- http://www.tnooz.com/2010/08/26/news/five-reasons-why-holiday-rentals-are-becoming-mini-hotels Five reasons why holiday rentals are becoming mini-hotels by Pedro Colaco, president and CEO of GuestCentric Systems on Tnooz
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Weekly Vacation Rental Pressrun 2010 #34
Saturday, August 28th, 2010Pressrun week #22
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010- HomeAway, Booking.com lead the way — Expedia resigned to me-too - Interesting article at tnooz.com on Expedia’s struggle in vacation rental business.
VacationRentalIndustry.com - quick update
Thursday, April 15th, 2010Since our coverage of the vacation rental industry is expanding we decided to categorize each post more precisely to improve the reading experience. From now on we will add a flag representing the country the post is talking about and the type of vacation rental business, e.g. whether it’s a vacation rental chain, management, technology, marketing company, etc.
Interhome’s parent company reports 2009 financial results
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010Swiss-based travel holding Hotelplan Group, the parent of vacation rental operator Interhome, today announced their 2009 results. Hoteplan recorded a turnover of CHF 1,618m (~ USD 1,537m) at a negative EBIT of CHF -21.6m (~ USD 20.5m).
Its vacation rental operations under the Interhome and Vacando brand reported CHF 212m (~ USD 201) in revenues (0% growth), that is 13% of Hotelplan’s total revenue. EBITDA was positive at CHF 4.3m (~ USD 4.1m), down 11% vs last year. While Interhome acts as a travel operator, Vacando’s business model is more similar to that of HomeAway.
Interhome 2009 results
Here is an excerpt of the press release about the performance of Interhome and Vacando:
“Positive developments are apparent from the holiday home firm Interhome and generally from increasing online sales. [...] Interhome, operating today in 27 destinations, proves to be a robust business model, highly resistant to the economic crisis. After adjustment due to exchange rate effects, the company produced a higher turnover and result than in the previous year. The number of objects was increased from 19′500 to approximately 21′000. Distribution was expanded into the source markets Croatia, India and Israel. At the same time, all call centers were moved to Prague in summer 2009. [...] Vacando, the Online Portal for the unorganized market in the area of Self-Catering is growing and the Cost per Order (CPO) is decreasing constantly”
Vacando Website
To read the full media release click here: http://www.hotelplan.com/en/media/news.aspx?nr=796#start
Weekly Vacation Rental Pressrun 2010 #7
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010- So what happens when growth at HomeAway slows down? - Article on Homeaway’s growth on tnooz
- Friday Q&A: Steve Barsh, CEO of Packlate.com - Interview with Packlate.com’s CEO
Weekly Vacation Rental Pressrun 2010 #6
Monday, February 15th, 2010- Was HomeAway’s Commercial Worth It? - Great comment on HomeAway’s TV promotion at The Wall Street Journal
- The smell of success for UK self-catering holidays - at Easiertravel.com
- How To Travel Using Vacation Rentals - rental guest guide by DiscoverVacationHomes.com
Instant Software Announces Partnership with ParadiseHunter.com
Thursday, February 4th, 2010Edited Press Release
Instant Software’s relationship with ParadiseHunter.com brings together technology, property management companies, and vacation travelers for a new and unique travel planning experience. Instant Software announces partnership with vacation rental website, ParadiseHunter.com, a vacation planning search engine that offers a variety of resources to help vacationers plan the perfect trip. By combining Detailed Destination Information, a television series, and the ability to book travel directly on their website, ParadiseHunter.com, according to Instant Software, is unique in its ability to connect travelers to the people and services who will create their memorable travel experience.
Paradiesehunter.com
ISILink, ISI’s global distribution system for the Vacation Rental industry, will provide ParadiseHunter.com with the information needed to seamlessly create and maintain Vacation Rental listings, including property information, rate cards and up-to-date availability calendars.
ParadiseHunter.com’s President, Dennis Kambeitz is excited about the benefit this relationship will have for their customers. “ISI’s property management solutions manage more than 250,000 properties throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Our affiliation will increase the number of destinations represented on our website, as well as provide an influx of top-rated and quality rentals for our website’s visitors to choose from.”
