HomeAway Mocks Airbnb Sharing Economy in New Ad
HomeAway Inc. wants to remind you of all about the funny and uncomfortable ways that sharing someone’s home on vacation can go awry: Finding a stranger’s hair on a bar of soap. Being watched in your sleep. Witnessing someone else’s personal hygiene routine.
The new marketing push is designed to help HomeAway grab a larger share of the vacation rental market and distance itself from home-sharing companies like Airbnb Inc.
HomeAway’s ad campaign, which begins today, features TV, digital and social media ads that mock the so-called sharing economy—the peer-to-peer sharing of goods and services, a trend Airbnb helped pioneer.
The ads, which will also run in countries such as France, the U.K. and Germany, demonstrate, in a humorous way, the weird situations people face when they share accommodations with strangers.
HomeAway’s listings tend to be managed properties and second homes that people rent out for most of the year, while Airbnb allows people to rent out rooms for brief stints.Airbnb also has expanded into the professional vacation rental businesses, making it more of a competitor to companies such as HomeAway.
“We are trying to educate people about the difference between what we do” and what hotels and companies such as Airbnb offer, said Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway, which was bought by Expedia Inc. last year for $3.9 billion.
HomeAway, which typically rents out entire homes, said there is a 10% to 15% overlap in HomeAway’s and Airbnb’s listings.
Read the full story By Suzanne Vranica, WSJ