DESTIN, FL (May 7, 2025)
Awayday (the “Company”), a leading full-service U.S. vacation rental property manager, today announced a strategic investment made by an Ares Management Private Equity fund (“Ares”). The existing financial sponsor, LightBay Capital (“LightBay”), a Los Angeles-based growth-focused private equity firm, fully realized its investment in Fund I and re-invested in the Company alongside Ares in Fund II. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Awayday is a leading provider of short-term vacation rental management, offering a full suite of services for property owners, including property listing, online bookings, housekeeping, and maintenance. The Company's local focus coupled with national scale aims to ensure quality experiences and around-the-clock assistance for property owners and guests. Awayday's reputation for quality service has led to strong property retention and a sustained track record of organic growth. At the time of the announcement, the Company operated a diversified portfolio of leading local brands with over 9,000 properties under management.
This new partnership provides Awayday with additional capital to further scale its go-to-market strategy, accelerate its pace of acquisitions, drive organic growth in new and existing markets, and invest in tools to improve its services to owners and guests.
“Over the last four years, LightBay has been a tremendous partner in our mission to create exceptional vacation rental experiences, supporting our expansion while improving margins, driving revenue per unit, boosting customer satisfaction, and elevating our culture. We're thrilled to add the strategic and financial support of the Ares team to further strengthen our ability to help great businesses grow and drive value for our partners, investors, and team. I want to thank our entire team for their contributions that have enabled us to achieve this remarkable milestone, and I look forward to the exciting work happening at Awayday and the opportunity to execute our strategy alongside LightBay and now Ares.”
“Awayday's operating model blends local in-market execution with the benefits of a national property management platform. We believe this combination positions the Company to capitalize on secular tailwinds in the short-term vacation rental industry. We look forward to partnering with management and LightBay in this next phase of growth.”
“The Awayday team has generated strong momentum through its systematic approach to driving growth and its deep commitment to its customers, owners and communities. We're proud to have built this industry leader with Jakob and his team, and we're thrilled to welcome Ares as our partner, whose expertise and resources will be invaluable as we collectively continue to build and support Awayday.”
Piper Sandler & Co. served as exclusive financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Awayday and LightBay. Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Ares on the transaction.
About Awayday
Awayday is a leading vacation rental property platform composed of local brands in vacation-focused destinations across the U.S. Awayday provides property owners with a fully integrated suite of local services, including rental bookings, cleaning and housekeeping, maintenance and repairs, unit inspections, equipment rentals, and around-the-clock customer support. Awayday offers guests a vast portfolio of exclusive properties, reliable bookings and billings, local experiences, and hands-on customer service.
About Ares Management Corporation
Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) is a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, real estate, private equity and infrastructure asset classes.
About LightBay Capital
LightBay Capital is a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that invests in high-quality companies to accelerate growth. Primarily focused on the healthcare, business services, and consumer services industries, the LightBay Capital team has been partnering with innovative service-based companies for over twenty years.
Awayday context
What the investment changes, and what it does not
Investment announcements are usually written for the financial press, so here is the version that matters to a homeowner or a guest. Capital of this kind funds three things at Awayday: entering new vacation markets, welcoming more established local management companies into the collection, and building the shared technology, marketing and revenue tools those brands use every day.
What it does not change is the operating model. Each brand in the collection keeps its own name, its own team and the market knowledge it built over decades, an average of 23 years per brand. The person who inspects a home in Destin or Breckenridge is local, and stays local. Awayday's role is the layer behind them: distribution, pricing, guest support, back office and standards.
It is also worth noting that LightBay reinvested alongside Ares rather than exiting outright, which is a signal of continuity rather than a change of direction. For reporters covering consolidation in short-term rentals, this is a useful data point on how professional managers are scaling without stripping out the local operator.
Reporters can quote the approved boilerplate below, pull current figures from the fast facts on the press hub, download the wordmark from brand assets, or see who runs each part of the business on the leadership page.
Original source
This announcement was published by Business Wire on May 6, 2025. Read it in full at the source.
View on Business WireFigures below are reproduced as published on the original release date. For current company numbers, see the fast facts on the press hub.
About Awayday
Awayday brings together top-tier vacation rental companies under one national platform. The collection spans 60+ local brands and 15,000+ vacation homes, condos and cabins across 11 U.S. states, hosting 1,200,000+ guests a year. Each local brand keeps its own name, team and market expertise, backed by shared technology, marketing and revenue management, and a team of more than 1,200 hospitality professionals. Awayday is headquartered in Destin, Florida.