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Google invests in holiday home rental company
Google Ventures has purchased an unspecific number of shares in holiday home rentals company HomeAway Inc.
HomeAway is the parent company of HomeAway Holiday-Rentals and Owners Direct in the UK.
The company said with Google’s help it will “focus its attention on further technological development, among other things, to optimise its websites and simplify the booking process’.
“HomeAway is now at a stage where we want to concentrate our resources on optimising the usability of our websites and setting new standards in the holiday rentals industry,” said Brian Sharples, CEO and Founder of HomeAway, Inc.
“We feel very positive that the new partnership with Google will help us achieve this goal.”
HomeAway said it would also benefit from Google’s extensive experience of acquiring and integrating start-ups when expanding in to new markets such as Asia and Australia.
HomeAway currently operates sites in 11 European countries plus USA and Brazil.
In 2009, HomeAway’s turnover grew by 45% to $120 million.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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