What Happened to HomeAway? A Vacation Rental Host's Guide (2026)

HomeAway no longer exists as a standalone brand. Expedia Group folded it into Vrbo in 2020. If you're searching for HomeAway today, Vrbo is where you'll find it, your old account, listings, and bookings all carried over automatically.

Key takeaways

• HomeAway no longer exists as a standalone brand, Expedia Group folded it into Vrbo in 2020.

• HomeAway and Vrbo have effectively always been connected: HomeAway acquired Vrbo in 2006, and Expedia acquired both in 2015.

• Old HomeAway accounts, listings, and bookings transferred to Vrbo automatically, no rebuild required.

• Platform transitions like this one are a common point where calendar sync quietly breaks, so it's worth confirming your current connection is direct and real-time.

• HomeAway's disappearance is a real-world example of why hosts shouldn't rely entirely on one OTA for their guest relationships.

What was HomeAway?

HomeAway was one of the original vacation rental listing platforms. Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd founded the company in 2005, and HomeAway.com officially launched in 2006 out of Austin, Texas. At its peak, it listed over a million vacation rental properties across 190 countries, making it one of the largest players in the industry before Airbnb reshaped the market.

A clean way to think about it: HomeAway was a pre-Airbnb-era vacation rental marketplace that no longer operates under its own name, it now exists as part of Vrbo.

Is HomeAway still around in 2026?

No. HomeAway shut down as a standalone platform in 2020. Here's the timeline that got us there:

So if HomeAway shows up in your search history, your bookmarks, or a client's old paperwork, the plain-English answer is: that's Vrbo now.

Are HomeAway and Vrbo the same thing?

Yes, for all practical purposes. Vrbo was actually the older of the two brands, HomeAway acquired it back in 2006. When Expedia Group bought HomeAway in 2015, Vrbo came along as part of the deal. Expedia eventually chose to keep the Vrbo name going forward rather than HomeAway, largely because of its clearer positioning around whole-home rentals for families and groups.

What happened to my old HomeAway account?

If you managed a listing on HomeAway, you don't need to rebuild anything. Your account, listing history, and bookings transferred over to Vrbo automatically as part of the 2020 consolidation, Expedia's own announcement confirmed logins and reservations carried over unchanged. The login credentials changed, but the underlying account didn't disappear.

That said, the transition is a useful moment to check something a lot of hosts skip: is your current connection to Vrbo actually a direct, real-time one, or is it running through an older, unofficial integration that never got updated?

This matters more than it sounds like it should. Platform consolidations like the HomeAway-to-Vrbo merger are exactly when calendar sync problems creep in, old integrations that worked fine under one brand don't always carry over cleanly, and a delayed or broken sync is one of the most common causes of double bookings across multiple channels.

A few things worth checking on your end:

• Is your Vrbo connection a direct API integration, or is it routed through a legacy or third-party workaround?

• Does your calendar sync in real time across every platform you list on, or is there a lag between when a booking comes in and when your other channels update?

• Are guest messages from Vrbo landing in one place you actually check, or scattered across logins you don't open daily?

If you manage listings on more than one or two platforms, this is where a channel manager earns its keep, not just as a convenience, but as protection against the sync failures that cause double bookings and missed guest messages.

Hostaway holds Vrbo Elite Partner status, part of its "Triple Crown" recognition alongside Airbnb and Booking.com's top partner tiers. Hostaway is the only combined PMS and channel manager to hold all three simultaneously. 

In practice, that status is tied to real-time two-way syncing of rates, availability, and messages, rather than the kind of delayed or unofficial connection that tends to surface exactly during platform transitions like this one. 

You can read more about what these partner tiers actually mean for hosts in Benefits of Partnering with a Preferred Channel Partner.

What this means if you're relying on one platform

HomeAway's disappearance is also a useful, concrete example of a broader risk: building your entire business on OTAs. Hosts who listed on HomeAway didn't just lose a familiar login, they had no say in the rebrand, the new URL, or the new app their guests would need to find them on, even though the underlying account (now Vrbo) continued on.

That's the same argument for not depending entirely on any single OTA today, Vrbo included. A direct booking presence, even a simple one, means your guest relationships and reviews live somewhere that isn't at the mercy of a platform's next rebrand or restructuring. 

Hostaway's Booking Website Pro builds that presence directly into your existing setup, with listings, availability, and bookings synced automatically from Hostaway, so there's no separate site to maintain or keep in sync manually.

Frequently asked questions

Is HomeAway still operating? 

No. HomeAway shut down as a standalone platform in 2020. The HomeAway.com website and app now redirect to Vrbo, which is the active platform for all former HomeAway hosts and guests.

Are HomeAway and Vrbo the same company? 

Yes. HomeAway acquired Vrbo in 2006, and Expedia Group acquired HomeAway (and Vrbo along with it) in 2015. Expedia consolidated both brands under the Vrbo name in 2020, so they're now one and the same platform.

Do I need to create a new account since HomeAway is gone? 

No. Accounts, listings, and bookings from HomeAway carried over to Vrbo automatically during the 2020 transition. You'll use a Vrbo login going forward, but nothing needed to be rebuilt from scratch.

Why did Expedia keep the Vrbo name instead of HomeAway? 

Expedia cited Vrbo's stronger brand recognition and its clearer focus on whole-home rentals for families and groups, versus HomeAway's more generic positioning.

Does my old HomeAway connection still sync properly with my other channels? 

Not necessarily. Platform transitions like this one are a common point where calendar sync breaks down, especially with older or unofficial integrations. It's worth confirming your current Vrbo connection is a direct, real-time sync rather than one that predates the 2020 consolidation.