London-based GuestReady, a short-term rental facilitator has snapped up Portugal’s leading competitor, The Porto Concierge.

Financials of the deal were not disclosed. The entire team at The Porto Concierge is expected to join the GuestReady Group.

“We have been friendly competitors of GuestReady since 2018 and knew the Portuguese team well. The industry is consolidating at a fast pace and joining the technology leader in this space is a great opportunity to further accelerate our own growth,” comments The Porto Concierge CEO Rui Silva.

Some of us are in the market to make a little bit of change on the side by hosting a room in our homes via Airbnb. Then there are the others who have 1, 2, 3, or more properties. The professional Airbnb crowd. Maybe they’re full time renters and can dedicate themselves solely to this profession. For those that keep a day job and want to rent out their properties, this is where a service such as GuestReady and/or The Porto Concierge come into the picture.

Offering professional photography, listing creation, price optimisation, housekeeping, insurance, etc. services, they’ve become the middleman between owner and renter, eliminating the hassle for the owner.

Founded in 2016, GuestReady hasn’t had it easy. Like most of their competitors, the global pandemic hit the entire sector like a tonne of bricks. They took this “time off” to refocus on operational excellence and technological improvements.

“We are always developing ways to leverage technology to automate non-core processes. The goal is to increase efficiency, scalability, and to free up resources,” comments GuestReady CEO Alexander Limpert.

GuestReady’s business model also differed from competitors in that they focused on a revenue-share versus a master lease. While the latter had low probably but high risk, this is exactly what happened over the course of the pandemic.