Portland-based Vacasa (Nasdaq: VCSA) is laying off roughly 3% of its workforce, or 280 people, the company confirmed to the Business Journal.
The company hasn’t indicated where the roles are being cut but said it primarily affects its “central teams.” The company did say the move would affect about 15 roles in Portland.
The cuts were first reported by the travel industry site Skift, which noted finance, human resources, legal, marketing, sales, product and engineering as bearing the brunt.
“We do not take these decisions lightly, but we continuously assess our business, striving to optimize our resources and teams to be efficient and align with our priorities,” the company said in a written statement.
The vacation rental management company is in the midst of changes as new CEO Rob Greyber takes over. Last week, the company revealed executive level movement with two executives leaving and two moving into new roles. The company also announced that Rachel Gonzalez, former Starbucks Corp (Nasdaq: SBUX) general counsel, is joining the Vacasa board as an observer.
Laid off employees will receive severance, career placement services and health care benefits through November.
“We are grateful to every one of our impacted colleagues for their contributions to Vacasa,” the company said.
Prior to this announcement the company had 400 employees in Portland and 8,000 employees globally.
The cuts come despite the company reporting a strong second quarter in financial results released in August. At the time, it raised its full year revenue guidance to between $1.17 billion to $1.19 billion, citing strong guest demand.
This latest move is likely a way to drive the company toward profitability.
Vacasa has seen major swings in fortune. As a private company it was one of the state’s fastest growing and raised an eye-popping amount of private capital, garnering it a unicorn valuation before it went public in 2021.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic it made significant cuts as the travel and hospitality industry halted amid travel restrictions. However, by the fall of 2020, it saw a massive rebound in bookings and has been riding that wave of pent-up travel energy ever since.
The company’s stock has fallen significantly from its debut at $10.99. It opened trading on Oct. 24 at $3.70.
The stock is down more than 11% in afternoon trading.
Homeowners sign up with Vacasa to market and book their rental properties as well as manage them with maintenance, guest services and cleaning. That is accomplished with proprietary technology developed by the company to maximize rental rates and operations.
All home management roles are employees of Vacasa and not contractors. The company has more than 35,000 homes in its portfolio across 400 destinations in North America, Belize and Costa Rica. Its homes can be found on other platforms as well including Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo.
