A UK startup which offers luxury home rentals similar to Airbnb has been acquired by a major hotel group for a multi-million pound sum.
French hotel group AccorHotels have nabbed a bargain, paying ‘just’ £117m for Onefinestay, buying out all current institutional shareholders.
Onefinestay has been widely regarded as an ‘upmarket’ version of Airbnb, offering luxury rooms and apartments as its niche. With 2,600 properties in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Rome and of course, London, the UK startup will be sure to receive a sizeable boost from its new investors.
“Onefinestay has successfully captured a sweet spot: a combination of needs that neither traditional hotels nor new actors of the sharing economy can meet,” said Accor’s chairman and Chief Sebastian Bazin.
“With the acquisition of this exceptional brand, unique operating model and outstanding management team, AccorHotels is developing as the worldwide leader of the serviced homes market.”
Onefinestay was founded in 2009 and has grown to obtain £56m worth of venture capital backing. The startup had already secured a number of big-name investors, with venture capital firm Index Venture, a previous backer of Facebook and Dropbox to name but a few, spotting something special.
Unlike its competitors, Onefinestay handpicks the “finest properties” which it fully maintains and keeps clean, providing a 24/7 concierge service to its users.
In a blog post, Marsh hailed the success of the startup ‘What started out life on a whiteboard in my sitting room in central London has touched the lives of thousands of people. Today onefinestay has a full time team of more than 600, managing thousands of hand-picked distinctive homes across multiple continents.’
He reassured users that he will remain CEO and chairman of the board, outlining a plan to ‘launch onefinestay in more than 40 new markets over the next five years.’
