HomeAway, the worldwide leader in online vacation rentals, today announced it has acquired realholidays.com.au, the Australian vacation rental brand of REA Group Limited.
The sale follows a similar path to rightmove.co.uk, which sold its stake in its holiday lettings business to TripAdvisor for £19.1 million in June 2010.
The acquisition of realholidays.com.au, which features 21,000 listings, 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 travellers.”
“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 recognised 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.”
Over the last two years, the REA Group has closed or disposed of a number of assets including the sale of propertyfinder.com and related assets in the UK to Zoopla, the sale of propertyfinder.ae in the UAE to its founder, and the closure of allrealestate.co.nz in New Zealand.
Advertising Partner
-->
