HomeAway, the leading Vacation Rental services rollup has recently hired two key silicon valley executives and may be vying a 2011 IPO. The company was valued at $1.4 Billion USD just a year and a half ago with revenues of $150 Million. Current revenus is now around $200m a year with some estimated $70m a year in pure profit.
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/14/homeaway-ramps-towards-ipo-with-two-key-hires/
It’s in, this year’s most expensive cities to live in list courtesy of Yahoo News:
1) Tokyo,Japan
Rank in 2009: 2
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $18
Can of beer from grocer: $3.37
One kg of rice: $8.47
One dozen eggs: $3.78
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $22
Appliances: Washing machine: $879
2) Olso,Norway
Rank in 2009: 8
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $43
Can of beer from grocer: $4.71
One kg of rice: $5.66
One dozen eggs: $6.72
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $16
Appliances: Washing machine: $880
3. Luanda, Angola
Rank in 2009: 1
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $47
Can of beer from grocer: $1.62
One kg of rice: $4.73
One dozen eggs: $4.75
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $13
Appliances: Washing machine: $912
4. Nagoya, Japan
Rank in 2009: 3
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $19
Can of beer from grocer: $3.08
One kg of rice: $9.14
One dozen eggs: $3.33
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $20
Appliances: Washing machine: $621
5. Yokohama, Japan
Rank in 2009: 4
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $17.39
Can of beer from grocer: $3.26
One kg of rice: $6.54
One dozen eggs: $3.72
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $19.50
Appliances: Washing machine: $630
6. Stavanger, Norway
Rank in 2009: 14
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $33
Can of beer from grocer: $4.76
One kg of rice: $5.71
One dozen eggs: $6.34
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $15.50
Appliances: Washing machine: $749
7. Kobe, Japan
Rank in 2009: 6
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $16
Can of beer from grocer: $3.09
One kg of rice: $8.57
One dozen eggs: $2.81
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $20
Appliances: Washing machine: $470
8. Copenhagen, Denmark
Rank in 2009: 7
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $36
Can of beer from grocer: $2.10
One kg of rice: $4.85
One dozen eggs: $6.99
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $15
Appliances: Washing machine: $1,196
9. Geneva, Switzerland
Ran in 2009: 9
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $30
Can of beer from grocer: $2.02
One kg of rice: $3.81
One dozen eggs: $7.64
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $16
Appliances: Washing machine: $1,304
10. Zurich, Switzerland
Rank in 2009: 10
Food: Lunch at a restaurant: $25
Can of beer from grocer: $2.01
One kg of rice: $3.36
One dozen eggs: $5.81
Entertainment: Movie ticket: $16
Appliances: Washing machine: $974
Val Kilmer has quite the crib in New Mexico. And now he wants to turn this ranch into a bed and breakfast, but the locals are having none of that. You might think it has something to do property or tax issues, encroachment issues, or taking away business from the locals, but no, none of that.
It turns out the reason the locals are boycotting Val’s desire to turn his place into a B&B is because of some unsurly statements he made about the location. According to the Wall Street Journal:
“That’s all he has to do, come and apologize,” said Jose Garcia, who runs horses on a 50-acre ranch next to Mr. Kilmer’s. “We’re not intimidated by him.”
Mr. Kilmer, who starred in “Tombstone,” “The Doors,” “Batman Forever” and, more recently, “MacGruber,” was quoted — misquoted, he says — describing his rugged corner of New Mexico as “the homicide capital of the Southwest.”
He went on to avow that “80% of the people in my county are drunk,” requiring him to carry a gun for protection. That was in a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone.
The average social security check in the USA is $1200 USD per month. This will likely go to zero several years from now, but that’s a different story. Today, where can you live the good life on just $1200? According to US News and World Report, here are 5 top places to retire on limited income and still live the good life.
The 5 most affordable cities to purchase a home are as follows:
1) Indianapolis, Indiana
Median home price: $96,000
Median income: $68,700
Affordability score: 94.9%
2) Youngstown, Ohio
Median home price: $69,000
Median income: $53,500
Affordability score: 94.9%
3) Syracuse, N.Y.
