Meredith Lodging, a vacation rental manager based in Bend, will expand into the Mount Hood region with the acquisition of a smaller firm, Mt Hood Vacation Rentals.
The larger company said in a statement the deal closed in March but did not disclose the price or terms. Meredith said its portfolio now includes 1,000 vacation rentals in Oregon, Washington and California.
Betsy LaBarge, who had owned Mt Hood Vacation Rentals for three decades, said in a statement from Meredith that she planned to retire.
The fragmented short-term rental management industry has been in consolidation mode even as platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have helped drive the proliferation in vacation homes.
Meredith said it has acquired a number of smaller operators in recent months and recruited new property owners looking to rent their second homes to tourists part time. Portland-based Vacasa, which began trading on Wall Street in December, has become the largest full-service vacation rental management company in part through aggressive acquisions.
Travel restrictions slammed the entire hospitality industry earliest days of the pandemic, but business began to rebound as travel restrictions eased. Companies in the industry have struggled to hire enough workers, though, and workers have seen a big bump in pay as a result.
— Elliot Njus
