Homeaway’s New Policy Regarding “Off-Platform” Booking

So what is meant by all of this “match-back” stuff?
And what is the new “off-platform” fee?

  HomeAway (HA) deals with hundreds of property managers (PMs) and thousands of property inquiries every day.  One of their concerns is that properties will be located on one of their booking sites, but will ultimately be booked in some other way, e.g., direct on the property manager’s website, through the PM’s reservation desk, or perhaps through a competing on-line travel site. 

  HA has experimented with various ways to control such “leakage” of reservations, including “match-back” schemes.  These schemes basically seek to mine certain data from the property manager’s software system, allowing HA to identify reservations in the PM’s system that have previously looked at the property on one of HA’s booking sites, or for which HA has provided the PM with an inquiry form for that property.  They have also recently masked certain guest information from inquiry forms, restricting the PM’s ability to identify or communicate directly with the guest prior to the time that a reservation is actually made.

  While we are not privy to contractual requirements between HA and PMs, we feel reasonably confident that there are provisions in those contracts that permit HA to have access to certain data contained the PM’s software system, facilitating HA’s ability to perform this “match-back” function.  We would suggest at the outset that you review your contract with HA to determine what data you may be required to allow HA to access.

So here’s the bottom line:  if a reservation is made directly through the HA system, it automatically is assigned a marketing code of “Homeaway.”  If the reservation is made directly on the PM’s website, where HomeAway does not appear as a marketing code option, that reservation is not available to HomeAway.   If the reservation is made through the PM’s reservation desk (“Off-Platform”), the reservationist, could assign “Homeaway” as the marketing code, although that is not required in the VRM system.  In all cases where the marketing code is set to “Homeaway,” HA has the ability to see certain limited data* about the reservation, allowing them to “match-back” to their files.  If such a match is identified, a booking fee might be due to Homeaway on the reservation as set forth in the PM’s contract with HA.  If the marketing code on an “off-platform” reservation is set to anything other than “Homeaway,” the match-back is not possible.  Thus, you maintain control of what reservations HomeAway can see.

  No other data is supplied to HA regarding any reservation or guest in the system other than the limited data* cited below.  Further, the only time such data is supplied to HA is when there is a match of marketing codes within the time period spelled out in the PM’s contract with HA. 

  There is, of course, much other information in the correspondence you’ve recently received from HA.  You might what to read the article posted in VRMIntel.

  One other point:  It is VRM’s policy to not share any data with a third party without the specific authorization of the property manager/client.  If any of this conflicts with your expectations, please contact us so that we can review the situation with you.

* Limited Data Shared when marketing code is set to “Homeaway:” Name, mailing address, phone number email. stay dates, res id, pricing, card type, currency type, number of guests, res status, cancellation policy, rental agreement.

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