HomeAway announced Thursday that it made a $2 million minority investment in Turkey’s largest vacation rental website, Flat4Day, also known as Hemenkiralik.
Listing nearly 30,000 vacation rentals in Turkey and other destinations in Southern Europe, Flat4Day was founded in 2012 by CEO Remi Onur, Managing Partner Rina Onur, CMO Mehmet Ulku and CTO Alper Kaya.
“The number of travelers visiting Turkey is growing twice as fast as hotel capacity in the country, and this investment will help us close the gap between supply and demand,” Rina Onur said.
“About 60 percent of secondary homes in Turkey are vacant for 10 months of the year. In Turkey and the Middle East together, there are an estimated half a million-plus professionally managed vacation rentals, and we’re eager to add that inventory to our site.”
According to trends cited by Euromonitor International, the Middle East is expected to have roughly 81 million outbound travelers by 2030, and United Arab Emirates is forecasted to see its hospitality market reach $7.5 billion by 2016.
Many Middle Eastern travelers, however, tend to spend on domestic traveling, and outbound trips are typically taken by larger groups spending an extended period of time on vacation. The No. 1 reason for travel throughout the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia is visiting family.
HomeAway already lists the majority of Flat4Day’s properties on its site through an already existing partnership. The site offers listings in multiple languages, including Turkish, Arabic, English, German and Russian.
