Vacasa, a vacation rental startup that was founded a decade ago and has since come to dominate its niche, announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Wyndham Vacation Rentals.
The deal will grow Vacasa’s portfolio to more than 23,000 vacation rental units across the Americas, Europe and Africa. In a statement, Vacasa revealed that it will pay $162 million for Wyndham Vacation Rentals and is financing the deal with a combination of cash and equity, according to a statement.
Michael Brown
In the statement, Michael Brown — CEO of Wyndham Destinations, the parent company of Wyndham Vacation Rentals — said the decision to sell to Vacasa came after a “rigorous strategic review process that generated strong interest from multiple parties.”
“We remain so confident in the future of this business and the benefits of a long-term relationship with Vacasa that we will have an equity interest in Vacasa after the sale,” Brown also explained.
The deal should wrap up this fall, with the companies completing “full integration” one year later, the statement added.
Eric Breon
Vacasa CEO Eric Breon expressed excitement about the deal Tuesday.
“Combining Wyndham Vacation Rentals’ decades of operational excellence with Vacasa’s next-generation technology will deliver the industry’s best vacation rental experiences,” he said in the statement.
In a conversation with Inman, Breon added that Vacasa would retain all of Wyndham Vacation Rental’s staff. He also described the deal as a boon for property owners who have been using Wyndham but will now get access to Vacasa’s proprietary technology.
“On our past acquisitions, we’ve averaged a 19 percent lift in rent,” Breon said.
Orlando-based parent company Wyndham Destinations was probably best known among consumers in the past for operating Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, though that division was spun off into its own firm last year. However, Wyndham Destinations still describes itself as the “world’s largest vacation ownership and exchange company” and maintains a presence in 110 countries.
Wyndham Vacation Rentals operates 9,000 individual units. The company also states that it saw 300,000 bookings in 2017.
Wyndham Vacation Rentals operates a number of local brands including Hatteras Realty, ResortQuest, ResortQuest Whistler and many others, all of which will be included in Vacasa’s acquisition.
Much like Wyndham Vacation Rentals, Vacasa manages vacation-oriented properties on behalf of owners. So, someone who owns a beach house or mountain cabin can contract with the company to take over things like bookings, check-ins and custodial tasks.
However, the past year has also been a banner period for Vacasa. In October, Vacasa became the largest vacation rental management company in North America. In November, it announced it would begin managing entire communities. And in April, it launched an interior design service.
Oregon-based Vacasa has also continued growing its geographic footprint, including last month when it acquired a smaller rival in the Pacific Northwest.
All of this growth has come at a time of intense interest in the short-term rental market, in part fueled by the rise of Airbnb — a platform that Vacasa uses to enable bookings. Other firms have also rushed into the short-term rental space with a variety of business models, while lawmakers race to regulate the sector.
However throughout all of this interest, Vacasa has managed to maintain its growth, and this latest acquisition catapults the firm further along in its apparent — and so far successful — mission to conquer the vacation rental space.
If the past is any indication, the next 12 months should see similar growth as well. In its statement, Vacasa said that over the next year it should “achieve more than $1 billion in gross bookings and an excess of $500 million in net revenue.”
Breon also told Inman that Vacasa plans to continue making “significant acquisitions” in the future, which the company sees as “a great way for us to build scale and enter new markets.” Vacasa is especially interested right now in building up it’s presence in the U.S., as well as in parts of Latin America that see significant numbers of American travelers.
Update: This post was updated after publication with addtional comments from Eric Breon.
Correction: Wyndham Vacation Rentals manages 9,000 units and Vacasa operates on four continents. This post originally misstated those stats.
