So Erik has sold....

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Hi everyone,
I really think this is a positive for the industry.
The BedandBreakfast.com website will remain as it has been, with the same requirements, and supported by the same people, from our same offices that we will be hosting the open house at five nights from now for the PAII conference.. The Webervations support team will also remain in place in Logan Ohio.
We announced several months back that we were not raising prices this year. That has not changed either.
I believe that our industry, and specifically Innkeepers, will benefit from being a part of a larger company that is also focused on supporting and promoting independent properties to the world that is also well-funded and has the resources to take it to the next level. I feel we have made tremendous strides in getting additional exposure for the industry into the mainstream but there will always be more work to be done to do even better. The Homeaway team is positioned to pick up the torch and keep the push moving forward with us, not instead of us.
I realize there is always anxiety around change. I am confident that in combining the energy, knowledge, and most importantly - the "passion", of both organizations, we will continue to see great progress for our industry.
Please feel free to ask questions.
Sincerely,
Eric.
Thank you Eric for all your hard work these past years and taking the time to post here today.We all wish you and yours the best now and in the future.Mary in Bridgewater.
 
I have worked extensively with homeaway and its many websites over the last several years. About 50% of my client base is in that industry (w/ roughly 25% inns and 25% hotels/resorts).
They are a fine company. Please allow me to give a bit of informal history.
They started years ago in that space and it was cluttered with directories, much like the B&B space. VRBO.com was the clear leader though.
The difference was that Homeaway went out and got venture capital and then proceeded to buy dozens of other websites in that same space and now DOMINATE that market, which is considerably bigger than the B&B space. By 2008 that had received 450 Million in venture capital! (the got a few million since then too). in 2008 it is estimated the vacation rental space was doing $25 Billion in reservations and was 8% of the lodging marketspace. pretty big huh!
So, right now Homeaway is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of Cash trying to figure out how to spend it wisely. A problem that put many dotcoms out of business during the last 10 years.
Vacation Rental By owner (VRBO) and VAcation Rental Managers (VRMS) are a lot like innkeepers... VRBOs own their house and are emotionally very attached to it. They tend to be mom and pops and spend their money carefully. Many VRMs are also like innkeepers... they manage 10-50 homes much like you manage your inn. They are not the corporate types you find in hotels. There are also very large VRMs with 500+ homes and huge operations. Also, like innkeepers the vast majority of their bookings come from their websites AND they don't like paying commissions to the likes of Expedia. They like to pay annual fees for a listing.
As an aside, I would recommend to many innkeepers they look at becoming Vacation Rental Managers... it is a neat business model. If you are good at renting your homes and taking care of your homeowners, your business has no limits to your growth. Depending on your geographic market you earn typically earn 15% - 35% of all the revenue + lots of fees. The overhead is much lower because there is no mortgage to pay. Check out the Vacation Rental Managers Association if you want to learn more.
Anywho... I don't think Homeaway will mess with BedandBreakfast.com -- they are very smart! Surely smart enough not to clutter up "bedandbreakfast.com" with unrelated listings like hotels or vacation rentals.
I think they bought them to get ahold of their technologies like Rezovation and Webervations and their web platform, which as all you know is good at upselling for additional placements and services. I hope they roll these out to the VRBO industry! If you want to read more about this and my opinion on it, see my blog post about why Homeaway Acquisition of BedandBreakfast.com is Smart
So don't fret... BedandBreakfast.com will still try to dominate the market, charge a fair price for the value it provides you, and service the B&B industry. And, hopefully Eric will enjoy his retirement and resist the temptation to start a new business.
In case you missed it, here is Homeaway's Superbowl ad if you are interested (BTW, would it be so bad to have a B&B superbowl ad?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey36NRK0vQ
[edited by swirt to make the video a link instead of autoplay]
 
