Today, as Expedia announced it is buying HomeAway for an estimated $3.9 billion, HomeAway also shook the vacation rental industry by announcing they are adding a traveler free to guests booking vacation rentals on HomeAway’s suite of online marketplaces.
Management Comments:
Brian Sharples, CEO, HomeAway: “Today we’re announcing business model changes, including the addition of a traveler service fee in mid-2016, which will dramatically change our ability to compete and thrive in the coming years,” says Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway. “Better monetization will allow us to accelerate revenue growth, but most importantly will provide more resources for an even better product and service experience for our owners, property managers and travelers.” Mr. Sharples noted traveler service fee, which will be based on a sliding scale, will begin rolling out in Q2 of 2016 and is expected to add an average of roughly 6% to most transactions that run through its online shopping cart. In conjunction with the new traveler service fee, the Company plans to lower commission rates for most of their pay-per-booking customers and provide financial incentives to subscribers based on their annual booking volume through HomeAway’s platform.
Expedia Acquisition
Sharples continued, “Separately, we’re thrilled to announce our agreement to join the Expedia family of leading travel brands and couldn’t be more excited about what this move means for our very bright future. We’re eager to benefit from Expedia’s distribution, technology and expertise, which will allow us to provide an even better product and service experience for our owners, property managers and travelers. In this way, I believe our combination with Expedia will turbocharge our growth and industry leadership for many years to come.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Expedia -“We have long had our eyes on the fast growing ~$100 billion alternative accommodations space and have been building on our partnership with HomeAway, a global leader in vacation rentals, for two years. Bringing HomeAway into the Expedia, Inc. family and adding its leading brands to our portfolio of the most trusted brands in travel is a logical next step. We have tremendous respect for the HomeAway team and the business they have built. With our expertise in powering global transactional platforms and our industry-leading technology capabilities, we look forward to partnering with them to accelerate their shift from a classified marketplace to an online, transactional model to create even better experiences for HomeAway’s global traveler audience and the owners and managers of its 1.2 million properties around the world.”
I am a Canadian advertising on Homeaway with the platinum package in which I pay 1,899 US and as a result with the exchange rate nearly 2,600 dollars. I was NEVER informed about the additional service fee between 4-9 percent and this comes as a shock to me. This outright wrong and VERY greedy. I made roughly 50,000 on my property in Mont-Tremblant in Eastern Township of Canada – we will call the Whistler of the East. They will now charge an additional 5,000 plus or minus over and above the 2,600 I pay for the annual subscription. This is insane to mildly to put it. What is the alternative at this point and I am willing to partake in litigation. They did not introduce this at the end of the subscription no they did it during which should be considered illegal. Sadly what is the alternative and they know it we are all that there mercy with the reviews and goodwill we built-up on there website. They have a monopoly and they are using it to be greedy. They have already factored in the attrition of members – they do not care. How do we rise-up together is the question. We must all send our feedback for starters on there website and then call them one after the other. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn they must be blasted and brought back to there senses. Use social media to bring them back down to earth. Use there own devices. They are gauging owners and now our guests and we will lose business because of this and this business model they have chosen is a race to the bottom. VERY GREEDY
I had given a customer a few months to book under the price that she was quoted back then. Now she messages me, what is the additional 167.80 service fee. I did some research and found this is an 8 percent fee from homeaway, in addition to the 900 dollar membership fee that I pay yearly. I am shocked and horrified. I never got a notice or letter about this. I do not intend to renew my membership.