Airbnb has acquired Luxury Retreats International, a luxury vacation rental company offering over 4,000 homes in 100 destinations around the world. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the purchase price was reportedly to be in the range of US $200-300 million.
Jonathan (Joe) Poulin, Luxury Retreats CEO, will join Airbnb and lead luxury homes, reporting to Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky.
All of the approximately 250 members of Luxury Retreats team will join the Airbnb and continue to focus on bringing more high-quality listings to the Airbnb community. Luxury Retreats team will remain based in Montreal. Airbnb and Luxury Retreats anticipate continuing to invest in the Montreal office, adding additional employees and resources to the Canadian team in the years ahead.
In June 2015, Luxury Retreats raised US $11 million led by iNovia Capital and Peter Kern of InterMedia Partners with participation of Claridge Inc., Andrew Lufty and private investors.
Joe Poulin, Kern and iNovia were the three largest shareholders of Luxury Retreats. Luxury Retreats board included Poulin, Kern, Chris Arsenault of iNovia Capita, Hugh Crean, former CEO of Farecast.com, and Bertrand Cesvet, CEO of SID LEE.
photo credit: Eupuke Ishan via unsplash