I read the other day that homeaway – the largest group of holiday rental listing sites in the world that includes, among others, VRBO.com, holiday-rentals.co.uk, ownersdirect.co.uk and abritel.fr – had raised an additional $250 million investment. And that was just for a minority stake.
I can’t for the life of me imagine what they will spend it on, but for a while it had me slightly troubled. Not because they are clearly intent on establishing a monopoly in the world of holiday rentals which is not in the best interests of property owners, and not because I don’t think they are worth it – because frankly I haven’t a clue, although it does sound rather a lot.
My concern was because I have my own little dream of having the ultimate listing site for owners of holiday rentals in France – cheap to list on, easy to use, and known and loved by owners and holiday makers alike. It is leaping into life at gites.francethisway.com
My budget for this project, apart from lots of my own extremely valuable time, is about 10 euros. But if I am to compete with a company that can happily raise $250m I can see that I might have a challenge ahead of me. I might be able to stretch our marketing budget a bit, but frankly Mrs B will draw the line at borrowing 50 million euros.
Happily I believe the French government might come to our rescue. Mr Sarkozy has decided that if the government funds an additional 100,000 jobs that should help the economy along a bit. (What do you mean you thought he was right-wing? Read this impressively written Bruges Group commentary if you don’t believe me!)
Anyway, in one of those ‘eureka’ moments I have come up with a plan. I will employ, say, 100 computer programmers, marketing experts, translators and general office staff. The French government will pay for them. Then I, with my new super-duper team will create the greatest holiday rentals site in France, if not in the world.
If I become enormously rich – perhaps with a buyout of $250 m for example – I will keep the staff on permanently. If I don’t, they will go back to the unemployment queues, but with a bit more experience and something to write on their resumes.
So everyone wins, except the French taxpayer. Which, if I’m not mistaken, is exactly how the whole deal is supposed to work.
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