I have worked extensively with homeaway and its many websites over the last several years. About 50% of my client base is in that industry (w/ roughly 25% inns and 25% hotels/resorts).
They are a fine company. Please allow me to give a bit of informal history.
They started years ago in that space and it was cluttered with directories, much like the B&B space. VRBO.com was the clear leader though.
The difference was that Homeaway went out and got venture capital and then proceeded to buy dozens of other websites in that same space and now DOMINATE that market, which is considerably bigger than the B&B space. By 2008 that had received 450 Million in venture capital! (the got a few million since then too). in 2008 it is estimated the vacation rental space was doing $25 Billion in reservations and was 8% of the lodging marketspace. pretty big huh!
So, right now Homeaway is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of Cash trying to figure out how to spend it wisely. A problem that put many dotcoms out of business during the last 10 years.
Vacation Rental By owner (VRBO) and VAcation Rental Managers (VRMS) are a lot like innkeepers... VRBOs own their house and are emotionally very attached to it. They tend to be mom and pops and spend their money carefully. Many VRMs are also like innkeepers... they manage 10-50 homes much like you manage your inn. They are not the corporate types you find in hotels. There are also very large VRMs with 500+ homes and huge operations. Also, like innkeepers the vast majority of their bookings come from their websites AND they don't like paying commissions to the likes of Expedia. They like to pay annual fees for a listing.
As an aside, I would recommend to many innkeepers they look at becoming Vacation Rental Managers... it is a neat business model. If you are good at renting your homes and taking care of your homeowners, your business has no limits to your growth. Depending on your geographic market you earn typically earn 15% - 35% of all the revenue + lots of fees. The overhead is much lower because there is no mortgage to pay. Check out the Vacation Rental Managers Association if you want to learn more.
Anywho... I don't think Homeaway will mess with BedandBreakfast.com -- they are very smart! Surely smart enough not to clutter up "bedandbreakfast.com" with unrelated listings like hotels or vacation rentals.
I think they bought them to get ahold of their technologies like Rezovation and Webervations and their web platform, which as all you know is good at upselling for additional placements and services. I hope they roll these out to the VRBO industry! If you want to read more about this and my opinion on it, see my blog post about why Homeaway Acquisition of BedandBreakfast.com is Smart
So don't fret... BedandBreakfast.com will still try to dominate the market, charge a fair price for the value it provides you, and service the B&B industry. And, hopefully Eric will enjoy his retirement and resist the temptation to start a new business.
In case you missed it, here is Homeaway's Superbowl ad if you are interested (BTW, would it be so bad to have a B&B superbowl ad?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey36NRK0vQ
[edited by swirt to make the video a link instead of autoplay].
Welcome Trentblizzard and thanks for the perspective. I think that helps a lot.
 