Median home price: $95,000
Median income: $64,300
Affordability score: 94.5%
4) Dayton, Ohio
Median home price: $88,000
Median income: $61,700
Affordability score: 94.4%
5) Grand Rapids, Mich.
Median home price: $102,000
Median income: $62,500
Affordability score: 93.7%
The top 5 least affordable places to purchase a home are as follows:
1) New YorkMedian home price: $426,000
Median income: $65,600
Affordability score: 20.9%
2) San FranciscoMedian home price: $585,000
Median income: $98,400
Affordability score: 23.4%
3) HonoluluMedian home price: $403,000
Median income: $81,700
Affordability score: 34.7%
4) Santa Ana, Calif.Median home price: $410,000
Median income: $87,300
Affordability score: 34.5%
5) Los AngelesMedian home price: $306,000
Median income: $62,900
Affordability score: 35.9%
Folks, forgive me for being abrasive, but…… WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE????????
Vacation Rental Listing website FlipKey.com just raised their yearly listing rates by 1000%! Imagine if you joined them, and added your property, uploaded picture after picture, adding captions, adding features, amenities, facilities, description etc.. and then in less than 1 year, they send you an e-mail telling you that your MINIMUM yearly fee has just increased 1000%, and oh by the way, if you want to have a premium listing, then they raise your rates by 1400%.
I guess the reason they are called “FLIPKEY”, is because they flip the key on you, then stick it up your ass!
What makes it so insulting is how they present it to you, that they are raising your rates by over 1000%, here is how they present it:
We’re happy to inform you that we’ve made significant progress in delivering more qualified inquiries and bookings over the past two months. We’ve also introduced an annual subscription plan with a special low rate to provide our early owners with a great value.
So, they have introduced a subscription plan with a “special low rate” to provide you with great value… and what exactly is that “special low rate”???? Ahhh, I’m glad you asked, it’s a 1400% INCREASE FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RATE… buaaaa haaa haa haa haaa.. haaa haa haa haaa…
There’s more, they go on to say this… I am not making this up, this is an actual copy and paste from an e-mail they put out to all the vacation rental owners that already signed up with them:
This special low rate is only available for our early owners as a thank you for your loyalty.
So folks, if you are a current FlipKey customer, their special LOW RATE, of increasing your rate over 1000% is special… just for you, oh, you should feel so special, shouldn’t you?
Folks…. The FlipKey team wants $240 USD per year to list your rental with them. I say, Flip the key to them, and spend HALF that much with Free-Rentals.com, and we will spend 80% of that money paying for ads, driving targeted traffic directly to your vacation rental listing.
The number one free vacation rental website keeps getting bigger. Free-Rentals.com just crossed the 300k mark in terms of Alexa traffic rank, making it the largest free vacation rental website online. Thank you to everyone for your participation, it’s only with the help of vacation rental home owners that we can take this industry back and put it into the hands of the vacation rental home owners.
The Playa Potrero vacation rental listing on Free-Rentals.com called Lazy Pelican Cabinas signed up for our advertising services last year and paid $169 USD for a 6 month PPC campaign.
Below are the results of this campaign. We paid out a total of $138 USD to drive targeted traffic to their listing. Over the timespan, we drove 637 targeted prospects to the Lazy Pelican rental listing. In addition, we promoted the Lazy Pelican via Craigslit, Kajiji and other free classified portals.
In all, we sent over 1200 targetted visitors to view this vacation rental at a rate of just 14 cents per prospect.
We are pleased to announce that free-rentals.com now has 7000 Vacation Rental listings worldwide. Free-Rentals.com is now the largest vacation rental directory website offering owners a 100% free to advertise opportunity.
Free-Rentals.com just broke 2 major trendlines today. For the first time, Free-Rentals.com dropped below the 400k mark… meaning, it’s roughly the 400 thousandth most popular website on the internet.
And secondly, Free-Rentals.com has doubled the amount of time each visitor spends on time reviewing vacation rental listings while tripling the number of inquiries sent to vacation home owners each day. Currently, over 350 inquiries are made to vacation home rental owners each day via the Free-Rentals.com wesite.
