Marriott International Inc. plans to start a new private housing rental business, writes the Wall Street Journal. Sources of publications say that Marriott wants to compete with the Airbnb service.

For participation in the new rental business, landlords will be able to receive loyalty points that can be used when booking rooms in hotels of Marriott owned by Sheraton, Ritz-Carlton, and others. The company is ready to become the first major hotel chain to create a platform for rental housing in the United States.

According to sources, this service will follow the pilot program and marks the next step in the company’s plans to go global with this business. Last April, Marriott, together with the British service Hostmaker, launched a pilot project in Europe. Now, it rents out 340 apartments in Paris, Rome, Lisbon, and London.

“Piece of Cake”

Marriott is one of the largest hotel operators in the world, its number of rooms is estimated at about 1.3 million, according to STR. It is one of the leading hotel management companies. The company owns over 6.5 thousand hotels in 127 countries of the world. The company’s revenue in 2017 is estimated at € 19,661,4 billion.

Sources claim that such large US hotel operators like Hilton Worldwide Holdings and Hyatt Hotels are also eyeing the residential rental business. Players of the hotel business have not previously regarded the Airbnb service as a serious competitor, but now they see how its popularity is growing among travelers and large families going on holiday. Obviously, the phenomenon of short-term rental housing will remain with us for a long time, and hotel operators want to make sure that they can get their piece of cake.

Airbnb

Airbnb was founded in 2008. The company’s website has more than 5 million listings offering to house in more than 81 thousand cities in the world. At the same time, Airbnb is actively moving in the direction of the traditional hotel business: last month the service bought Hotel Tonight, a company for the selection of rooms in hotels and motels at a discount. Airbnb also owns an Indian room booking company, Oyo Hotels & Homes.

Airbnb is the largest platform in the world for finding housing for rent, the service offers more than 5 million apartments and houses according to the AirDNA service. The Airbnb service itself estimates the number of accommodation options at more than 6 million.