HomeAway: Booking a Reservation on Nasdaq

Backed by a group of well-known VCs that include Austin and Redpoint Ventures, HomeAway ( AWAY ) operates the world's leading online marketplace for vacation rentals of privately owned homes, condos, villas and cabins. Travelers use HomeAway's sites free of charge to locate, compare and select rentals using its online search tools, content and availability calendars, while property owners can access millions of travelers for a fixed annual fee (typically $300 per listing).

HomeAway plans to raise $204 million by offering 8 million shares (26% insider) at a price range of $24 to $27. At the midpoint of the proposed range, the company will command a market value of $2.2 billion. HomeAway plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol AWAY. Morgan Stanley ( MS ), Deutsche Bank Securities ( DB ), Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and JP Morgan ( JPM ) are the lead managers on the deal, which was expected to price today.

Business

Having spent the past several years aggressively making acquisitions, HomeAway is now the leading player in the highly fragmented vacation rental industry. Its portfolio of 31 websites, which includes HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com, attracted 220 million visits last year. In terms of rented properties, it has 10% market share in the U.S. (62% of 2010 revenue) and 8% in Europe (37%). HomeAway generates most of its revenue by charging fixed annual listing fees (91% of 2010 revenue). It also offers other services such as display advertising, property management software, gift cards, property damage protection and traveler insurance (9%).

Financials

For the quarter ended March 31, 2011, revenue grew 44% to $52 million, primarily due to a higher number of paid listings (575,166 vs. 498,895 in the 1Q10) and to a lesser extent, an increase in average revenue per listing ($328 vs. $290). Adjusted EBITDA margins expanded to 20% (vs. 16% in the 1Q10) as a result of synergies created by recent acquisitions and leverage on sales and marketing expenses. Cash flow from operations rose 19% to $21 million.

Risks

Since it was formed in 2004, HomeAway has acquired 17 companies and must continue to effectively manage growth. Its back-end systems have yet to be integrated into a single network, which prevents it from charging a global subscription. According to management, HomeAway's average customer posts a listing on only 1.1 of its 15 major sites. Its biggest site currently presents only 40% of total listing inventory. Lastly, the company faces ongoing competition from numerous vacation rental sites, travel sites, property managers, timeshares, alternative bed and breakfast operators and large Internet companies.

Hotel Reservation Software: Software Making Your Business Roll ...

If you are thinking to venture into the lucrative hospitality industry, then you must consider using hotel reservation software into your business system as it will help you and your customers to get a real view about the present room status and availability of your most priced possession, that’s the hotel. All over the world, such a hotel/motel reservation software application is now so effectively used that everyone into the field is making the most of his/her investment. How about you? Have you also decided to opt for the best hotel/motel reservation software suites? If not, consider it now as there are a lot to be availed from it.

The professional software development agencies have now come up with really affordable hotel reservation software services those are ideal to be used for all hospitality sectors. Yes, you too can gain that perfect management and monitoring ease, just by just picking up the best hotel software and use it in your business. Some of the major advantages of using such software suites are:

It doesn’t matter whether you own a large hotel or small bread and breakfast one, if pure business benefit is all what you desire, then the use of the right hotel reservation software is a must for you. With the right choice of hotel software, you can enjoy the flexibility of having an in-house booking system on a single PC or fully networked computers. You can even customize your very websites by integrating this software. This way you can help the online customers to get instant updates on the present status of your room, whether the rooms are occupied or not.

The web is the place from where you can get a few hotel reservation software apps for free or say for a few days trial period. For full services, purchase the hotel software that you find the best suitable and keep yourself free from all the evitable hassles.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/programming-articles/hotel-reservation-software-software-making-your-business-roll-4051745.html

About the Author

This article is contributed by a professional article writer and has been efficient in providing useful information about motel/ Hotel Reservation Software .

Component-based software engineering, 10th international symposium, CBSE 2007, Medford, MA, USA, July 9-11, 2007 ; proceedings

Software quality and software testing in Internet times

Open source solutions for small business problems

The Art of Intrusion, The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers

Software Engineering