By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS (Reuters) – AccorHotels , Europe’s largest hotel group, has bought British serviced home rental company onefinestay to strengthen its response to Airbnb and further expand its luxury portfolio.
The world’s fifth-largest hotel group, being reshaped by Chief Executive Sebastien Bazin, paid 148 million euros (119 million pounds) for the loss-making start-up and pledged to invest a further 64 million euros 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 about 200,000 euros from family and friends.
The company which lets out 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,” Marsh told Reuters after a news conference…