Chicago: Domio has announced it has acquired Chicago-based Reserve Rentals for $1.4M to expand its apart-hotel accommodations to Chicago.
The acquisition will give Domio instant access to its eighth market in America. Reserve Rentals’ 32 multi-room units will join existing properties on the Domio platform in Austin, Nashville, San Diego, Boston, New Orleans, New York City and Honolulu, which have so far hosted more than 80,000 guests.
The Reserve Rentals real estate team, which primarily offers two and three-bedroom leisure and business travel rentals in the Loop, South Loop and Gold Coast, will also join the Domio team with the aim of expanding Domio’s portfolio in Chicago to 500 units by early 2020.
Domio CEO Jay Roberts said: “We’re very excited to have Grant, George, and the entire Reserve Rentals team join Domio to bring our unique apart-hotel accommodations for those travelling with friends, family and work colleagues to Chicago. Their passion for delivering best-in-class hospitality and unique experiences for group travellers coming to Chi-Town aligns with our mission to revolutionise the group travel experience.
“We look forward to working together and welcoming guests visiting the city that continually ranks as the best big city for travellers to visit in the U.S,” he added.
Domio is looking to make group travel more enjoyable and economical with spacious accommodations.
The median Domio unit available to book on its platform offers guests three bedrooms and measures around 1,500 square feet to comfortably accommodate groups of five. Its apart-hotel units cost 25 per cent less, on average than similarly sized hotels.
Domio properties are also branded and designed similarly to offer a higher standard stay across its locations. Furthermore, the company’s use of software to optimise accommodations has enabled it to grow sales 400 per cent year on year with an occupancy rate of over 82 per cent – close to 20 per cent higher than the hotel average.
Grant Hosking and George Savaricas, co-founders of Reserve Rentals, said: “Joining the team at Domio gives us the unique opportunity to combine our knowledge of the Chicago hospitality market with Domio’s proprietary technology and data models to increase our occupancy rate and rapidly accelerate leasing in the area.
“We’re excited to start offering newly-branded Domio properties, while also increasing the profitability of our current properties as they join the Domio portfolio,” they added.
Domio’s purchase of Reserve Rentals comes a week after the company announced a $12 million investment from Tribeca Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Capital NY and Loric Ventures.
In September, the company also announced a $50M joint venture with Upper 90 to exclusively fund the leasing and operating of 25 apartment-style hotels for group travellers. The first apart-hotel property, Domio Baronne ST., is scheduled to open in New Orleans on 1 December 2018.
