Yesterday HomeAway announced acquisition of Homelidays.com, a well-known player on European rental listing scene. Value of the deal wasn’t disclosed. Thus HomeAway continues consolidation of the holiday rental market. What does it mean to a holiday home owner? Well, it may mean a few things:

• Losing diversity. Lack of choice of good listing sites may lead to standardised “one size fits all” approach. But is one size going to fit every home owner in every region?
• Soulless corporate marketing. Giants need to employ standard company operation procedures, protocols, policies, etc. etc. Won’t corporate culture kill the creativity within the company itself?
• Losing competitive pricing. Clearly limiting the number of players in the holiday rental market will lead to artificial pricing that suits those who are in control.