在竞争对手Airbnb的阴影中悄悄成长

    如今的网站设计大多光鲜亮丽，现代感十足，而布莱恩•沙普尔斯运营的一个网站，风格明显有些落伍，甚至有点丑陋。但每当他打算对度假租屋服务网站VRBO.com进行美化时，总会发生令人困惑的事情：客户预订数量不升反降。

    沙普尔斯是VRBO母公司HomeAway的CEO，旗下还有VacationRentals.com和其他十几个在全球提供假期房屋租赁的网站。他说：“网站越难看，反倒越能带来好的结果。”所以，沙普尔斯表示，VRBO在逐步修改网站设计。“如果我们在一夜之间完成网站美化，恐怕反而会给我们的业务带来灭顶之灾。”

    不论是网站过时的外观，还是围绕竞争对手之一——媒体宠儿Airbnb的各种传言，似乎都不能阻碍这家公司前进。HomeAway最近发布收益报告之后，公司股价在一天内暴涨超过12%，达到历史最高的50美元左右，公司市值超过了42亿美元。上周，HomeAway收购了房产管理和度假出租手机初创公司Glad To Have You。后者通过开发手机应用，帮助业主与承租人进行沟通。目前，收购交易的价格并么有公布。

    HomeAway的收益报告一方面让投资者松了一口气，另一方面也相当于通过了对沙尔普斯的认证。HomeAway大部分收入来自业主在这家公司出租房屋支付的手续费。但去年晚些时候，HomeAway推出了一种新的选择，允许业主免费展示物业，只要在达成预定后支付手续费即可，做法类似于Airbnb。投资者担心，免费展示可能影响HomeAway的核心业务。虽然网站新增71,000套免费展示物业，但付费展示的数量依然在以健康的速度增长。在一份投资者报告中，摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）分析师道格•安穆斯写道，结果显示，到目前为止“尚未出现现有产品利润侵蚀的情况。”

    沙普尔斯表示，免费展示“为不放心预付费用的业主打开了一个新市场。”这家公司大多数客户每年的平均租金收入为28,000美元，预先付费对他们来说依然是笔更划算的买卖。公司在全球共有890,000套付费展示的物业，2013年共产生了3.46亿美元收入，同比增长24%，净收入达到1,800万美元。

    沙尔普斯于2005年成立了HomeAway，先后收购了17家竞争对手网站，逐渐将公司打造成了一家全球性的公司。沙尔普斯对于围绕Airbnb和其他所谓共享制经济的典型代表产生的舆论喧嚣非常不满。

    沙尔普斯说：“在HomeAway所处的行业，人们一直以来都在分享，而HomeAway就是这个行业一个很好的典范。HomeAway赚钱了，这就是我们跟Airbnb的区别。”

    Airbnb拒绝发表评论。

    虽然Airbnb和HomeAway在业务上存在区别，但两者似乎难免产生碰撞。虽然Airbnb以合租业务起家，但了解这家公司的人表示，目前在公司挂牌展示的物业，有三分之二都是整租物业。Airbnb公司主攻旧金山、纽约或柏林等城市市场。而相反，HomeAway却致力于房屋或公寓整租。在它网站展示的物业大多位于度假胜地，比如夏威夷或太浩湖。HomeAway的物业中，约有40%由管理公司展示，而不是业主本人。

    In this day of flashy, modern web design, Brian Sharples runs a site that is decidedly antiquated, and well, kind of ugly. But every time he tries to spiff up VRBO.com, the vacation rentals site, something confounding happens: Customers book fewer properties.

    "The uglier it is, the better it converts," says Sharples, who is CEO of HomeAway, the parent company of VRBO, VacationRentals.com, and about a dozen other sites that offer vacation homes around the world. That's why, Sharples says, VRBO has introduced design changes very gradually. "If we did it overnight, it would crush the business."

    Neither the dated look nor the buzz surrounding one of its competitors -- media darling Airbnb -- seems to be holding back the company. Following HomeAway's (AWAY) most recent earnings report, the company's shares soared more than 12% in a single day to an all-time-high of nearly $50, giving the company a market value of more than $4.2 billion. Last week, HomeAway acquiredGlad To Have You, which makes mobile apps that help property owners communicate with renters, for an undisclosed sum.

    The HomeAway earnings report came as a relief to investors and as a validation to Sharples. HomeAway earns the majority of its revenue from fees that property owners pay to list their rentals. But late last year, HomeAway introduced a new option that allowed owners to list properties for free and pay only when they book a rental, like they do on Airbnb. Investors had feared that the free listings could hurt HomeAway's core business. But paid listings continued to grow at a healthy pace, even as the site added some 71,000 new free listings. In a report to investors, Doug Anmuth, an analyst with J.P. Morgan, wrote that the results indicated that so far "there is no cannibalization of existing products."

    The free listings "opened up a new market for people renting their properties who were afraid to pay up front," Sharples says. For most of his customers, who earn $28,000 a year in rentals on average, paying up front remains a better deal. The company says it has some 890,000 paid listings worldwide, which in 2013 generated $346 million in revenue, a 24% rise from a year earlier, and $18 million in net income.

    Sharples, who founded HomeAway in 2005 and has since expanded it into a global enterprise in part through the acquisition of 17 rival sites, often bristles at the buzz around Airbnb and other poster children of the so-called sharing economy.

    "HomeAway is an example of an industry where people have been sharing stuff for a long time," Sharples says. "HomeAway makes money. That's the difference between us and Airbnb."

    Airbnb declined to comment.

    Airbnb and HomeAway may be in different businesses, but they appear to be on something of a collision course. While Airbnb got its start with shared rentals, people close to the company say that about two-thirds of its listings now are for entire properties. The company still focuses primarily on urban markets like San Francisco, New York, or Berlin. In contrast, HomeAway is dedicated to renting entire homes or condos and most of its listings are in vacation destinations like Hawaii or Lake Tahoe. Nearly 40% of HomeAway's properties are listed by management companies, not by homeowners.