A commenter mentions in passing that Expedia Group, the parent company of VRBO, acquired the early short-term rental platform Wotif.com.

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  "signal_subtype": "acquisitionAnnounced",
  "detected_at": "2026-09-02T20:12:31+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Expedia",
    "domain": "expediagroup.com"
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    "topics": [
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    "post_id": "1w5lp9r",
    "summary": "A commenter mentions in passing that Expedia Group, the parent company of VRBO, acquired the early short-term rental platform Wotif.com.",
    "category": "acquirer",
    "comments": [
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p7jyx36/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 4,
        "author": "zambono_2",
        "excerpt": "There are plenty of platforms and even direct booking sites the problem is that none are as large as Airbnb when it comes to guests. You should just diversify list on multiple and treat them all only as marketing tools. Best is if you can book repeat guests directly on your own site",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-03T11:08:06.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/zambono_2/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p7ga7gm/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 3,
        "author": "enozero",
        "excerpt": "There are a dime a dozen of alternative platforms out there. So many have the same idea.\n\n With these kinds of platforms, you’re fighting mindshare amongst both hosts and guests. Airbnb and Vrbo are very recognized names. Likely acquiring hosts won’t be an issue (as many hosts are on a myriad of different hosting sites and PMSes will connect to those easily), but then you need to acquire guests, a",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-02T20:51:10.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/enozero/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p7ucsak/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 2,
        "author": "buxton_re",
        "excerpt": "Many of my clients build websites for direct bookings. They add a QR code for 20% off their next stay just for adding their email to a list. AEO will become a bigger part of people searching for STRs. Create a site that will appear on AI search. It won't solve the AirBNB problem but it will help.",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-04T19:50:06.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/buxton_re/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p7gfrop/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 1,
        "author": "captainred101",
        "excerpt": "What is the name of your site?",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-02T21:16:20.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/captainred101/"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p7jiazp/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 1,
        "author": "SorryChef",
        "excerpt": "You'll never create anything good or big enough to compete. Accept that now. STVR is dead. Turn your property back into a proper LTR.\n\n You can't build community if the community can't find anywhere to live.",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-03T08:59:41.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/SorryChef/"
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      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p7j9mnd/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 1,
        "author": "Ashley_Carr",
        "excerpt": "Have you given direct bookings a try? Might be a good answer especially if you already have guests who come back!",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-03T07:43:27.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/Ashley_Carr/"
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        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p83g4kn/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 1,
        "author": "getaways-unlimited",
        "excerpt": "Great idea and I wish you well. I’m always happy to support this type of initiative, but the only successful one I’ve got to know the founder and supported from the very beginning, was Wotif.com. It was one of the very first and wildly successful, but was eventually swallowed up by Expedia/VRBO … 😂 sad but true!",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-06T03:23:08.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/getaways-unlimited/"
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      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/ShortTermRentals/comments/1w5lp9r/comment/p8b0kss/",
        "depth": 0,
        "score": 1,
        "author": "sandeephegde",
        "excerpt": "Which country are you referring to?\n\n The challenge with alternative platform is distribution which would need a lot of time and capital.\n\n We are building one in India, but starting only from the host side. Will promote consumer side only once have a lot of hosts in a lot of destinations.",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-07T06:32:34.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/sandeephegde/"
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      "[comment u/getaways-unlimited] the only successful one I’ve got to know the founder and supported from the very beginning, was Wotif.com. It was one of the very first and wildly successful, but was eventually swallowed up by Expedia/VRBO … 😂 sad but true!"
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    "post_date": "2026-09-02T20:12:31.000Z",
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    "post_text": "Ive been a host for five years. Ive seen and been thru it all- Ive had thee most amazing guests, the ones who return whenever theyre in town, the guests who leave the place in pristine condition, and the ones who refused to leave, the scammers, the liars, the property damagers, the partiers, and the worst one of em all - the guest who physically assaulted his wife and children on christmas day and had to be removed by the police.\n\nOn September 1st, I removed my home from air bnb. One cannot do business with a company that always sides with the guest even when the host has 30 min long video proof showing every square inch of the property. I had already removed my home from vrbo years ago because that company is even worse than air bnb.\n\nIm reading so many people's comments and the consensus is that there's such a need for another short term rental platform.\n\nTheres gotta be a way to create one that has good leadership, transparency and is fair to both guests and hosts. I understand rome wasnt built in a day but I want us hosts to come together and build a platform that we're proud to be a part of.\n\nWould anyone be willing to collaborate on this? I have entrepreneurial experience- Ive owned my own construction company for over a decade and Ive built all the marketing materials for it including website, from scratch. I just cannot take something of this magnitude on by myself and...",
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    "subreddit": "ShortTermRentals",
    "post_title": "Alternative Short Term Rental Platform",
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        "name": "Wotif.com",
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        "name": "VRBO",
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  -d '{"domain":"expediagroup.com","limit":20}'