Airbnb announced boldly a few months ago that it was making a concerted push to add bed-and-breakfasts and boutique hotels to its platform as it called out Expedia and Booking.com for their allegedly excessive commissions.
But Airbnb isn’t the only alternative lodging brand expanding its hotel ranks — HomeAway and sister vacation rental brands such as VRBO are doing it, too, but with a twist. HomeAway is adding hotels from parent company Expedia Group.
It’s been fairly well-publicized that Expedia’s core online travel agency brands, albeit with an emphasis on Expedia.com, have been adding HomeAway’s vacation rental listings and mixing them in with its hotel listings. In fact, Expedia added 25,000 vacation rentals from HomeAway in the first quarter, and the total Expedia gets from HomeAway now stands at around 150,000.
But HomeAway spokesman Jordan Hoefar said Tuesday that the inventory sharing between HomeAway and Expedia goes in the other direction too. HomeAway is adding hotel suites and home-like lodging from Expedia under the theory that expanding the number and types of properties improves conversions of lookers to bookers on HomeAway’s sites.
So HomeAway’s VRBO site Tuesday was offering stays at Sonesta ES Suites Chicago-Lombard in Highland Hills, Illinois, and The Historic Powhatan Resort by Diamond Resorts in Williamsburg, Virginia — both of which came through HomeAway’s relationship with the Expedia Affiliate Network.
It’s interesting to note that to book a one-bedroom suite for a January 7-11, 2019 stay at The Historic Powhatan Resort in Williamsburg, VRBO was charging consumers $283.28 versus $276.36 on Expedia.com.
Hoefer said HomeAway was mostly looking to fill gaps by adding hotels from Expedia in markets where HomeAway doesn’t have a lot of offerings, such as in some urban locations. That’s where Airbnb is particularly strong, and HomeAway is weak. He added that HomeAway can add any hotels from sites that have Expedia Affiliate Network agreements.
While Airbnb in some cases is going directly after hotels or adding them through agreements with lodging associations, and is touting that it is charging commissions of only 3 to 5 percent, HomeAway is tapping into a completely different business model. The Expedia Affiliate Network might pay a partner site a 5 percent commission for prepaid hotel booking and a lower rate when the customer pays at the hotel.
