OYO Hotels & Homes, the world’s 6th largest chain of hotels, homes, and living spaces – has agreed to acquire Amsterdam-based @Leisure Group.
@Leisure is a leading vacation rental company in Europe and manages holiday homes, holiday parks, and holiday apartments. OYO will acquire @Leisure from Axel Springer, the media and technology company.
@Leisure Group, through its Belvilla, DanCenter, and Danland brands, offers more than 30,000-fully managed holiday homes across 13 countries in Europe and through its Traum-Ferienwohnungen brand, offers a subscription-based home management service with over 85,000 homes across 50 countries. This represents a total inventory of 300k+ rooms. @Leisure Group has the unique ability to offer varied collections of managed homes across Europe to customers from across the world. The acquisition helps OYO move a step closer in realizing its vision of becoming a global real estate brand while maintaining leadership in the hospitality industry.
Commenting on the acquisition, OYO’s Global Chief Strategy Officer, Maninder Gulati said, “I would like to commend @Leisure Group’s team for the incredible work they have done to bring wonderful and memorable living experiences to travelers around the world by offering beautiful holiday homes, cottages and holiday parks, in 300+ cities across Europe stretching all the way from Kokelv, Norway to Zahara de los Atunes, Spain. With @Leisure Group, its team and capabilities, we see OYO further its mission of creating quality living experiences for everyday travelers.
The strategic rationale for OYO behind this deal is threefold:
- Globally, Homes presents OYO with a massive opportunity of USD 2 tn+ across 100 mn+ homes covering vacation rentals and urban homes. Europe is the largest market accounting for 30-40% of this total supply.
- @Leisure Group is among the very few companies in the world with an OYO-like full-stack approach to vacation rentals management, having built deep data-driven capabilities in revenue management, homeowner engagement, and property management services.
- @Leisure Group’s management team led by Tobias Wann, an experienced vacation rental professional, is one of the finest in the business with a growth-driven mindset grounded in financial discipline and prudence, which is evident in the profitable growth of the business historically.
Maninder further added, “With Europe spearheading the vacation and urban home rental trend globally, @Leisure Group is uniquely positioned to capitalize on its experience and insights aided with OYO’s full stack approach towards building the world’s largest global vacation rentals business. If one were to look at Europe alone, there is an ever-increasing demand for vacation homes with an increasing trend of booking an entire home. Further, in such a market of largely fragmented small and independent players, and a handful of established players, of which @Leisure Group, is one of the largest, we feel travelers will be excited with what @Leisure Group can offer. Through this acquisition, the size and scale of the opportunity can be immediately unlocked for OYO’s Homes business. Today, more than 2.8 mn holidaymakers from over 118 countries book their holiday every year with @Leisure Group. The combined strength of both brands can scale the opportunity multifold.
Tobias Wann, CEO, @Leisure Group, will join OYO’s leadership group as CEO, Vacation Homes, OYO Global, and will work with me to turn OYO’s home business into a global by-word for vacation and urban home rentals.”
Commenting on the acquisition, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & Group CEO, OYO added, “We see vacation homes as a unique opportunity with 115,000 units of homes now getting added to our already growing count of beautiful homes and we are excited to continue maintaining our global industry leadership. Our focus, however, will remain to be a beloved consumer brand that has the ability to create a perfect space in every place. The @Leisure Group is a great partner and we are excited to broad base their offerings. @Leisure Group has proven capabilities in helping develop Europe into a vacation rentals hotspot and we are keen to leverage their competencies towards ensuring beautiful vacation rental and urban homes experience for millions of tourists from every part of the world. I am particularly thrilled to welcome Tobias and team into the OYO family. It is a business decision closely aligned with our overall mission that has incredible potential.”
As the world’s fastest growing chain of hotels and homes, OYO’s full stack fulfillment led model enables it to deliver efficiencies across supply acquisition management, transformation, operations, revenue management, and distribution through both offline and online channels. Launched in 2017, OYO Home already has over 15,000 villas and apartment units globally. Over the last six years, the company has built and demonstrated deep capabilities in upgrading various forms of real estate and rapidly transforming them into efficient and beautiful spaces. This move will combine OYO’s capabilities of asset management and technology with the presence, local know-how and category-specific expertise of The @Leisure Group in the sphere of vacation rentals.
Reflecting on the acquisition and the proposed growth plans, Tobias Wann, CEO @Leisure, said, “We are delighted to join forces with OYO in its mission of creating quality and beautiful spaces. @Leisure Group was started with a similar mission to identify and service all forms of vacation & urban home rentals, focusing on delivering a hassle-free experience to both homeowners and guests. I am delighted to share that we’ve successfully achieved that over the past few years, and now aspire to leverage our synergies to deepen our presence in Europe and look to expand globally.”
Andreas Wiele, President Classifieds Media Axel Springer SE, said, “@Leisure Group has become one of the best integrated holiday home providers in just four years under the excellent leadership of Tobias Wann and his colleagues. Last year it achieved a record EBITDA of more than EUR 24 million. For this, my thanks go to Tobias and his colleagues. For OYO Hotels & Homes, it is thus a perfect platform for driving forward further consolidation in this segment. Axel Springer can now fully concentrate on the further growth of StepStone Group and AVIV Group in the Classifieds segment.”
Led by Tobias Wann, @Leisure Group has witnessed a steady growth curve both through organic and inorganic initiatives driven by a strong leadership team. The company has also built talented teams to develop data-driven innovations such as unique pricing tools, which has further aided the delivery of profitable growth to its shareholders. @Leisure Group generates healthy margins, with sustained EBITDA growth over the last few years.
