Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

The vacation rental industry is always on the lookout for scams. Scams have usually been based on sites like Craigslist, but have recently moved to more legitimate websites like HomeAway.com and AlwaysOnVacation.com. From Barefoot’s perspective, this is an important topic and one that is under- reported by the media. Most of our clients have heard of a scam in their market, but no local press seems to be made aware or it is not deemed newsworthy. This may be in part because the victim is often embarrassed or is trying to salvage their holiday and they deal with it when they return home. In this case, it is more of a legal complaint than an emotional on the spot human-interest story.

The vacation rental industry is always on the lookout for scams. Scams have usually been based on sites like Craigslist, but have recently moved to more legitimate websites like HomeAway.com and AlwaysOnVacation.com. From Barefoot’s perspective, this is an important topic and one that is under- reported by the media. Most of our clients have heard of a scam in their market, but no local press seems to be made aware or it is not deemed newsworthy. This may be in part because the victim is often embarrassed or is trying to salvage their holiday and they deal with it when they return home. In this case, it is more of a legal complaint than an emotional on the spot human-interest story.

In a previous post we discussed the current rise in gas prices.  Although gas prices have dropped slightly, a few cents in the past few weeks, the market for vacation rentals is still feeling the effects of expensive oil.  Americans are still planning on utilizing the concept of “staycations”.  The shift has a great opportunity for vacation rental companies to capitalize on people looking to save on gas prices.

So HomeAway has done it. They have now officially gone in competition with rental agencies. HomeAway, announced today, a tool that allows owners to duplicate what an agency does.  Granted the tool is very limited, but it does provide credit card processing and the ability to automate the rental agreement. For owners using this, one thing they should ask is: can it be used on non HomeAway bookings, and if so, does HomeAway have any rights to that tenant’s contact info if an adds a new tenant? We would love to know the answer to that question ourselves. From the professional managed side of things, it will not be long before HomeAway starts doing travel insurance and damage waivers and everything else Expedia provides.  

If this does not make you raise an eyebrow on the value of vacation rental industry, then nothing will. Although AirBNB is not technically vacation rentals, it is an example of the world looking or being forced to look at other lodging markets beyond hotels, B&B’s, campgrounds and staying with your best buddy.  This model focuses on a company marketing someone else’s products and taking a commission. As you can see Wall Street sees huge values in this model between this funding and HomeAways imminent public offer.  ”Assuming Airbnb's funding deal closes, the company will be getting $100,000 in valuation for every single one of the site's 100,000 or so rental listings.”

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), reports that the market share of vacation and investment home sales held steady in 2010, compared to 2009. However, the sales volume actually declined with the overall market.

First we saw YouTube blow up, and then it was all about Facebook and Twitter. The latest trend online is discount services like Groupon, LivingSocial, as well as Facebook deals. Now, Google wants to get in on the action.