Latest / STR Unpacked / A $250 million deal just closed in short-term rentals.
Transcript
- Ben: Good morning. I'm working to your short-term rental bulletin on Monday, the 11th of May. So this is a story that happened on the 6th of April, but I thought it was really relevant to talk about it now, because even though it happened in the U.S., it was a $250 million check that happened within the short-term rental industry. And this is something that a lot of us have been talking about for a while, is a general professionalization of the industry. And it's happening in the U.S. and it's coming to Europe. So what exactly? happened. So, TownBank has sold town vacations to Belcrest Vacations Acquisitions, $250 million cash. So that's 3000 homes across the South East and Mid Atlantic, 340 staff, and that works out to be a 4.3 times multiple. So the buyer is interesting, right? So the buyer is a brand new platform backed by Alpine investors. So that's the same private equity firm that bought AirDNA. So Bell Crest didn't exist a year ago. It's been built up specifically to roll up regional vocation rental brands. And it's not alone. Viewstay launched out of Vacasar markets. Avery did the same and Statiara ⁓ and Aweide and Monarch in Europe. Erentene just raised 50 million euros to consolidate luxury villas and host absorbed a host maker years ago. The Vecasa era of one venture funded giant is dead. What's replacing it is half a dozen well capitalized roll ups buying up legacy operators at four to five times revenue. If you run a property management company in Europe, I think this is a pretty big signal. The buyers are circling, the multiples are real, and the next 12 months are when this consolidation I think could hit our side of the Atlantic. Thank you for watching and I'll see you tomorrow.