HomeAway Unveils Performance-Based Model to Attract New Customers and Short-Season Vacation Rental Inventory

Pay-per-booking model debuts along with industry’s first Professional Referral Network

WASHINGTON, D.C. – October 17, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — In an effort to eliminate some of the barriers to entry for vacation rental home owners and professional managers, HomeAway, Inc. (NASDAQ: AWAY), the world’s leading online marketplace for vacation rentals, today officially launches two new services; a pay-per-booking model and its new Professional Referral Network. Pay-per-booking provides owners and property managers on HomeAway.com® the opportunity to pay just 10 percent of the booking each time the home is booked, with no up-front subscription fee. In conjunction with this pay-for-performance model, HomeAway® also debuts the Professional Referral Network, which is a first-of-its kind directory connecting new HomeAway.com owners to professional property management services during the sign-up process.

The new HomeAway.com pay-per-booking model provides an alternative to the company’s existing subscription offering and is ideal for owners new to HomeAway.com or renting in general, giving them an opportunity to test the performance of the site for no up-front cost. In addition, pay-per-booking is targeted at those renting properties for six weeks or less, including owners in seasonal destinations or cities that host popular events such as the Super Bowl, South by Southwest Music Festival or the World Cup. HomeAway believes this service will also benefit large property management companies that have historically advertised only a subset of their properties due to cash constraints that preclude them from paying subscription fees in advance for all of their properties.

Unlike several performance-based companies in the industry, HomeAway continues not to charge travelers a booking fee.

“With no up-front fee, our pay-per-booking model allows new customers to try our sites before committing to an annual subscription, and it also gives short-season renters a low cost way to cover their expenses or help pay their mortgage with a few bookings,” says HomeAway CEO, Brian Sharples. “But for most customers on HomeAway, an annual subscription still remains the best value.”

With the launch of the Professional Referral Network, HomeAway has updated its listing process to give owners the following options:

List Your Property Yourself – Owners choose an annual subscription or the new pay-per-booking model, and oversee the marketing, management and guest services of their vacation rental home.

Marketing and Booking Services – Through the Professional Referral Network, owners are directed to a partner company to build their listing, secure sort order on HomeAway.com and handle all inquiries and reservations. Owners will oversee the onsite management of the vacation rental. The owner pays a commission, which varies from partner to partner, and HomeAway receives a guaranteed subscription from the property management company.

Full-service – This option points owners to a directory of property managers offering a broad range of on-site management services including key drop, maintenance and more, in addition to the marketing and booking services noted above. These qualified HomeAway partners offer their services at a varying percentage of booking fees, and once again, HomeAway is guaranteed an annual subscription for that listing.

At launch, 40 professional management companies including Evolve Vacation Rental Network, No Worries Vacation Rentals, Southern California Vacation Rentals and Turnkey Vacation Rentals have joined the Professional Referral Network to support new HomeAway owners.  To qualify for the network, managers must list a minimum percentage of their properties with HomeAway and guarantee all referred properties purchase annual subscriptions.

“Our research tells us that many owners who don’t subscribe to our sites are concerned about the time commitment required to rent their property,” says Sharples. “With the launch of the referral network and pay-per-booking, it’s never been more attractive to work with HomeAway to turn your vacation property into a source of additional income.”

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking” statements, subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are based on HomeAway management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements include information concerning HomeAway’s launch of its pay-per-booking and Professional Referral Network offerings (the “Offerings”), the impact those Offerings will have on HomeAway’s business and the benefits such Offerings may provide to owners and travelers.
Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by terms such as “continues,” “plans,” “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “could,” “look forward to,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the performance of the Offerings to be materially different from any future performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to the following: (a) the adoption of the Offerings by property owners and managers, (b) the performance of the Offerings, and (c) such other risks and uncertainties described more fully in documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, HomeAway assumes no obligation to update this information, even if new information becomes available in the future.
HomeAway media contact: Victor Wang , 512-505-1504,