PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eric Breon, founder and CEO of Vacasa, the second largest U.S. vacation rental company, will join influential CEOs and leaders in travel at this year’s annual Skift Global Forum. Breon will participate in a Q&A session moderated by technology reporter Sean O’Neill on Wednesday, September 27th at 11:25am ET. Breon is the first-ever vacation rental industry CEO to speak at Skift, which is the largest creative business conference in the global travel industry.
Traditionally considered minor-league players in the behemoth travel and hospitality space, vacation rental companies have never had a voice at Skift’s annual event. Given the private accommodation sector where Vacasa operates is growing twice as fast as the travel industry and is predicted to be worth $100 billion worldwide, the impact of vacation rentals and home-share services such as Airbnb is expected to be one of the hot topics at this year’s Forum.
Founded in 2009, Vacasa uses technology to manage more than 6,000 vacation rental properties around the world, helping homeowners maximize their revenue while providing guests with a consistent world-class experience.
In 2016, Vacasa secured its first round of outside capital: $40 million in Series A financing. Since then, Vacasa has made significant investments in its technology stack, rolling out an upgraded machine learning-based pricing tool Yield Management 2.0 and integrating 3D virtual tours via Matterport to all its property listings.
This year, the company hired Bob Milne, former President of Wyndham Vacation Rentals North America division, as Chief Operations Officer. Milne oversees field operations as Vacasa continues its unprecedented growth both in the U.S. and internationally. The company also hired fintec industry alum Tim Goodwin as Chief Technology Officer. Since hiring Goodwin, Vacasa’s engineering team has grown 40%, a figure he plans to more than double by the end of the year. This month, Vacasa welcomed former Expedia executive and Hotwire Chief Technology Officer, Brian Gill to its board of directors
“It’s an honor to be invited to speak alongside some of the most exciting thinkers in travel and technology,” says Breon, who will be sharing the stage with the likes of Nathan Blecharczyk, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Airbnb, Mark D’Arcy, Chief Creative Officer at Facebook, as well as CEOs from a variety of travel and hospitality industry icons such as Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, Expedia, Priceline Group, Delta Airlines, Lufthansa Group, and more.
About Vacasa
Vacasa is a technology-enabled, full-service
vacation rental management company with operations in the U.S., Europe,
Africa, Central and South America. Leveraging proprietary technology,
Vacasa drives revenue for homeowners and provides a seamless experience
for guests. Founded in 2009 and based in Portland, Oregon, Vacasa has
grown from two to more than 1,600 employees in eight years, has been
honored as the Oregon Better Business Bureau Large Business of the Year
and was ranked ninth on the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies list.
For more information, visit https://www.vacasa.com/
or on Twitter @vacasarentals.
