Vacation rental management business Vacasa said Wednesday it will lay off another 5% of its employees as the Portland company’s outlook continues deteriorating.
“2024 is off to a difficult start,” Vacasa wrote in a letter to shareholders accompanying its quarterly financial results. The company said demand for domestic vacation rentals is “softening” and the value of its bookings will be weak through at least the first half of the year.
Vacasa said it plans to lay off 320 people across the company, with the cuts falling most heavily on those working in its central offices. It will pay between $4 million and $5 million in severance and other costs.
Vacasa had about 200 Portland employees after layoffs a year ago. It said it laid off 10 in Portland in Wednesday’s cuts.
Additionally, Vacasa said Chief Operating Officer John Banczak is leaving his post as of March 31.
Vacasa manages rental homes for property owners in vacation destinations across the country. It lists the rentals on its own site and others, and the company provides cleaning and maintenance services. It takes a percentage of the rental fees it collects and pays the rest to the property owners.
Founded in 2009, the business appeared to be thriving in the years before the pandemic – then took off as people favored private rentals over resorts and hotels during COVID-19. Vacasa went public in 2021 in a deal that valued the company at $4.5 billon.
Nothing has gone right since.
Vacasa’s management team reported organizational problems and cost overruns and it soon became clear that the pandemic-era surge in short-term vacation rentals wouldn’t last.
The company’s stock tanked and Vacasa laid off 1,300 in January 2023. The company had a market value of just $251 million when regular trading closed Wednesday; shares plunged more than 20% in after-hours trading after the company reported the layoffs and announced financial results.
Revenues fell 6% last year to $1.2 billion, a sharp reversal after several years when annual growth frequently topped 50%. Vacasa posted a loss of $528 million for the year.
The company’s decline appears to be accelerating, with fourth-quarter sales down 19% from the same period a year ago.
-- Mike Rogoway covers Oregon technology and the state economy. Reach him at [email protected] or 503-294-7699
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