Airbnb has just acquired a home rental site, Luxury Retreats, which offers high-end vacation homes for at least $300 million. The company did not release any details about the deal but the high-end home rental site will remain to be standalone for the time being. Eventually, Airbnb plans to feature the upscale homes on their site.
Last Thursday, CNET reports Airbnb has just confirmed that it has bought the luxury vacation rental site for approximately $300 million worth of cash and stocks. Since the company's launch, it is their aim to provide different kinds of experience and trips to their loyal renters so acquiring Luxury Rentals will provide more choices for their travelers.
"From airbeds in an apartment to castles to villas, Airbnb has always been focused on providing a broad range of amazing experiences and trips," said Brian Chesky, the co-founder, and CEO of Airbnb. As of today, Luxury Rentals has over 4,000 houses in 100 different places in the world including Paris, Tuscany, and properties of famous individuals according to Fortune. Its main target is the affluent society offering high-end villas and concierge.
The CEO and founder of Luxury Retreats seem to be happy to with the deal as he said that Chesky's values and vision are similar to their company. In addition, Airbnb has changed revolutionized how travelers can connect with every house host in the world, giving the guests a unique experience.
As of today, Airbnb has expanded to assisting 3 million houses for rent located in over 50,000 cities in the world. From there, the company has broadened their features and started adding different services on their site including booking day trips through their website. Just a couple of weeks ago, the company has bought a restaurant reservation application called Resy and in the talks of buying a payment application called Tilt.
