U.S. vacation rentals are now a $23 billion industry
That's nearly one-fifth of the U.S. lodging market

Expedia historically has been very slow to do things. It took forever to get involved in social media and, fearful of angering its big hotel partners, it took until this month for Expedia to announce it would begin offering vacation rentals from HomeAway.
When you are a big, bad online travel agency such as Expedia, you can seemingly bide your time, see how markets shake out, and acquire up-and-coming companies.
No need to rush things.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But recent research from PhoCusWright, U.S. Vacation Rentals 2009 – 2014: A Market Reinvented, shows why Expedia is finally getting into vacation rentals in a much more meaningful way than it ever has.
One of the key findings is that U.S. travelers spent $23 billion on vacation rentals in 2012 — and that amounted to nearly one-fifth of the U.S. lodging market.
That $23 billion number is actually lower than pre-recessionary levels, but what is changing is that the percentage of vacation rentals that are transactable online have doubled from 12 percent in 2007 to 24 percent in 2012, PhoCusWright says.
And, when vacation rentals are bookable online, then that's in Expedia's sweet spot.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
"While rentals through property management companies have been in OTAs for years, this [the Expedia-HomeAway deal] opens the door to the full universe of inventory," says PhoCusWright's Douglas Quinby, one of the report's authors. "It put what was the square peg of rental inventory into the round hole of the online travel distribution system, which was largely built around hotels."
"And, it helps Expedia's competitive footing with Booking.com, which has been making inroads into this market through direct relationships with property management companies," Quinby says.
Expedia's pilot program to offer vacation rentals from HomeAway is slated to kick off in 2014, although neither party has offered much detail on how it will work.
Here's an infographic on key findings from the PhoCusWright vacation rental study:
More from Skift...
-
The state of Britain's Armed Forces
The Explainer Geopolitical unrest and the unreliability of the Trump administration have led to a frantic re-evaluation of the UK's military capabilities
By The Week UK
-
Anti-anxiety drug has a not-too-surprising effect on fish
Under the radar The fish act bolder and riskier
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Crossword: April 21, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff