Holiday property site Vaycaychella acquired by major investor
US: WSGF Inc. (World Series of Golf) recently announced the acquisition of holiday property technology website Vaycaychella, a prequel application to rental sites such as Airbnb and VRBO.
Unlike other major applications, all of which connect renters with vacation property owners, the new site attempts to “empower people to become vacation property owners in the first place”, by connecting them with available real estate in possible markets.
The website, which has recently changed its name in anticipation of acquisition, was founded two years ago, in order to fully develop its strategies and its portfolio. The press release claims that the website seeks an audience of experienced travel industry professionals, with the experience and desire to work in the shared economy sphere, but without the financing needed to acquire holiday property.
The lending process has already been working over the two-year period with a ten million dollar set of property assets in the Caribbean, as well as a mortgage portfolio backed by these assets, and the business model for Vaycaychella’s lending approach seems to have worked on this limited scale. However, with plans to digitise the model and move into a peer-to-peer focused app, similar to those used by Airbnb and other shared economy businesses like Uber, the model may be able to disrupt vacation real estate lending in ways similar to other shared economy platforms.
Vaycaychella is WSGF’s first investment, since their major corporate restructuring in late 2019. The company had previously focused on maintaining the security of their properties in the mobile, sports and entertainment spheres, before shifting to a more investment focused model under CEO Lawrence Bailey.
This follows moves by major short-term rental firms, such as Sojourn, investing in supplemental services to the short-term vacation market rather than simply in connecting property owners to potential visitors. Vaycaychella’s business model also seems to disrupt the pattern of master leasing which our experts predicted would be on the decline in 2020.
For more information, visit the WSGF website here.
