vacation rentals

Airbnb Neighborhoods: Last word in picking best place to stay?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Airbnb, a leader in the short-term rental market, today unveiled Airbnb Neighborhoods, the company's first attempt at comprehensive neighborhood guides aimed at giving renters a way to pick the best location for their needs in large cities.

At launch, the new service offers the guides for seven cities: Rio de Janeiro, New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Paris, and Washington, D.C.

The idea behind the new service is addressing the possibility that people using Airbnb to find a place to stay in a large city can be overwhelmed by choosing the most appropriate part of … Read more

HomeAway Super Bowl ad resurrects the Griswolds

I'm only moderately familiar with vacation rental exchange HomeAway.com because a few of my longtime friends use it to book the house for our annual ski weekend (outdoor hot tub absolutely mandatory!) But it looks like this online service is going to get a big boost in publicity: Not only will it be running a TV commercial during the Super Bowl, but the commercial will feature actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo in their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold from "National Lampoon's Vacation," the 1983 comedy about a holiday gone horribly awry.

A … Read more

Daily Tidbits: $594 million for virtual worlds in '08

Virtual Worlds Management, a company that provides research on the growth of online virtual worlds, said $594 million was invested in 63 virtual worlds during 2008. Gaia Online and PlayFish were two of the most prominent recipients of venture funding during the year. That said, investments in virtual worlds declined as the year wore on. In the first quarter of 2008, virtual worlds received $184 million in funding. By the fourth quarter of that year, investments dropped to $101 million. Virtual Worlds Management expects a further decline in funding in virtual worlds during 2009.

Fuzz.com, a social-networking site for … Read more

HomeAway opens door to $250 million funding round

Vacation home rental site HomeAway announced Tuesday it received a substantial $250 million fourth round of funding.

HomeAway, which has raised $405 million to date in private equity, received its latest round from lead investor Technology Crossover Ventures, along with existing investors Institutional Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

HomeAway's $250 million third round represents the largest U.S. venture stake for an Internet company over the past eight years, according to Venture Source.

Companies that tend to raise sizable venture rounds in excess of $100 million tend to be in capital intensive industries, such as networking company Santera Systems … Read more