Short-term rental management service company GuestReady has been in full throttle, growing its portfolio worldwide through acquisitions and taking on the challenge to be a driving force in the consolidation of the supply end of this industry.
“On the supply side, the market is highly fragmented. I believe we are barely at the beginning of a consolidation on the supply side of short-term rentals…so the next big plan for GuestReady is to drive this consolidation,” said CEO and co-founder Alexander Limpert, in an interview with Web in Travel.
“Homesharing started from a sharing a room or at least an apartment with an owner. Now, with Airbnb becoming more mainstream, many travellers want to have their own place to stay and expect hotel quality amenities. Due to this professionalisation, many companies such as GuestReady have sprung up over the last few years that offer a hospitality management service for short-term rentals. As this market matures and competition increases many of the smaller players will be rolled up into larger companies like GuestReady,” added Limpert.
GuestReady has just announced its latest two acquisitions – Oporto City Flats, the leading short-term rental operator in Northern Portugal, and French Airbnb manager We Stay In Paris. The deals add 100 new homes to GuestReady’s portfolio, growing its property list to over 1,000.
The double acquisitions in Europe “cements GuestReady among the top three globally leading Airbnb management companies” it said. With a head office in London, GuestReady is in six countries across Europe and Asia – London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Paris, Cannes, Porto, Lisbon, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong.
The company is currently in talks of expanding operations to other markets.
GuestReady has also been busy in Asia, with Malaysia particularly strong for its operations.
“Our business in Malaysia has picked up strongly over the last year. There is an oversupply of properties in the market with some units being empty for months or years. So we get a lot of owners, property developers and property agents reaching out to help them fill their properties. We now manage a portfolio of close to 100 homes in KL mostly in the Golden Triangle as this is where we see the highest demand from guests and the best returns for property owners,” said Limpert.
Technology features heavily in its pitch. Not surprising considering the company was launched in 2016 by a team consisting largely of former Rocket Internet executives. GuestReady uses technology to enable its personalised style of property management. To date, it has raised a total of $3.7M from angel investors and seed stage funds such as Impulse VC, Swiss Founders Fund (SFF), Boost Heroes, and Senn & Partners.
