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Vacation rental platform Savvy is taunting Vrbo and Airbnb with billboards in Austin, where Vrbo is located in an Expedia Group office.
“Think of us as Airbnb and Vrbo’s hotter, cooler, smarter, younger sibling that never has fees. Stay smarter. Savvy.com.”
One printed billboard is “right up the road” from Vrbo offices in an Expedia Group building at 11920 Alterra Parkway, and two digital billboards advertise Savvy on the I-35 interstate, Savvy founder and CEO Eric Goldreyer told Skift.
Savvy’s billboard advertising follows Vrbo putting up billboards last month near Airbnb headquarters in San Francisco and in a handful of U.S. cities, declaring: “Think of us as Airbnb’s hotter, cooler, friendlier, long-lost twin that never has hosts. Make it a Vrbo.”
Source: Vrbo
Writing on LinkedIn about Vrbo’s billboards poking at Airbnb, Goldreyer gave the “stunt” a B, but the billboard content a C. “The brand association is good but the value prop [was] confusing and definitely too many words for a billboard.”
However, he said, Savvy didn’t want “to sit on the sidelines and miss all the fun.”
The Savvy Difference?
Goldreyer thinks Savvy’s billboard touting the fact that it doesn’t charge guests booking fees is on point. “We think saving hundreds to thousands per booking speaks the loudest.”
Vrbo and Airbnb both charge fees to guests and hosts. Savvy says it doesn’t charge such fees, but sometimes links guests to property managers’ websites, where consumers may be subject to fees. Property managers can list their properties on Savvy for free, but pay for subscriptions if they want higher visibility.
Savvy, formerly called Bnbfinder, is privately held and is a fraction of the size of Airbnb and Vrbo.
Savvy/Evolve Savings in California.
Skift randomly found the same 2-bedroom condo in Emeryville, California, hosted by Evolve, on both Savvy and Airbnb.
Savvy claimed the booking for a 6-night stay in early May was $181 cheaper than on Airbnb before taxes. Actually it turned out to be $164 cheaper on the website of Savvy’s partner, Evolve.
Savvy showed the May 4-10 stay as costing $2,064 before taxes. When navigating to the Evolve website, the actual cost was $2,081, including fees but before taxes.
Airbnb had the same property on the same dates for $2,245, likewise including fees but before taxes.
Unlike the Emeryville example, where the booking took place on Evolve.com, Goldreyer said two-thirds of Savvy’s bookings take place on Savvy.com.
Airbnb and Vrbo had no comment on the Savvy billboards.
Correction: We erroneously reported that all of Savvy’s bookings take place on partner websites. Two-thirds, according to the company, take place on Savvy.com.
