Vacasa buys TurnKey, Telluride’s Latitude 38, and Ocean City’s Vantage. Lightbay Capital acquires Tregaron’s vacation rental businesses, including Village, Great Ocean, Sun Palace, and Retreatia. HomeAway founders, Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd start a new SPAC. Key Data buys Demand IQ. Goldman Sachs invests in Inhabit IQ. 

What does it all mean? Where is all of this money coming from? How are independent PMCs affected? And what is a SPAC, anyway?

On Monday, March 15, VRM Intel popped up a live webinar with US vacation rental management experts to discuss recent industry news headlines, what they mean for property managers, and where the industry is heading.

 

Live Discussion_ How Recent Headlines Affect US Vacation Rental Managers from VRM Intel Live on Vimeo.

 
As editor of VRM Intel, quite honestly, I had a lot of questions. I figured I wasn’t alone so we decided to gather a group of experts for a live discussion, including: Mike Harrington, founder and CEO, Carolina Retreats; Steve Milo, founder and CEO, VTrips, Jodi Refosco, owner, Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations; Ben Edwards, president, Weatherby Consulting, Cinnamon Shore Rentals, and Sanctuary Vacation Rentals; Lino Maldonado, equity PM investor, CEO, BeHome247, and former vice president, Wyndham Vacation Rentals; and Jason Sprenkle, CEO, Key Data and former owner, 360 Blue (which recently sold to Natural Retreats).