Accor, the French hotels group, is bolstering its presence in the home-sharing market by bolting new acquisitions on to its Onefinestay brand to tackle the threat posed by Airbnb and other online booking services.
Accor, Europe’s largest hotelier by room numbers, acquired Onefinestay, the UK-based luxury home rentals site, in a deal worth up to €148m last year.
On Wednesday, Accor plans to announce it has fully acquired Squarebreak, a French home rentals start-up in which it already has a 49 per cent stake. The deal price was undisclosed. In February it also bought Travel Keys, a US group that acts as a broker to hire luxury villas. One person briefed on the deal said it was worth about €10m.
Accor said it will merge the three home-sharing groups under the Onefinestay brand, increasing the number of rentals offered to 10,000 from about 2,500.
The French hotelier is also putting its stamp on management of the group, which has been run as an independent entity since the takeover. Evan Frank, Onefinestay’s co-founder, has been replaced as chief executive by Javier Cedillo Espin, a long-time Accor executive.
“This is really about taking Onefinestay global,” said Mr Cedillo Espin. “We’re going to be focused in the next month to drive this integration and grow very fast. We have the foundations to make this growth and expansion and happen with these three companies and the expertise coming together.”
The newly combined group is unprofitable but Accor said it is aiming for Onefinestay to break even by 2019.
Traditional hotel chains are investing hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring start-ups and developing their own internet initiatives, at a time that online groups are disrupting their business models.
Airbnb, valued at $30bn in its last private fundraising round, has increasingly offered hotel rooms alongside room shares. The San Francisco company has also sought to make an Airbnb stay resemble more closely a hotel booking by pushing homeowners to adopt its “instant book” feature that allows customers to confirm a room immediately rather than wait for the host’s approval.
Online travel agents such as Expedia and Priceline are also putting pressure on hotel groups, charging booking commissions of up to 30 per cent. In November, Expedia acquired HomeAway, an Airbnb competitor, in a deal with worth about $4bn.
Sébastien Bazin, chief executive of Accor, has said the hotel industry must respond, adding that 30 per cent of Accor’s business will come from revenue streams other than hotel rooms within five years.
Hilton has spent $650m developing the “technology infrastructure” that runs its app and hotel management systems, including a “digital key” feature that allows guests to check in online and open their room door with their mobile phone. Companies such as Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group have said they are also investing to develop app and bookings systems.
[“Source-ft”]
