13 Nov Vacation Innovations Partners with Tritium Partners, the Lead Investment Team Behind HomeAway, to Bridge the Gap Between Timeshare Owners, Developers, Associations, and Travelers
ORLANDO, Fla. (November 13, 2017)–Vacation Innovations, LLC, the world’s leading provider of secondary-market services and marketplace solutions for the vacation ownership industry, today announced its partnership with private equity firm Tritium Partners (Tritium). The principals of Tritium were the primary investors behind the successes of the HomeAway and RetailMeNot marketplaces. Working together with Tritium, Vacation Innovations plans to expand its emerging suite of products and services supporting major developers, independent resorts, and associations, with the goal of furthering collaboration and connection between the primary and secondary vacation ownership markets.
“Our mission has always been to provide viable, legitimate solutions to timeshare owners, travelers, associations, resorts, and developers alike,” said Scott Roberts, CEO of Vacation Innovations. “We’ve spent almost two decades working to build a fluid secondary marketplace for all participants that today ranks as the largest global timeshare resale and rental marketplace. Alongside that, we have developed innovative products, business practices, and lines of service to help owners and developers overcome issues and challenges inherent to our industry, including compressed resale values and defaulting mortgages.”
The company, which began as a title agency in 1999, has since expanded to offer a wide range of marketplace services designed to address every consumer need in the secondary market. Vacation Innovations operates SellMyTimeshareNow.com, the largest and most active timeshare resale and rental marketplace worldwide, and Timeshare Broker Services, a licensed real estate brokerage specializing in timeshare assets. In addition, Vacation Innovations provides customized owner services and complementary retail product solutions to timeshare resorts, resort developers, HOAs, and timeshare management companies.
“Tritium Partners’ investment in Vacation Innovations is a huge vote of confidence in our business model and our prospects for game-changing growth. As the original institutional investors in HomeAway, Inc., their team partnered with HomeAway’s executive leadership to design and execute the strategy that ultimately led to its rapid growth, public offering, and eventual sale to Expedia in 2016,” said Chad Newbold, president of Vacation Innovations. “We look forward to leveraging Tritium’s considerable travel marketplace expertise to continue our phenomenal growth, expand our collaboration with the primary market, and support our mission of bringing vacation ownership and timeshare rental to a broader group of consumers.”
In addition to fostering ongoing, productive relationships with the primary market, Vacation Innovations will continue to invest in technology to support its ecommerce and for sale by owner marketplaces including mobile, online booking, and expanding inventory sources of timeshare rental weeks. Vacation Innovations also plans to scale its robust digital marketing programs to new business lines and launch new marketplace products and services that add value to both consumers and developers.
“Since our success with HomeAway, we have been actively seeking other great marketplaces in alternative travel accommodations. Vacation Innovations’ market leadership and unique position in the timeshare resale and rental space caught our attention,” said David Lack, Managing Partner of Tritium. “Vacation Innovations’ extensive services and resources in the timeshare space still remain vastly underutilized by timeshare owners and development partners. We look forward to helping Vacation Innovations accelerate its growth and develop new alliances with the primary market, strengthen its leading position in the online timeshare resale space, and lead the charge to bring timeshare rental into the mainstream of the vacation rental industry.”
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Belstone Capital advised Vacation Innovations, LLC on the transaction. Belstone Capital is a merchant bank based in New York focused on advising and investing in privately held companies.
HomeAway® is a registered trademark of HomeAway, Inc. RetailMeNot® is a registered trademark of RetailMeNot, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Tritium Partners
Founded in 2013, Tritium Partners is a private equity firm focused on buyouts of growth companies in the lower middle market. For over a decade, the founders of Tritium have deployed over $750 million of equity capital while partnering with talented founders and executives to build market-leading companies. Tritium’s investment approach emphasizes acquiring majority positions in profitable companies and creating long-term value through internal growth initiatives and acquisitions, with a particular focus on three core sectors: Internet and information services, supply chain and logistics, financial and business services.
About Vacation Innovations
Founded in 1999, Vacation Innovations is the world’s largest provider of secondary-market services and solutions for the vacation ownership industry. Leveraging advanced digital marketing strategies to bring vacation ownership and timeshare rentals to a new audience of consumers, the Vacation Innovations portfolio includes leading timeshare resale marketplaces SellMyTimeshareNow.com and VacationOwnership.com as well as upcoming timeshare rental booking website ResortRentals.com. In addition to online advertising and marketing services for by-owner timeshare sales and rentals, Vacation Innovations’ family of brands also offers licensed timeshare brokerage, title transfer services, and customized owner services and complementary retail product solutions to timeshare resorts, resort developers, HOAs, and timeshare management companies.