Listing site giant HomeAway in Dwellable takeover

The 7 October announcement of the Dwellable takeover by listings giant HomeAway has taken the industry by surprise. But how will it affect Homes and Rooms subscribers listed with Dwellable?

Announcing the takeover on the company’s website, CEO Kirby Winfied said: ‘As part of the transition, the Dwellable service will be wound down. We will no longer accept bookings from travelers. Don’t worry, though! All existing paid bookings remain valid.’ According to industry commentators Tnooz, homeowners and property managers with listings on Dwellable will now use HomeAway to access their listings.

Live links to listing sites

As Homes and Rooms subscribers will know, we offer live links to the leading listing sites with automatic calendar and reservation updates. Dwellable was, of course, on our list but has  been removed. We continue to provide a live link to HomeAway. The Dwellable takeover provides a timely reminder to vacation rental owners everywhere to avoid putting all eggs in one basket. If owners sign up with just one listing site and rely on that for their online marketing, what happens if that site changes it terms and conditions, is taken over – or goes broke? Our advice to Homes and rooms subscribers is to spread their online marketing over several channels. Sign up with more than one listing site. That way you can continue to run your property and stay in control if a single listing site disappears. Or if the terms and conditions of your listing site change for the worse. Dwellable was a vacation rental search engine which offered vacation rental listings from property managers and third parties including the likes of FlipKey. Started up in 2011, it rose to real prominence in Spring of this year with its innovative mobile app technology. This offered users a novel ‘swipe and sort’ user experience (UX).

‘Loved by travelers’

‘The app is loved by travelers, and has better ratings in the app store than anyone in the industry’, Tom Hale, HomeAways’s chief operating officer, told Skift. Following the Dwellable takeover, HomeAway intends to bring the benefits of this smart mobile technology to their users – as well as the expertise of the Dwellable team. HomeAway is the acknowledged vacation rental industry leader in terms of size. It claims more than 1million properties listed worldwide and over 60 million travellers using their global network of sites each month. The Dwellable takeover is the latest in a long line of acquisitions which HomeAway has made in its bid for industry domination. Earlier acquisitions have included Glad to Have You app and Gogobot, a social travel platform.