I have worked extensively with homeaway and its many websites over the last several years. About 50% of my client base is in that industry (w/ roughly 25% inns and 25% hotels/resorts).
They are a fine company. Please allow me to give a bit of informal history.
They started years ago in that space and it was cluttered with directories, much like the B&B space. VRBO.com was the clear leader though.
The difference was that Homeaway went out and got venture capital and then proceeded to buy dozens of other websites in that same space and now DOMINATE that market, which is considerably bigger than the B&B space. By 2008 that had received 450 Million in venture capital! (the got a few million since then too). in 2008 it is estimated the vacation rental space was doing $25 Billion in reservations and was 8% of the lodging marketspace. pretty big huh!
So, right now Homeaway is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of Cash trying to figure out how to spend it wisely. A problem that put many dotcoms out of business during the last 10 years.
Vacation Rental By owner (VRBO) and VAcation Rental Managers (VRMS) are a lot like innkeepers... VRBOs own their house and are emotionally very attached to it. They tend to be mom and pops and spend their money carefully. Many VRMs are also like innkeepers... they manage 10-50 homes much like you manage your inn. They are not the corporate types you find in hotels. There are also very large VRMs with 500+ homes and huge operations. Also, like innkeepers the vast majority of their bookings come from their websites AND they don't like paying commissions to the likes of Expedia. They like to pay annual fees for a listing.
As an aside, I would recommend to many innkeepers they look at becoming Vacation Rental Managers... it is a neat business model. If you are good at renting your homes and taking care of your homeowners, your business has no limits to your growth. Depending on your geographic market you earn typically earn 15% - 35% of all the revenue + lots of fees. The overhead is much lower because there is no mortgage to pay. Check out the Vacation Rental Managers Association if you want to learn more.
Anywho... I don't think Homeaway will mess with BedandBreakfast.com -- they are very smart! Surely smart enough not to clutter up "bedandbreakfast.com" with unrelated listings like hotels or vacation rentals.
I think they bought them to get ahold of their technologies like Rezovation and Webervations and their web platform, which as all you know is good at upselling for additional placements and services. I hope they roll these out to the VRBO industry! If you want to read more about this and my opinion on it, see my blog post about why Homeaway Acquisition of BedandBreakfast.com is Smart
So don't fret... BedandBreakfast.com will still try to dominate the market, charge a fair price for the value it provides you, and service the B&B industry. And, hopefully Eric will enjoy his retirement and resist the temptation to start a new business.
In case you missed it, here is Homeaway's Superbowl ad if you are interested (BTW, would it be so bad to have a B&B superbowl ad?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey36NRK0vQ
[edited by swirt to make the video a link instead of autoplay].
I thank you very much for posting this perspective here. Unfortunately I don't think any of this info makes me (as a small innkeeper) feel any better about the acquisition of B&B.com. Many of us here had already begun to struggle with feeling that the company was already far more interested in the bottom line, upselling, etc. than they were in actually promoting our industry. Having been sold to an even larger company just doesn't seem to bode well for us little guys.
Having said that, I have no doubt the exposure and marketing efforts of B&B.com will continue along the exact same path they have been the past few years. Their interests and mine continue to become more divergent.
 
I have worked extensively with homeaway and its many websites over the last several years. About 50% of my client base is in that industry (w/ roughly 25% inns and 25% hotels/resorts).
They are a fine company. Please allow me to give a bit of informal history.
They started years ago in that space and it was cluttered with directories, much like the B&B space. VRBO.com was the clear leader though.
The difference was that Homeaway went out and got venture capital and then proceeded to buy dozens of other websites in that same space and now DOMINATE that market, which is considerably bigger than the B&B space. By 2008 that had received 450 Million in venture capital! (the got a few million since then too). in 2008 it is estimated the vacation rental space was doing $25 Billion in reservations and was 8% of the lodging marketspace. pretty big huh!
So, right now Homeaway is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of Cash trying to figure out how to spend it wisely. A problem that put many dotcoms out of business during the last 10 years.
Vacation Rental By owner (VRBO) and VAcation Rental Managers (VRMS) are a lot like innkeepers... VRBOs own their house and are emotionally very attached to it. They tend to be mom and pops and spend their money carefully. Many VRMs are also like innkeepers... they manage 10-50 homes much like you manage your inn. They are not the corporate types you find in hotels. There are also very large VRMs with 500+ homes and huge operations. Also, like innkeepers the vast majority of their bookings come from their websites AND they don't like paying commissions to the likes of Expedia. They like to pay annual fees for a listing.
As an aside, I would recommend to many innkeepers they look at becoming Vacation Rental Managers... it is a neat business model. If you are good at renting your homes and taking care of your homeowners, your business has no limits to your growth. Depending on your geographic market you earn typically earn 15% - 35% of all the revenue + lots of fees. The overhead is much lower because there is no mortgage to pay. Check out the Vacation Rental Managers Association if you want to learn more.
Anywho... I don't think Homeaway will mess with BedandBreakfast.com -- they are very smart! Surely smart enough not to clutter up "bedandbreakfast.com" with unrelated listings like hotels or vacation rentals.
I think they bought them to get ahold of their technologies like Rezovation and Webervations and their web platform, which as all you know is good at upselling for additional placements and services. I hope they roll these out to the VRBO industry! If you want to read more about this and my opinion on it, see my blog post about why Homeaway Acquisition of BedandBreakfast.com is Smart
So don't fret... BedandBreakfast.com will still try to dominate the market, charge a fair price for the value it provides you, and service the B&B industry. And, hopefully Eric will enjoy his retirement and resist the temptation to start a new business.
In case you missed it, here is Homeaway's Superbowl ad if you are interested (BTW, would it be so bad to have a B&B superbowl ad?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey36NRK0vQ
[edited by swirt to make the video a link instead of autoplay].
One difference between Homeaway (rental of your home) and us as a B & B is that we don't rent out our home. We "share" our home with those guests who would like to stay here and pay us for their stay. I think there is far more of an emotional attachment to B & B Innkeepers than those people who rent their entire home to vacationers and are nowhere in sight.
 
