France: AccorHotels has bought serviced home rental company onefinestay for €148 million.
Accor has pledged to invest a further €164 million in to the start-up by 2018 to help it grow worldwide.
Onefinestay was launched in London in 2010 by four friends, Greg Marsh, Demetrios Zoppos, Tim Davey and Evan Frank, who had raised €200,000 euros from family and friends. It has a portfolio of 2,600 properties in London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles and Rome, will remain an independent business unit within AccorHotels and will continue to be led by Marsh.
“I am re-investing in the company. For me this is the beginning of a new chapter, not the end of the story,” said Marsh.
With the help of Accor, onefinestay plans to expand to 40 new cities around the world over the next five years, growing revenue tenfold from around £15 million in 2015, and to reach break-even by 2019.
“We are accelerating the transformation of our business model to capture the value creation linked to the rise of private rentals and also strengthening our presence in the luxury market with a complementary offer,” said Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin.
In February, AccorHotels acquired a 30 per cent stake in Oasis Collections, and a 49 per cent stake in Squarebreak.
Onefinestay co-founder Evan Frank and Oasis Collections CEO Parker Stanberry are both speakers at next week’s Serviced Apartment Summit Americas.
The short-term rental sector will be discussed at the new Short-Term Rentalz conference, which runs concurrently with Serviced Apartment Summit Europe in London on July 12 and 13.
www.onefinestay.com</p
