Monday, November 5, 2012

HomeAway Adds Online Booking

Austin-based HomeAway is hoping to make it even easier for travelers to use its site, saying that it has added online booking of properties through its service. The firm said that the booking of vacation home rentals works on both HomeAway.com and VRBO.com. HomeAway had previously helped connect vacation home rental owners with travelers, but was not handling the actual booking process; the new feature lets travelers immediately send a paid reservation request to a homeowner, who then confirms the reservation and okays the charge. The addition of the feature removes a significant amount of overhead from the usual process on HomeAway's sites, which have required some interaction between vacation home rental owners and potential renters.