Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, September 14. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
25.08.2023 - 13:58 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal / Rob Greyber
Vacation rental property manager Vacasa saw an increase of homeowner “churn,” namely properties abandoning its platform, in the fourth quarter and into 2023, and forecast that its average gross booking value per home would dip this year.
CEO Rob Greyber argued that competitors were seeing the same frustration among homeowners after the industry’s prior two record years, and that the company’s homeowners were actually outperforming those that rivals are managing. He said the company needs to better educate its clients about that dynamic. Vacasa’s gross booking value rose 10 percent year over year to $416 million in the fourth quarter.
Vacasa officials made a variety of glum forecasts Tuesday in discussing fourth quarter and full-year 2022 earnings, as well as what’s in store in 2023. These came after taking steps in January to trim roughly 1,300 employees, or 17 percent of its workforce. The cuts included about 300 sales and marketing employees from its corporate staff, and 1,000 local field personnel in 500 markets.
For example, chief financial officer Jamie Cohen said Vacasa’s home count under management, which stood at 44,000 and grew 19 percent in 2022, could decline in 2023 compared to last year in part because of its sales force reductions, and shift in strategy toward signing up individual homes rather than focusing on acquiring portfolios of properties.
“While we are optimistic about Vacasa’s long-term potential, we face challenges which are fixable, but not yet fixed,” Vacasa stated in a shareholder letter as part of its earnings announcements. “We must improve our efficiency and further develop our processes to deliver an unmatched experience for our homeowners and elevated hospitality for our guests.”
The company also announced it would shutter its real estate brokerage division in the second quarter. That unit “generated about $20 million of revenue and negligible profit in 2022,” the company said.
Still while Greyber said 2023 would be a transition year and that addressing the company’s inefficiencies and execution issues would take time, Vacasa’s fourth quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came in ahead of its prior guidance.
The property management company saw revenue jump 14 percent year over year to $218 million in the fourth quarter, surpassing its guidance range of $195 million to $215 million. Adjusted EBITA was negative $49 million, better than its negative $75 million to negative $65 million in its prior outlook.
Vacasa notched a net loss of $302 million in the fourth quarter. That includes items such as stock-based compensation and restructuring costs, which the company excludes from its adjusted EBITDA numbers.
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Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, September 14. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Denver-based property manager Evolve is laying off 20% of its workforce, Skift has learned.
What impact would Airbnb’s diminishing New York City footprint have for hotels? One major hotel operator in the city believes the shortfall will contribute to a significant “tailwind” for hotels in 2024.
Property manager Vacasa announced its intent to conduct a one-for-20 reverse stock split that’s geared to get its share price higher than $1 per share and therefore to be continued to trade on Nasdaq.
HotelTonight founder and CEO Sam Shank helped build the fastest and easiest to use hotel booking app in the world — initially focused on guests booking last-minute and same-day hotel rooms, sometimes from the local bar — but he hung around Airbnb for three years and eight months after the short-term rental site acquired the business, and Thursday was his last day there.
In a second round of cuts since mid-year, property manager AvantStay laid off 144 staffers, about 22 percent of its workforce, according to a published report from Short Term Rentalz.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, November 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Do you remember a few years ago how there was so much talk in online travel about the Booking Holdings–Expedia Group duopoly? How Expedia Group, which owned Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Hotels.com, and Booking, with brands including Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline and Agoda, controlled the hotel market and a whole lot more in travel?
Just a little more than two months into his new role as CEO of U.S.-based property manager Vacasa, Rob Greyber detailed his priorities: Downplay acquisitions of vacation rental portfolios in favor of a more productive sales team and organic growth, and tackle longstanding customer support issues at the local level.
Despite lots of vacation rental industry talk about making inroads in attracting more direct bookings, a global survey of property managers and individual hosts reported those percentages were stable, if not decelerating.
Building on initiatives that had mixed results in the past, Airbnb is debuting an Airbnb-Friendly Apartments program to enable long-term renters in multifamily buildings where landlords permit it to list their rooms or apartments on Airbnb.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, December 2. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.