@Kevin: Please add the r to “GetYourGuide”. Thanks

Of course I don’t know what the rest of their research says, but I’d be inclined to look at the way their users find holidays, refine holiday searches and find these holiday pages to ensure they meet the needs of cost-concious travellers before changing the holiday pages themselves.

I hate to say it but they deserve everything they get, that’s the bottom line

It’s like when some people said that Cloud Computing was the same as the old mainframe time sharing. It was easy for them to make the comparison in their minds by using familiar reference points, but the technologies are not similar…other than the part about not having to buy your own hardware.

So yes, Big Data may be hot, may be an overinflated sector even. But if you’re tired of hearing about the hype, don’t hate the player, hate the game.

IF this is the same phisher (and I don’t know if it is), they are not looking for your bank account info, they are trying to hack your email account.

I think that when owners open these emails there is some kind of a virus planted in your email that diverts inquiries with the Homeaway/VRBO title to the phisher. In other words, any listing using that email would have inquiries diverted to the phisher’s email and you would be completely unaware of it until you got a call some day that someone has “booked” your property and sent money to the phisher. That’s why you needed to change the email account you use. Had someone booked with the phisher, Homeaway would call you and tell you that you are 100% responsible for the loss, because its your responsibility to keep your email secure.

Which illustrates my point exactly: Homeaway’s effort to “educate” people is a drop in the bucket. The email communication model on which Homeaway is built, and upon which it profits, exposes users to dangers that the overwhelming majority can’t possibly understand. Even if insurance products are offered, how are people to understand what they are insuring against? Only Homeaway has the technical details of this particular scam, and I am not aware of any public place where they have shared those details.

The challenges are pretty clear, but Kayak has always been smart about being forward on distribution platforms like mobile and in marketing itself early on them, and maybe Windows 8 applications are a next frontier for the space.

I assume as an owner they were looking for my bank account info, etc..

HomeAway needs to provide owners with free insurance to cover losses that aren’t covered by others.
I would even pay for such insurance if it was offered.

Owners have always been the most vulnerable in this business. After all we are renting our houses often valued to the millions to complete strangers. The potential for having onces house trashed, wrecked, etc. is very possible. Rule of thumb. Stick to families! Even families with 2 dogs and little kids are better than 8 college aged buddies who are going to drink a lot and have have a good time in your house.

Lets just agree that OTA’s and their allies are disgusting, disgraceful, robbers, greedy – to everyone but themselves – and then grin and bear them. its a total joke.