Booking.com Could Narrow the Gap In Vacation Rentals

Last week we launched the latest report in our Skift Research service, A Deep Dive Into Priceline’s Competitive Position in Travel 2017.

Below is an excerpt from our Skift Research Report. Get the full report here to stay ahead of this trend.

We believe that looking at the latest data on instantly bookable properties rather than total listings gives the best comparison of Booking.com to its main competitors in the vacation rental space.

Booking.com is behind Airbnb and HomeAway, for now. We expect the gap to close as hosts interested in offering instant booking on HomeAway and Airbnb are likely to also go with Booking.com as all three sites can be used for free with the only payment being on the commission, which is comparable across the sites. There are logistics of managing across platforms so inventory is not oversold. Some small users filling their rooms will simply leave things on one platform.

In our metasearch report, we discussed the opportunity for meta to play a bigger role in vacation rentals. Platforms like Tripping.com have built the use case in the segment. The static inventory (i.e. those that list their properties on one site only) could be one case where meta plays a role in rentals. Priceline already has Kayak and to-date, the company has not expressed interest in the space. Nevertheless, we will continue to assess the business case for Priceline and what, if any, role metasearch technology could have in rentals.

Looking at instantly bookable inventory, Airbnb has 1.9 million listings, HomeAway has over 1 million, and Booking.com has 721,000. The companies have slightly different definitions of property versus listing, but the chart below gives a rough sense of the size of the instantly bookable inventory. The most important metric, room nights booked, is not disclosed. That number would show how well the inventory is actually converting into bookings.

Instantly Bookable Properties

Source: Company Filings and Commentary

Looking at total inventory, Airbnb has over four million listings and HomeAway has over two million. TripAdvisor via its FlipKey brand, among others, and an aggregated TripAdvisor Vacation Rentals site has 800,000. Priceline Group spokeswoman Leslie Cafferty tells Skift that Booking.com has 2.6 million total listings, where “within each property, there are a myriad of listings.”

Preview and Buy the Full Report

Total Listings

Source: Company Filings and Commentary

Subscribe now to Skift Research Reports

This is the latest in a series of research reports, analyst calls, and data sheets aimed at analyzing the fault lines of disruption in travel. These reports are intended for the busy travel industry decision maker. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. Over 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports, analyst calls, and data sheets conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep-dives on key travel brands. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report a la carte at a higher price.

Subscribe Now