SAN FRANCISCO—Airbnb has acquired Urbandoor, a global online marketplace where professionals can find furnished and serviced apartments for extended business trips, relocations and other longer-term stays.
Urbandoor, incubated with support from Greystar Real Estate Partners, and founded by Erik Eccles, Benjamin Renaud, and Zack Chandler in 2015, brings together technologists, entrepreneurs, real estate, and hospitality professionals to connect guests with furnished apartment options that meet their needs. Today, the Urbandoor footprint includes apartment communities in more than 1,500 cities in over 60 countries.
“We started Urbandoor because we wanted to connect traveling and relocating professionals with the right apartment every time, anywhere,” said Erik Eccles, co-founder, Urbandoor. “Joining the Airbnb family will help us make good on our goals and expand our work with multifamily and corporate housing partners to bring even more great places to stay to Airbnb travelers.”
Guests looking to book longer trips—often business travelers or people in the process of relocating—choose to stay in serviced apartments because they offer amenities such as gyms, pools, and concierge services. Bringing more of these places to stay to Airbnb will strengthen Airbnb for Work’s engagement with the more than 500,000 companies who use Airbnb for Work to help manage their business travel, according to the company.
“Whether your trip is for work or pleasure, Airbnb can help you feel like you belong anywhere in the world. Regardless of if a guest’s stay is one day, one week, or a few months, we aim to provide them with authentic, local experiences every time,” said Clara Liang, GM for professional hosting, Airbnb. “Urbandoor’s strategic relationships with multifamily owners and operators will help us bring magical travel to even more people.”
Bob Faith, founder, chairman and CEO, Greystar, added, “Joining Urbandoor with Airbnb accelerates the mission to create a seamless, global online corporate housing marketplace. As the global leader in the constantly evolving rental housing industry, Greystar is focused on aligning with innovative firms, such as Airbnb. Airbnb and the sharing economy are here to stay, and we are looking forward to collaborating with Airbnb to find additional ways to create value for our clients and enhance our resident experience.”
Airbnb’s acquisition of Urbandoor builds on the solutions Airbnb offers multifamily housing owners and operators. Urbandoor already provides multifamily property owners and operators access to demand for longer stays, and by joining Airbnb they’ll work to ensure multifamily owners and operators have increased access to long-term demand to increase yield and returns—all while improving the guest experience, the company noted.
“Airbnb is partnering with property owners, developers and residents to support hosting around the world,” said Greg Greeley, president of Homes, Airbnb. “With the Urbandoor team, we’re looking forward to building on this work by developing new technology to benefit the real estate community and improve the guest booking experience for business travelers and anyone relocating or staying for extended periods of time.”
All Urbandoor employees will join Airbnb, and over time, Urbandoor listings for long-term stays will also be bookable through the Airbnb platform.