HomeAway the world leader in holiday rentals today announced the purchase of realholidays.com.au the Australian holiday arm of REA.
From their press release:
The acquisition of realholidays.com.au, which features 21,000 listings(1) not only broadens HomeAway’s reach into the Australian market, but also marks its expansion from North America, South America and Europe into Asia-Pacific.
“Australia is a tremendous travel marketplace, and HomeAway is excited to continue the work begun by REA Group to provide even greater choice to Australian travelers,” says CEO Brian Sharples. “We look forward to working with the realholidays.com.au customers to help them benefit from our technology and the marketing of their properties to a new, global market of vacation rental travelers.”
“REA is proud of realholidays.com.au’s success in the Australian holiday rentals market,” says Greg Ellis, CEO and Managing Director of REA Group. “However, we recognized the opportunity to further develop the business and, given our focus on residential and commercial property sites, felt it would be best managed by a specialist. With an expertise in holiday lettings around the world, HomeAway is ideally placed to provide even greater value to realholidays.com.au’s customers.”
This is an interesting move by REA as until now their consolidation has only involved the sale of overseas interests and excluded any Australian based portals. It also comes just after the announcement that their major Australian competitor Fairfax purchased two Australian based holiday portals.