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Marriott’s Foray Into Short-Term Rentals No Longer an Experiment — It’s a Business: Exec

Rosie Spinks

Photo Credit: Jennifer Hsieh (left), Marriott vice president of Homes & Villas, speaks on stage at Skift Short-Term Rental Summit in New York City on December 5, 2019. Skift / Meghan Carty

Skift Take

Hospitality giants moving into the short-term rental space hasn't always gone smoothly. But Marriott's vice president of Homes & Villas said that the company isn't getting its feet wet anymore — it's found a business model that works and wants to grow it.

When Marriott announced it was officially going into the short-term rental space in April of this year, the move certainly turned heads. Would the largest hotel company in the world find success in a sector where other corporate hotel brands have struggled? Is it making an explicit move on Airbnb? And does this mean Marriott will stop lobbying against short-term rentals now? For Marriott, however, the move was less a gamble and more an imperative to keep its guests within its network of brands and properties. Speaking at Skift Short-Term Rental Summit on Dec. 5 in New York City, Jennifer Hsieh, vice president of Homes & Villas, said that in 2017 to 2018, the company found that 27 percent of guests were leaving its portfolio of hotels to rent a home. "Whenever

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