Edited Press Release
Today Second Porch, the vacation rental Facebook app, announced that it has closed a one million dollar Series-A investment, led by the Oregon Angel Fund. The investment will be used to continue the company’s expansion into the vacation home rental and home exchange markets, which are among the fastest growing segments in online consumer travel.
Second Porch seeks to harness two strong trends: the mainstreaming of social networking, and vacation home rentals, one of the fastest growing segments of online travel. Second Porch enables owners and renters to tap into real world relationships in order to rent and trade vacation homes, where trust between owner and guest is of paramount concern on both sides of the transaction.

Second Porch Facebook App
Second Porch offers vacation homeowners an easy way to generate and manage high-value rental inquiries. According to the 2009 research report “Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change” published by travel research firm PhoCusWright Inc., homeowners who rent their own vacation homes reported that 73% of their inquiries come from friends, family, referrals and previous guests.
“Second Porch tackles the unsolved piece of the marketing opportunity for vacation homeowners by bringing an easy to use system to effectively and tastefully market to the best possible source of guests: people you already know and with whom you have some degree of trust”, said Brent Hieggelke, CEO of Second Porch, “The typical Facebook personal network comprised of ‘friends of friends’ reaches almost 17,000 people, all of whom can be vouched for by a friend in common. For a homeowner, this is an obvious opportunity to find prospective guests to rent to with a higher level of comfort and peace of mind. Second Porch also complements sites like HomeAway and VRBO, by giving homeowners the controls to integrate their existing calendars and even link back to their listings on those sites.”
Second Porch comes at an ideal time for the second home market. Due to the recession, many of the estimated 16 million second home owners globally who previously avoided renting or trading are now being forced into the market for an additional source of income. Second Porch provides a perfect entry point for travelers and owners who have hesitated to rent vacation homes due to trust concerns: renters can choose to view only homes owned by friends, and owners can choose to limit visibility to only friends only.
HomeAway reveals selected stats and figures
Friday, April 2nd, 2010In a recent article in Travolution by Linda Fox HomeAway’s CEO Brian Sharples reveals updated stats and figures on HomeAway:
Read the full article at: http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2010/03/30/3368/homeaway-to-slow-acquisition-strategy.html
Tags: homeaway, statistics
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