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Rent.com.au partners with AirBnB, announces new CEO

It has been a big week for rent.com.au with three major announcements including a new CEO, a partnership with AirBnB and its annual results.

Renters could be set to benefit from a new partnership between rent.com.au and one of the world’s largest accommodation providers Airbnb. The partnership is designed to encourage renters to ‘try before they buy’; allowing them to test out the area they are moving to, before they sign a lease. More than 7 million renters will be able to book apartments, houses, private and shared rooms; giving the easy short term access to test schools, cafes, shops and public transport, among other things, in suburbs they are considering moving to.

This comes as the annual results come in for the portal, which saw the company’s revenue increase to $748,000 as at June 30, 2016, up from $343,000 in the prior comparable 12-month period. EBITDA, however was measured at a loss of $7.2m, which was in line with expectations given a $2 million investment in marketing initiatives and property listing purchases at $1.6 million. According to the most recent ASX announcement, one of the year’s major objectives was achieved with RENT building its average monthly audience for the year to more than 650,000, from just over 200,000 for the prior comparable 12-month period.

Rent.com.au also announced the appointment of a new CEO, Greg Bader, an experienced Senior Executive who has worked in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry for more than 20 years, both locally and internationally. Most recently he was a key member of iiNet’s executive team, where he was Chief Technology Officer from 2003 to 2012. Bader’s appointment is effective immediately.

Bader said, “In today’s market renters wanted a wide range of rental properties from which to choose, from both agents and non-agents. “We now have a very significant share of all rental property listings available on our site and have developed a consistently large and unique renter audience as a result. This is core to the positioning of RENT as the destination of choice for renters, however we’re also moving towards meeting the other needs of renters in a commercially sustainable way.”

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