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  • December 2014 (Revised August 2024)
  • Case
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HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry

By: Rory McDonald, Feng Zhu and Cheng Gao
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:19
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Abstract

In less than 10 years, cofounders Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd had transformed HomeAway from just another Internet startup into the world's leading vacation-rental marketplace—a global online platform that links customers seeking vacation-home rentals to the property owners and managers who supply them. The case traces HomeAway's founding and acquisition-led growth, its 2011 IPO, and the core elements of its subscription-based business model. By 2014, incumbent travel giants like TripAdvisor and high-profile startups like Airbnb had begun to enter the vacation-rental sector. To stay ahead, HomeAway initiated a pilot cross-platform collaboration to list some of its properties on Expedia's site. More momentously, Sharples was also weighing a new commission-based revenue model that promised to attract a broader array of property listings but at the risk of undermining HomeAway's existing business.

Keywords

Strategy; Innovation; Technology; Acquisitions; Operations Management; Digital Platforms; Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Disruption; Accommodations Industry

Citation

McDonald, Rory, Feng Zhu, and Cheng Gao. "HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry." Harvard Business School Case 615-036, December 2014. (Revised August 2024.)
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About The Author

Feng Zhu

Technology and Operations Management
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Related Work

    • March 2017 (Revised August 2021)
    • Faculty Research

    HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry

    By: Rory McDonald and Matt Higgins
    • December 2014 (Revised August 2024)
    • Faculty Research

    HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry

    By: Rory McDonald, Feng Zhu and Cheng Gao
Related Work
  • HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry By: Rory McDonald and Matt Higgins
  • HomeAway: Organizing the Vacation Rental Industry By: Rory McDonald, Feng Zhu and Cheng Gao
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