Steve Huey Leaving Rentals.com?

Dave,

It was always a mystery to me how Huey got that job to start with. I always thought he must have had an in with someone at Primedia or KKR.

I have included the full article on Huey’s promotion on June 18th, 2007 below. (He didn’t last long!)

I will use a few excerpts and comment on them:

1. “Steve was instrumental in the turnaround effort with RentalHouses.com, helping to position the company for sale,” said Bob Metz.

Rentalhouses was giving away their ads to PM’s at “all you can eat” pricing. How that qualified as a turnaround is very fishy!

2.”With his leadership our Rentals.com division will only continue to strengthen and grow.”

I think the results have been a bust. We will know more when Primedia releases the quarterly results on November 6th. When the senior sales people at Rentclicks left Huey put junior people in major roles. They didn’t have any experience and it shows.

3.Rentals.com is the most comprehensive real estate rental site on the Web, with nearly 45,000 complete listings,” said Jamie Gallo, President, CSinteractive. “With Steve onboard, we’re confident that we’ll retain and exceed our leading position in the market.”

Jamie is gone and Steve is on his way out. I think that speaks for itself on the actual results!

FULL ARTICLE:

Steve Huey Named Senior Vice President and General Manager of Rentals.com
Business Wire, June 18, 2007

ATLANTA — PRIMEDIA Inc. (NYSE: PRM), the parent company of Consumer Source Inc, the country’s leading publisher and distributor of free apartment, new home and auto guides, today announced that Steve Huey has been named senior vice president and general manager of its Rentals.com division.

“Steve was instrumental in the turnaround effort with RentalHouses.com, helping to position the company for sale,” said Bob Metz, CEO, Consumer Source. “With his leadership our Rentals.com division will only continue to strengthen and grow.”
Related Results

Prior to joining RentalHouses, Huey was at Earthlink, where he held a variety of positions, ranging from Mergers and Acquisitions to Product Development, to Business Management and Turnarounds. While at Earthlink, Huey was also general manager of Aluria Software, a subsidiary of Earthlink based in Orlando, FL.

“Rentals.com is the most comprehensive real estate rental site on the Web, with nearly 45,000 complete listings,” said Jamie Gallo, President, CSinteractive. “With Steve onboard, we’re confident that we’ll retain and exceed our leading position in the market.”

I agree with Konarentals. IF Bob Metz characterized what Huey accomplished at Rentalhouses a “turn around”, then that guy wouldn’t know a bad rug from a comb over. What a bunch of Huey! What kind of plants do they have over there at Consumer Source? Somebody call the office at 4:20 and I would bet the farm the phone rings off the hook…Don’t worry, I’m fairly confident no one’s inhaling.

Who are they trying to kid? How much huey do those guys think we’ll believe? “With nearly 4 million potential renters visiting Rentals.com each month…” Yeah right! Has anyone checked to see how cities like Orlando, Tampa, Charlotte, Atlanta, St. Paul, Denver & Colorado Springs, and any major cities in the lone star state are doing? It kinda makes me chuckle and pee in my pants…just a little. If your are attracting that kind of traffic wouldn’t you believe those key markets would see a sharp increase in content instead of a big time drop? They have a sales presence in each one right??? More traffic means more content right? Hmmmmm. What the….could it be the one steering the ship had no experience in the industry – aside from a 6 month stint at a faultering company full of people who would be challenged selling herb to an arena full of Dead Heads. Get out! Did someone in charge bypass HR and put Huey on the fast track? They had to read his reume right? He had to list “relevant experience” on his application right? During the interview process didn’t someone say ” please define turn around.” Did someone forget how to count, compute simple math and interpret a P&L statement? Wouldn’t you figure the folks over there are smarter than that right? Wait…these are the same gropu of brillant minds that thought pulling the plug on RentClicks was a grand idea. Umm hummm. Trivia question, mulitiple choice; The wigs over there at Consumer Source are getting their business development advice from A) NARPM B) Al Gore C)a monkey with four asses.

Mama always said you can’t be everything to everyone, but you can always be something to someone. It seems this Rentals.com thing is going over like a lead zepplin. Oh well, so much for ideas and not being able to leave well enough alone right? And for all you fellow competitors out there, we couldn’t have dreamed up a better scenario than what has/is unfolding over there at Rentals. All together now….”Thank you Steve!!!!”

Let’s all take up a collection, send it over to Rentalhomesplus, and see if they’ll hire Huey. He’s knocked out one of the big three, has put the second well on its way to destruction and I’ll bet your butt he could do the same over there if given the opportunity. Ante up people!

Vaya Con Dios

I like Red Neck’s writing style, always gets a laugh out of me. Red Neck is the one who should be writing a blog!

I liked the part about starting a collection and sending it to RHP.

On the bright side for the Rentals sales force……….they won’t have to see Huey in a bathing suit again if they ever win their tropical vacation incentive!

WoW! funny how I get my news…

Where do you get this stuff?

I like to look back about 9 months ago when Rentals.com traffic was growing steadily and RentClicks was its own site. I fondly recall days when Hartley was on one side and Robert ran Rentals.

I sure would like to see Robert given his baby back. It’ll take some time to lose the fat that they’ve packed onto Rentals and make it a lean machine again but Robert can make it happen, he knows kung fu!

I think an apology and a 7 series BMW might convince Robert to run the show and make Dave work a little harder for his material.

Rusty,

Nice to hear from you again.

I am totally OK with less material from Rentals.com.

I have some new stuff coming for this blog that I think everyone will enjoy (including Rentals.com).

Dave,

Robert Turnbull will have his hands full trying to revive Rentals and come anywhere near making his sales/revenue numbers . His key managers are mainly lower level Rentalhouses and Rentclicks sales people that were promoted to fill the void when the top people left.

Many of them have no real management experience. Turnbull will need to hire some professionals from the outside to have a chance!

Mr. Great Genius

Dave,

I am still wondering what happened to Jamie. She was
there star!

MGG

Dave,

It is a mystery! She was leading Rentals to world domination! Maybe we should contact “Dr Evil”

Metz may know something….but based on his postive assesment of Huey….maybe not!

MGG

Dave,

Where is Waldo? (Jamie and Huey)I wish someone would let us know!

MGG

Steve Huey is a great man. Very respectful, and caring. Why down talk someone you don’t know. I think you guys should back off on some end.