This vacation rental company with a Boise office says it’s North America’s biggest now

A company with deep Idaho ties on Tuesday became the largest vacation rental company based in North America after buying one of its rivals.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and with an office in Boise that employes 145 people, Vacasa bought Oasis Collections. Founded in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2009, Oasis offers homes in domestic destinations such as Chicago and Miami but has a strong presence in South America and Europe.

With the acquisition, Vacasa now manages 10,600 homes worldwide, ahead of Wyndham Vacation Rentals, which, according to its website, manages nearly 10,000 properties. It also surpasses the more than 9,000 properties managed by Evolve Vacation Rental Network.

“It’s a great acquisition for us,” company co-founder and CEO Eric Breon said Tuesday by phone from Portland. “It brings us into a lot of great markets, like Barcelona, Paris and Buenos Aires.”

The sale — whose terms were not revealed — came barely a year after hotel giant Hyatt pumped money into the company as a minority investor. Hyatt advertised Oasis properties on its reservation system, and World of Hyatt members earned loyalty program points on their stays.

Skift, a magazine that covers the travel industry, said Hyatt’s abrupt exit “suggests that Oasis had not lived up to performance expectations.”

While Oasis lists 2,000 properties in 22 cities, the company had exclusive agreements with only 200 of those property owners. Vacasa also wants to manage those other properties.

“There may be opportunity to bring on Oasis’ nonexclusive portfolio down the line,” Vacasa spokeswoman Alexandria Plew said.

Breon said Vacasa plans to expand operations in each of Oasis’ markets, which also include Mexico City; Rome; São Paulo, Brazil; London; Madrid; and Milan.

Vacasa said it will hire Oasis’ 60 employees, many of whom work out of offices in Miami.

Unlike Aibnb and companies that offer similar services, Vacasa handles guest check-ins and provides assistance while guests are in the home. Vacasa also cleans up the units and gets them ready for the next guests. Homeowners who list with Airbnb provide all of those services themselves.

Founded in Portland in 2009, Vacasa operated from Boise for several years when Breon lived here. In just the last year, the company added 45 employees in Boise and has openings for 20 positions based in Boise.

With the company’s acquisition, integration and finance teams based in Boise will play a big role in moving the Oasis properties to Vacasa, Breon said. It will take about a month to integrate them and, for now, the Oasis website will continue to operate. It will eventually be folded into Vacasa’s website, he said.

Over the summer, the company moved from 121 N. 9th St. to One Capital Center at 999 W. Main St. Vacasa occupies two floors with 34,000 square feet, 21,000 square feet more than in the former location.

Ryan Vestal, the company’s chief financial officer, a Wendell native who works at the Boise office, said since its founding Vacasa has experienced year-to-year growth of 60 percent. The company has signed up new property owners and has bought out several other companies along the way. Vestal said he expects the growth trend to continue.

Since last October, the number of properties managed by Vacasa has increased from 6,000. Employees have increased from 1,600 to 2,500, with 400 in Portland. The rest are employed in cities where the company manages rentals.

In Idaho, Vacasa-managed properties have increased during the past 12 months from 256 to 430. In that time, McCall has surpassed Sun Valley for the most Idaho homes managed by the company. There are 135 homes in McCall and 89 in Sun Valley, compared to 47 and 53 a year ago.

This story was originally published October 2, 2018 at 6:07 PM.