Hyatt enters Airbnb territory with new vacation home booking platform

The hotel industry's brand-building bonanza continued Thursday with Hyatt adding its latest offering: a short-term vacation rental platform known as Homes & Hideaways by World of Hyatt.

The vacation rental platform, expected to roll out "in the coming weeks," will feature "thousands" of homes to rent in the U.S. A company announcement indicates the offerings will range from beachfront escapes to mountainside chalets as well as cottages, townhouses, apartments, penthouses and "much more."

It is the latest instance of a hotel company throwing its hat into the ring of vacation home rentals, following in the steps of Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, Accor's Onefinestay and Mandarin Oriental Exclusive Homes.

"We are committed to evolving access to the type of accommodations World of Hyatt members are seeking that go beyond our hotels – from a large family who travels together or guests looking to work from anywhere for an extended period of time," Amy Weinberg, Hyatt's senior vice president of brand, loyalty and data, said in a statement.

Don't view this as an opportunity to list your own home directly and suddenly get into business with Hyatt, however. It appears the company is going the same route as its competitors by focusing only on professionally managed homes for its platform. The move involves Hyatt utilizing a partner, Lowe, that will purchase and operate the vacation rental management business of the firm Destination Residences Management.

The announcement didn't say much about where initial locations will be beyond noting listings will be in "key travel destinations" like Hawaii and Colorado, with plans to grow the platform globally.

World of Hyatt members will be able to earn points and elite night credits when staying at a Homes & Hideaways property. However, the company announcement hints that, like how Marriott's Homes & Villas platform is independent from the Marriott hotels booking page, the Homes & Hideaways booking platform will run on a separate page from Hyatt's hotel reservations page. World of Hyatt members will still have the opportunity to use points on home rentals and receive standard loyalty tier bonuses on points earned.

Hyatt's brand buildup

While Homes & Hideaways isn't a new hotel brand, it is the latest example of Hyatt's ongoing growth streak. The company may have lost its partnership with MGM Resorts in Las Vegas, but it added the Hyatt Studios extended-stay hotel brand to build up its presence in smaller cities. It also bought the Mr and Mrs Smith booking platform of luxury and lifestyle hotels, a blow to competitor IHG Hotels & Resorts.

What drives the decision for Hyatt to explore new brand offerings?

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"Everything that we've ever looked at, as far as [mergers and acquisitions] matter or from a developing lens, is the customer base: that we can serve the customer base that we know better and deeper and broader and, secondly, if it is a customer base that is similar to our existing customer base, which is at a high end," said Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian this week at the Skift Global Forum.

Even Hyatt Studios is supposed to operate at the higher end of the extended-stay hotel market compared to recently launched midscale competitors. The high-end logic means Homes & Hideaways properties are almost certainly going to be more expensive than the typical vacation home rental.

No Airbnb killer

Hotel companies entering the space are not a sign the knives are necessarily out for Airbnb. It's going to take a lot more than a management contract switcheroo for Hyatt to compete with Airbnb: Homes & Hideaways might launch with "thousands" of listings, but Airbnb has more than 6 million active listings around the world.

But various hotel company CEOs and even Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky this week indicated they see their businesses as different segments of travel. Hotel companies entering the vacation rental business are more about having something to offer their loyalty members across a variety of experiences, whereas Airbnb can be more of an entry point to travel.

"There is overlap. I'm not going to pretend there isn't, but I do want to say there's less overlap than anyone realizes," Chesky said at the Skift Global Forum. "Airbnb allowed a whole bunch of people to travel that weren't traveling."

Related reading:

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