Online holiday rental marketplace TravelMob lists properties in NASDAQ-listed HomeAway

TravelMob, a Singapore-based vacation rental marketplace, has launched a partnership with HomeAway, a public-listed Airbnb predecessor based in the United States.

Through this agreement, HomeAway users will have access to TravelMob’s inventory of accommodations in Asia-Pacific, which range from luxury villas, tatami-mat apartments to houseboats. The Singapore startup has declined to comment on the partnership’s financial arrangements.

Founded in 2012, TravelMob is a new player in the travel space, having just secured USD 1M in early stage funding late last year.

HomeAway, meanwhile, was started in 2005, three years before Airbnb, and was listed on NASDAQ since 2008. The company currently has over 711,000 paid listings of vacation rental homes in 171 countries. These properties are available through its portfolio of 12 sites, mostly concentrated in Europe and America.

The company also owns BedandBreakfast.com, a global site for seeking bed-and-breakfast properties.

While it is easy to lump all three companies together as competitors, the difference is that while Airbnb’s inventory consists of primary homes and rooms, HomeAway and TravelMob are going after second homes and villas.

It’ll be worth watching whether this partnership could develop into an even more comprehensive relationship. With HomeAway mostly focused in the Western world, TravelMob could become an attractive acquisition target for the American company. Qiito, a new site that recently unveiled its inventory of Taiwanese and Japanese accommodations, might be worth looking at too.

Besides TravelMob, HomeAway has hammered out partnerships with China vacation rental site TuJia and Singapore-based travel search site Wego. However, the nature of these partnerships are different in that HomeAway is supplying inventory to both companies, rather than the other way around.

It’s also interesting to note that Wego has partnered with TravelMob on a similar arrangement as well.

Depending on how these arrangements pan out, I won’t be surprised if some consolidation takes place.

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