Over the past few years, a number of hotel chains have begun to dabble in the home-sharing market largely created by Airbnb, but so far their results have been decidedly mixed, and at least one chain, Hyatt, is backing out altogether, while Marriott is plunging further in.
The concept seems simple: Hotel operators link up with available homes and offer them fully-vetted to customers, supply towels and cleaning, and make a profit, as well as pleasing their loyalty program members who can earn and burn points.
In practice, it hasn't proven that simple. Cleaning and maintaining scattered apartments costs more than hotel maintenance, most hotel operators don't have actual experience and skills in the sharing market and have to rely on partnerships with companies that do, and they have so far only targeted the high end of the market, above the general run of Airbnb operations (although Airbnb has been pushing its way into the premium market recently).
Hyatt, which put $22 million into a partner, Oasis, last year, wrote off the investment as a loss after only a few months; Oasis has now been sold and the partnership ended. Marriott has hooked up with Tribute Portfolio Homes; after a 6-month trial in London, it's adding Paris, Rome and Lisbon. In both cases, only high-end rentals are involved. Hilton has chosen to sit by and watch.
AccorHotels, which operates at all price points in the spectrum staked its interest on buying Onefinestay, but has written off $285 million in losses so far. Marriott has taken a more conservative approach financially; the Tribute site is Marriott's, but the homes and the operation are by Hostmaker, an existing UK-based management company that also has other partners. Marriott is only involved if the home is booked through Tribute.
Photo: a Lisbon apartment offered on Marriott's Tribute site, which is organized to look very much like Airbnb's
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