imgres-2In another move to expand its reach into the Asia Pacific Region, HomeAway announced its acquisition of Stayz Group, the leading online vacation rental marketplace in Australia.
Austin-based HomeAway paid $198 million to Fairfax Digital, owner of Stayz Group, which publishes Stay.com.au, Rentahome.com.au, TakeABreak.com.au and YesBookIt.
Stayz reported revenue of $25.4 million for its fiscal year 2013, which ended in June.
“The acquisition of Stayz adds 33,000 additional Australian-based properties to the HomeAway network,” CEO Brian Sharples said in a news release. “It also provides HomeAway a strong momentum to our newly-launched pay-per-booking business, something Stayz has worked over the years to optimize. Additionally, they have demonstrated that a vacation rental business can generate attractive margins operating on primarily a pay-per-booking model, and we look forward to learning from their team.”
The Stayz Group and its 40 employees will continue to be based in Sydney.