Lyric founders Andrew Kitchell and Joe Fraiman and a Lyric-managed unit in Houston
The lines between home-sharing and traditional hospitality lodgings are blurring.
Startups like Domio and major hospitality companies including Marriott International are ramping up professionally managed “apartment hotel” operations in residential and commercial buildings, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It’s an attempt to cater to guests who want a full apartment or apartment-style lodging, but don’t want to deal with the uncertainty of renting someone else’s place. Domio, along with others like Lyric and Sonder lease floors and then stock apartments with high-end furnishings and amenities.
New York-based Domio is now renting out full apartments in New Orleans at around $149 per night. Those apartments have kitchens, washing machines, and access to a roof-top pool.
The industry is taking notice. Lyric recently closed a $160 million fundraising round led by Airbnb. The biggest player in the spacem Airbnb initially wanted Lyric to list exclusively on Airbnb’s website, but that was not part of the final deal.
Airbnb itself partnered with RXR Realty to convert 10 floors at 75 Rockefeller Plaza in New York into short-term rentals.
Marriott announced last week that it would operate 2,000 high-end homes in 100 markets across the Americas and Europe. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch