Ex-Googlers Take On Former Employer in Vacation-Rental Search
- VacationRenter is a search engine for home-sharing users
- Google said in March it would get into home-rental search
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A group of former Google employees are ramping up growth at a startup that seeks to grab a piece of the rapidly expanding vacation-rental market, just as their former employer enters the same space.
VacationRenter, founded by ex-Google workers David Kolodny and Phil Santoro, says it expects to handle about $600 million in gross bookings this year, up from $100 million last year. The company makes money by collecting home-share listings from around the web and taking a referral fee or share of bookings when users click through to book on other sites such as Booking Holdings Inc. or Expedia Group Inc.-owned HomeAway. Alphabet Inc.’s Google in March said it was adding home rentals to its travel-search platform as well.