Marketplaces were built to aggregate supply. Not to own it. That assumption is breaking faster than most operators expected.

Dr. Patrick Andrae is the Co-Founder and CEO of HomeToGo, one of the world’s leading vacation rental marketplaces, aggregating millions of listings across platforms and property managers. Since founding the company, he has expanded it into software, services, and property management, including the acquisition of Interhome, one of Europe’s largest rental operators. The combined group generates nearly $400 million in revenue, with more than 60% coming from its B2B segment, and over 200,000 properties connected through software and services.

This is not a conversation about marketplace growth. It is a breakdown of what changes when platforms move closer to supply, and how that reshapes control, margins, and competitive advantage.

In this conversation, we discuss:

Why owning supply is no longer seen as a margin tradeoff, and what changes when platforms move closer to operations and the last mile
How HomeToGo’s shift from marketplace to B2B changes where value is captured, and why that redefines the role of distribution platforms
What most operators underestimate about direct bookings, and why having traffic does not translate into control without conversion infrastructure
How AI is changing travel discovery behavior, and why vacation rentals present a fundamentally harder decision layer than flights or hotels
Why Europe’s fragmented supply remains largely unconsolidated, and what that reveals about the limits of traditional marketplace-driven growth
What changes when a company operates across marketplace, software, and services, and how that creates optionality in uncertain distribution environments

Resources and links:

Connect with Dr. Patrick Andrae on LinkedIn and learn more about HomeToGo.

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Resources

AJL Atelier – Global STR Consulting [https://www.ajlatelier.com]. Led by our host Simon Lehmann, AJL Atelier is a boutique advisory firm helping professional hosts, property managers, and investors succeed in the short-term rental industry.
Connect with Simon Lehmann on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-lehmann-8375753b/]

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