I have worked extensively with homeaway and its many websites over the last several years. About 50% of my client base is in that industry (w/ roughly 25% inns and 25% hotels/resorts).
They are a fine company. Please allow me to give a bit of informal history.
They started years ago in that space and it was cluttered with directories, much like the B&B space. VRBO.com was the clear leader though.
The difference was that Homeaway went out and got venture capital and then proceeded to buy dozens of other websites in that same space and now DOMINATE that market, which is considerably bigger than the B&B space. By 2008 that had received 450 Million in venture capital! (the got a few million since then too). in 2008 it is estimated the vacation rental space was doing $25 Billion in reservations and was 8% of the lodging marketspace. pretty big huh!
So, right now Homeaway is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of Cash trying to figure out how to spend it wisely. A problem that put many dotcoms out of business during the last 10 years.
Vacation Rental By owner (VRBO) and VAcation Rental Managers (VRMS) are a lot like innkeepers... VRBOs own their house and are emotionally very attached to it. They tend to be mom and pops and spend their money carefully. Many VRMs are also like innkeepers... they manage 10-50 homes much like you manage your inn. They are not the corporate types you find in hotels. There are also very large VRMs with 500+ homes and huge operations. Also, like innkeepers the vast majority of their bookings come from their websites AND they don't like paying commissions to the likes of Expedia. They like to pay annual fees for a listing.
As an aside, I would recommend to many innkeepers they look at becoming Vacation Rental Managers... it is a neat business model. If you are good at renting your homes and taking care of your homeowners, your business has no limits to your growth. Depending on your geographic market you earn typically earn 15% - 35% of all the revenue + lots of fees. The overhead is much lower because there is no mortgage to pay. Check out the Vacation Rental Managers Association if you want to learn more.
Anywho... I don't think Homeaway will mess with BedandBreakfast.com -- they are very smart! Surely smart enough not to clutter up "bedandbreakfast.com" with unrelated listings like hotels or vacation rentals.
I think they bought them to get ahold of their technologies like Rezovation and Webervations and their web platform, which as all you know is good at upselling for additional placements and services. I hope they roll these out to the VRBO industry! If you want to read more about this and my opinion on it, see my blog post about why Homeaway Acquisition of BedandBreakfast.com is Smart
So don't fret... BedandBreakfast.com will still try to dominate the market, charge a fair price for the value it provides you, and service the B&B industry. And, hopefully Eric will enjoy his retirement and resist the temptation to start a new business.
In case you missed it, here is Homeaway's Superbowl ad if you are interested (BTW, would it be so bad to have a B&B superbowl ad?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey36NRK0vQ
[edited by swirt to make the video a link instead of autoplay].
Please fix this so it does NOT talk to me every time this thread is accessed! I usually keep my volume down, but once in a while forget to change it back when listening to something I WANT to hear - this is jarring when you do not expect it.
 
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