Skift Take
BeMate essentially turns Room Mate into an apartment rental broker and it will need to adhere to the protocols and costs that come along with that in order to build an inventory without running in regulatory troubles.
The relationship between hotels and a growing peer-to-peer rental market has been wrought with confusion, fear and distrust from the start, making it seem unlikely that a positive relationship could ever come from the two parties.
A new concept launched by Spanish hotelier Enrique Sarasola seeks to change that.
Sarasola, founder of the budget boutique hotel brand Room Mate, last week launched BeMate, a platform where hotels partner with peer-to-peer rented apartments to give guests access to the hotel’s amenities. Sarasola is now opening up the platform to other hoteliers around the world.
“I think it’s a new way of defining the future of travel, putting two worlds that are completely colliding right now — the hoteliers and the rental apartments — together to join forces. I believe the future of the hotel industry goes through the apartment rental business,” Sarasola swooned during a recent interview.
BeMate, which is 44 percent owned by Room Mate and 56 percent owned by Sarasola and partn