ParadiseHunter.com is a comprehensive website for travelers, inspiring and educating them with information, videos, and photos on destinations worldwide. It features a powerful search engine for Vacation Rentals and International Real Estate, making it enjoyable and easy for visitors to find the perfect destination. In addition, website visitors can watch the Paradise Hunter TV Show online to learn more about the different locations and activities.
“Paradise Hunter brings a unique and wide-spread approach to the marketing of Vacation Rentals, which we feel will greatly benefit our clients,” said Dave Hopcroft, CEO of ISI. “With the economy still sluggish in the United States, Paradise Hunter’s popularity with Canadian travelers will help our clients tap into a growing customer base of thirty million people, resulting in increased occupancy rates.”
HomeAway quadruples PR budget in UK
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010HomeAway has recently launched its Grantourismo as part of its new PR campaigns and investments.
Granturismo Blog
Read more about the PR campaign on
HomeAway in Hitwise Top 10 Travel Websites
Saturday, January 30th, 2010According to HomeAway, this January, its two UK sites; HomeAway Holiday-Rentals and Owners Direct leap in to the top 10 travel websites in the Hitwise ‘Destination and Accommodations’ category, joining well-established travel giants such as TripAdvisor and Travelodge.
Petra Friedmann, President of HomeAway Europe comments, “We’re delighted to be included in the Hitwise top 10. Our internal forecasts indicate our two UK sites, homeaway.co.uk and ownersdirect.co.uk have experienced record traffic and we expect almost 5 million visits by the end of January. Despite the struggling economy, demand for online holiday rentals is going from strength to strength as travellers realise they can find a whole home for less per head than a similar standard hotel and stretch their budget even further by taking advantage of self-catering facilities.”
Both companies remain confident this growth will continue throughout the year, as forecasts indicate demand will stay strong. According to industry analyst Mintel, around one in five people currently stay in holiday homes and self-catering holidays are rising every year. In 2009, self-catering holidays were forecast to represent over 60% of all overseas holidays and Mintel expects the self catering market to continue to outstrip general holiday growth and exceed 34.3 million breaks by 2011.
Throughout the world, HomeAway is kicking off ambitious marketing plans to communicate the benefit of rentals and strengthen the brand. In the US, the company will air its first ever national advertisement during the CBS television network broadcast of the Super Bowl on February 7, 2010. Locally, HomeAway.co.uk is targeting the social media as it sends two writers ‘around the world’ in holiday homes to chronicle their experiences via a blog and Twitter at http://www.grantourismotravels.com and http://twitter.com/gran_tourismo.
HomeAway appoints Former Opodo France Chairman of the Board
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009Edited Press Release
HomeAway, Inc., which operates the world’s largest network of vacation rental websites, today announced the appointment of Petra Friedmann to the position of President of HomeAway Europe. A longtime veteran of the travel industry, Friedmann brings invaluable online consumer experience to her new role managing the company’s European presence. She replaces Alexis de Belloy, who transitions to a similar position overseeing the HomeAway brands in the U.S.
“We’re pleased to have a proven leader to oversee our rapidly growinG European business,” says Brian Sharples, CEO of HomeAway. “Her expertise in online consumer travel will benefit our operations throughout the world.”
From Paris, Friedmann will manage teams based in the U.K., Germany and France and oversee the business operations of Europe’s leading vacation rental sites, including Holiday-Rentals.co.uk, OwnersDirect.co.uk, FeWo-direkt.de, Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com.
She joins HomeAway from one of Europe’s top online travel agencies, Opodo, where she most-recently served as chairman of the board of its French operations. During her seven-year tenure at Opodo, Friedmann managed the Pan-European sales and marketing efforts and oversaw the
product strategy for the $1.3 billion business. Prior to Opodo, she was Managing Director of QXL, France, a leading online auction brand.
Friedmann began her career in Germany creating a travel agency specializing in discount flights and launching Mosaic Travel, a tour operator, before settling in France and joining Marmara, part of the TUI group in 1992. She earned her doctorate in Politics and Economy from The University of Bremen in Germany.