How To Create A Website that does what Homeaway, AirBnB do?

I am trying to create a website that clones homeaway.com and can handle vacation rental listings from numerous property owners, each with access to upload and modify/manage their listings. I am very new to this so I recognize that I will need help.

I have looked at existing templates out there like lodgify, webchalet, myVR & Kigo and most do not allow for this out of the box. The ones that do seem to charge money per property listed which makes it impossible to do from the start as it is not feasible if I am trying to get listings and need to pay per unit rented.

I feel like the little guy just can't catch a break.. If I create a template or someone helps me do it, which mimics homeaway. What do I need in it mechanically?

In other words:

1. I need a way to store listings which can be entered by multiple outside parties, even if they submit it from their homeaway and AirBnB listings to mine.
2. I need a searchable/filtering feature on my main page in order for renters to search for what they want.
3. I need some form of booking engine/calendar management tool.
4. I need a platform that I can run this on.

I am sorry that I am so clueless to this but I am trying really hard and running into walls. Any advice, guidance or even list of what I need done would be of enormous help.

Thank you.

 

You should build everything from the ground up. You seem to be very specific with what you want. Which is good! Nobody will care more about your business more than you do. I suggest you learn database development with MySQL and MySQL Workbench. It is not hard to learn, especially when you already have an idea in mind. Other than the actual look of your website. The database design is absolutely the most important aspect in developing a good web application, in my opinion. Backend languages like PHP, JAVA , RUBY are not as important. All that stuff does is connect the dots between your front end and the database.

 

Thank you for responding. From what I can see there are no good wordpress plugins and I don't know that wordpress is the best option anyhow. My ground up skills would be terrible so wordpress allows me to use a template. The homeaway landing page is really a plain simple page that is search/database focused with filtering. if I learn MySQL & MySQL Workbench, would I be able to add it to a wordpress template for ease and cost savings, given that I am neither loaded nor code-skilled or is that just going down the wrong path?

 

To make this work, be secure, and have even a miniscule chance of succeeding, you'll need to bring on someone who can code. And no, learning mysql won't do you much good, since the database design is a minor (important, but minor) part of what you need. You'll need a good PHP coder. What you want isn't that hard to make, but having it run on WordPress or similar means that most, if not all, of the functionality should be coded as plugins, so that you don't have to redo things all the time something else updates.

 

Yes you can. Learning MySQL will teach you how to use relational databases. But to incorporate the database with Wordpress you will need to learn more. You will also need to learn PHP and how Wordpress works. If you have no coding experience, good luck trying to understand it. If I were you I would build it myself. Once you get it, you will have so much more control. You will understand how everything works, and it will actually be easier to code in the long run. Its not hard you just got to start with the foundations.

WEEK 1 : HTML / CSS $25/month school https://teamtreehouse.com , and practice on http://codepen.io

WEEK 2 : JAVASCRIPT / JQUERY @ teamtreehouse.com. You will be able to manipulate the HTML CSS and make requests to the server without reloading the page ( AJAX )

WEEK 3 : LEARN PHP.@ teamtreehouse.com ( You will learn things like arrays, loops, and how to communicate with database and forms )
WEEK 4 : LEARN RESTFUL API @youtube @Google ( This will teach you how the server communicates with your website and how it should be done efficiently )

WEEK 5 : @ https://teamtreehouse.com @youtube @Google LEARN MYSQL with MYSQL WORKBENCH

WEEK 6 - WEEK 9 : PRACTICE , RESEARCH, PRACTICE, RE STUDY, PRACTICE

WEEK 10 : LINUX : Learn the commands , and how to set up a server. IP tables for security. etc... Teamtreehouse has a really good class on this subject.

Some where down the line you will have AH HA! moment. When that happens you will understand how everything works. Learning will be much easier after this point.

You will also need to read and re read https://owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page . This teaches you about security threats and how to keep your application secure.

There are a whole bunch of other things that I did not mention, but I feel confident you will come across and learn these things if you just follow my 9 week plan. This is how I got started. I studied for 9 weeks. I didn't bull shit though. I studied from day to night everyday! No breaks! I basically gave up my life to learn because I wanted it so bad. It was so worth it.

And lets say your business idea flops and doesn't work. The best part is you can just build something else. Another idea. If you have the time and dedication, go this route.

 

Thank you, very much. It might cost less to build on another platform???

Thank you so much for your thoughtful advice and response. No doubt that the long term benefits of ground up are huge!

 

Hi.

Hi. I'm not looking to do exactly what they do but their website format is a good fit for what I want to do.

 

As for using another platform than WordPress, that's probably a good idea, but involves more knowledge. My recommendation would be to make it from scratch, however, that WILL involve a coder that know what s/he's doing.

 

Ranseth, HomeAway has invested many millions into their business (they had over $450,000,000 from investors when they jumped into the vacation rental industry many years ago). This doesn't mean you can't get a little slice of the pie, but you have to do things either differently or better. Doing better than HomeAway is a very difficult task, however you can do things a bit differently. I suggest you get into a niche of the vacation rental industry. Unfortunately you don't have great scripts out there that are very customizable or scalable that I'm aware of. However, maybe you can contact someone that has developed a niche vacation rental directory (that would not compete with what you have in mind) and ask them to clone or develop a similar site for you. This way you will save money and most of all a lot of development time and bug fixing. And if they are really nice maybe they can guide you on some marketing strategies and how to move forward in the most efficient way possible. Best wishes!