With homesharing apps now a firm fixture on the smartphones of many travelers, big name hotel brands are increasingly looking to build their own presence in the home rental market – and are doing it in their own way.
Marriott International is the latest major hotel group to enter the market, launching a six-month pilot project in partnership with home rental management company Hostmaker, to offer a selection of over 200 vetted homes in London.
Just days before, Choice Hotels, which has been running a Vacation Rental program since 2016, significantly expanded its offerings to cover 20,000 additional properties across the U.S.
Other operators are taking a different path to forge links with the home rental market. Take Hyatt, which shifted into the homesharing space by letting members accrue loyalty points with serviced accommodation provider Oasis, which offers vetted homes in over 20 global destinations. And in 2017, Accor Hotels acquired three homesharing platforms, consolidating them all under the Onefinestay banner.
Marriott is taking a slightly different approach, however, by starting with a single trial destination in a global gateway city, and using an existing hotel brand, Tribute, to extend into the space.
Responding to disruption
All these moves have one thing in common: A concerted effort by the hotel industry to adapt to the disruption wrought by the growth of homesharing platforms, which offer alternative accommodation options in diverse locations—often at a lower price point.
“New accommodation models have created a lot of new travel demand, for example, from people who would not have previously taken a trip because of high cost or lack of availability in areas they want to stay,” says Lauro Ferroni, JLL’s Head of Hotels & Hospitality Group Research.
The rapid rise of homesharing platforms is also indicative of sweeping changes across the hospitality industry where the focus is on more personal, experiential and immersive travel. “Millennials in particular want lifestyle-focused, flexible offerings— and hotel companies continue to make a play for that market,” says William Duffey, JLL’s Executive Vice President, Hotels & Hospitality.
Furthermore, there’s a financial incentive for hotels to explore ways to offer homesharing platforms make themselves as new entrants to the space make a dent into hotels’ revenues and market share. Recent research from the U.S. shows that in the 10 cities where Airbnb is most active, hotels saw a 1.3 percent reduction in hotel nights booked and a 1.5 percent loss in revenue.
