Northstar

www.travelweeklyweb.com www.travelweeklyweb.com FEBRUARY 2014 | TRAVELWeekly AsiA ■ | 19 VAcATION RENTALS to improve both the traveler and owner experience and strive to grow listings, with our current goal of achieving an overall annual listing growth rate of 15 percent. A t t h e e n d o f 2 0 1 3 , H o m e A w a y introduced its transaction-based model known as pay-per-booking. We view the new payment model as an opportunity to provide owners and property managers with more control over listing their property. It is additive to the business, attracting new segments of property owners who are either new to the market or only need to rent their properties for a few weeks per year. Pay-per-booking also improves penetration with property managers who, in general, prefer a performance-driven model because it's more consistent with how they operate their businesses. Renting a vacation rental as an alternative to a hotel is not new in the US and Europe, where the industry is 60 and 100 years old, respectively. However, this is still a very new concept in Asia Pacific and we believe it has great potential. In fact, economists have predicted more than 100 million people will enter the Asian middle class each of the next several years, which has significant implications for not only travel but also for the purchase of homes, both of which we see as drivers for HomeAway's growth. Over the last few years, HomeAway has made major investments in the Asia Pacific region. In 2011, the company purchased the vacation rental business from REA Group Limited in Australia and subsequently launched HomeAway.com.au, and in 2012 made a minority investment in China-based vacation rental company, Tujia.com. In 2013, HomeAway acquired majority control of short-term rental site travelmob.com in Singapore, a majority purchase of New-Zealand- based vacation rental site, Bookabach, and, most recently, a US$198 million purchase of Stayz Group, the publisher of Stayz.com.au and the leading online vacation rental marketplace in Australia. Now we're working to expand in South America and Eastern Europe. We already own and operate AlugueTemporada, the biggest vacation site in Brazil and we're building a base in Argentina. While we haven't had much activity in Eastern Europe, there are a lot of vacation rentals, for example, in Russia and Turkey. Property 430486 Phuket HA.com China Search Results

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