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A comment on Airbnb to earn $183M in 2012 (I think). Parent comment

Re:Airbnb to earn $183M in 2012 (I think) by hoodwink on Friday July 06, 2012 @12:14PM (#4208362)
I'm aware of HomeAway. That company has a different business model which is more of an online classifieds site. Pay $300 per year and post your home. Potential renters can browse for free. All transactions are person-to-person, whereas Airbnb takes a more active approach and handles money collection, complaints, etc.

Per my research, I think HomeAway does better in the traditional week-long vacation rental market whereas Airbnb is more geared up for the shorter duration stays in urban areas.

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Re:Airbnb to earn $183M in 2012 (I think) by DanielCole on Saturday July 07, 2012 @09:44PM (#4213288)
Correct. I've used HomeAway for two vacations. Their focus has always been the traditional vacation home owner. 99% of their listings are an aggregate of other perfessionally managed 7-day stay rental homes. Completely different business model, technology, culture, market, etc. HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples has remarked multiple times they see little to no overlap in their customers & listings. See his answer about half way down this 2011 WSJ article: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/10/13/homeaways-ceo...
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