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HomeAway, Inc. is an online vacation rental marketplace [1], representing 425,000+ paid vacation rental listings across 118 countries. HomeAway connects homeowners and property managers who advertise (or list) their properties available for rent.
HomeAway is a privately held company funded by venture capital firms Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures and Trident Capital. Company headquarters is in Austin, Texas with additional offices in Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia; London, England; Kassel, Germany; and Marseilles, France.
HomeAway, Inc was founded in February 2005 by Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd. They initially acquired several sites and consolidated them into one vacation marketplace, launching HomeAway.com in June 2006. The site enabled travelers from having to search multiple regional sites to find a rental.
HomeAway announced in November 2006 its record $160 million in financing to fund global expansion initiatives, including the acquisition of VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). The funding represented the largest financing of an Internet software and services company in the world in 2006, according to Standard & Poor's Capital IQ.[citation needed]
On November 18, 2009, Us Weekly announced that HomeAway would reunite actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in a new short film based on National Lampoon’s Vacation. The HomeAway ad represents the company’s firstnational advertisement during the CBS television network broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7, 2010.[2]
Series D Financing On November 11, 2008, HomeAway announced it had completed a $250 million equity capital raise, representing the largest minority investment of a U.S. internet company in the last eight years, according to Venture Source. The investment was led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and with existing investors Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Redpoint Ventures.[3]
On December 4, 2008, Edward Iwata reported on a handful of companies, such as HomeAway, which continue to thrive during the recession. Even with the travel industry hurting, HomeAway's year-to-date sales are up 58% over 2007 and should continue to grow during the downturn.[4]
Some travelers still hold back fear to the phenomenon industry insiders call SNAD: significantly not as described. This involves a property that looks like paradise in the photos, only to showcase leaky roofs and blocked views upon arrival. As a result, vacation rental companies such as HomeAway offer user reviews.[5]
Other potential concerns involve fraud listings where payment transactions occur between traveler and homeowner - only to later find that the listing does not exist.
On August 19, 2008, Orbitz announced its entrance into the vacation rental marketplace.[6] The following day after the Orbitz announcement, Expedia’s TripAdvisor Web site took a majority stake in FlipKey, a website that features vacation rental properties.[7]
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