AccorHotels has bought upmarket home rentals business onefinestay for Euro 148 million (£117 million) and has earmarked a further Euro 64 million (£50 million) to expand the business internationally.
Its statement confirmed that the expansion aims to introduce onefinestay into 40 new cities within the next five years while “increasing revenues ten-fold”. Onefinestay currently has properties in London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles and Rome.
AccorHotels added that onefinestay will remain an independent business unit within AccorHotels Group and that its current management will remain in place.
Back in February, AccorHotels announced its investment in two vacation rental businesses saying it wanted to understand what consumers expect from a holiday rental.
The hotel operator acquired a 49% stake in Squarebreak, an online company with upscale properties across France, Spain and Morocco.
AccorHotels also acquired a 30% stake in Oasis Collections which offers leisure and corporate rentals across the US, Europe and Latin America.
The time the company’s deputy chief officer for marketing, digital, distribution and information systems Vivek Badrinath said it would enable AccorHotels to “explore a complementary offer to upscale hotels.”
Speaking to Tnooz, onefinestay chief executive Greg Marsh said it had not been seeking an exit but had had discussions with travel companies and major hotel groups about “various different opportunities, ways to partner, ways to extend our reach and profile.”
He said that what had started as a partnership opportunity turned into something more committed.
“Features of the deal include that not only do they come in as the substantial shareholder, they have also committed to expansion in 40 markets and for the team to stay on and run onefinestay as an autonomous company.”
Marsh also said that hotel group Hyatt, which participated in a $40m in Series D funding for onefinestay will now sell its shares.
Commenting on AccorHotels’ strategy regarding the rental space, Marsh said:
“They have a clear and very strong level of conviction about the changes taking place in the home rental space. They recognise that companies like onefinestay solve some of the problems in terms of technology-enabled distribution alongside operational capability so they have sought ways to participate in the sector.”
Other hotel groups have also shown interest in the vacation rental market with Choice Hotels launching a property rental platform last month.
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