We featured HomeAway in a post earlier this year HERE when they launched a worldwide campaign to convince the travelling public to forget about those pesky hotels and motels and rent private homes instead. They put their money where their mouth is by spending millions to spread the word by trashing the concept of conventional commercial accommodation!
The centerpiece for HomeAway's multi-media advertising campaign, was the production of a mini movie they called, “Hotel Hell Vacation” using the return of Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo and the Family Truckster from the 1980s Griswold's Family Vacation movies. The movie (below) shows us just how bad a hotel experience can be and compares this to a beautiful seaside private residence at the end of the Griswold's latest road trip.
Behind the hilarity and ingenuity of this this campaign is a major player in the private rental holiday home sector seriously challenging the motel and hotel sectors.
HomeAway aren't having it all their own way. The concept of the public renting out private residential property for short stay accommodation is being threatened with pending legislation.
It was interesting to read that New York City are currently contemplating a landmark bill that will ban vacation rentals for durations of less than 30 days.
The stated purpose of the bill is to bar property owners from keeping New York City dwellings off the housing market by renting them out to vacationers. New York hoteliers have been reported to be lobbying in favour of the bill as a way to clamp down on competition from vacation-rental owners.
The issue is not limited to New York City with Paris, also cracking down on apartment rentals.
Meanwhile in New Zealand, there seems to be few restrictions for the short-term rental of private dwellings.
Kiwi domiciled websites such as the AA's Bookabach and TradeMe's Holidayhouses are generating increased traffic on the web and are consistently ranking in the top 10 of the most popular travel websites for accommodation.
There seems to be no shortage of rental product with Bookabach.co.nz claiming to have 4,200 batches and holiday homes for holiday rental and Holidayhouses.co.nz with 6,700 options. Members of the public can spend hours browsing a wide array of alternative short term rental options. We suspect that the IRD also invest many hours scouring listings ;-)
We are interested to follow this trend and wonder where this is taking us?
