Acquisition strengthens NOVASOL’s position as a European market leader and marks entry into urban rentals.
PARSIPPANY, N.J. – NOVASOL by Wyndham Vacation Rentals announced that it has acquired the apartment rental company Friendly Rentals, based in Barcelona, Spain, whose primary focus is city rentals. The Friendly Rentals brand will continue to exist as it does today, and will be added to the current NOVASOL portfolio. Daily operations of Friendly Rentals including management and employees will continue as usual.
"With this acquisition NOVASOL sets an important footprint within the rental market for city apartments; we see it as a strategic supplement to our current product portfolio which primarily consists of cottages," says Director of NOVASOL, Mr. Anders Pii.
Friendly Rentals provides holidays at approximately 2,000 apartments in 23 selected international cities, primarily throughout central and southern Europe. Guests are able to experience destinations like Barcelona, Rome or Paris in a more authentic way.
"Friendly Rentals has a proven concept and a broad and diverse customer base that complements NOVASOL's well. Together we can offer our customers accommodations both during their main holiday and shorter stays in urban metropolis. As we see trends in customer behavior to take shorter vacations and travel longer distances, the Friendly Rentals portfolio expands our ability to offer unique accommodations in authentic surroundings – including a city stay," says Pii.
City stays comprise about one fifth of global tourism. With the purchase of Friendly Rentals NOVASOL strengthens its position as a vacation rental company, especially important given the company foresees significant growth potential within the urban accommodation product in the coming years.
The Founder and CEO of Friendly Rentals, Mr. Pablo Zubicaray, continues to front Friendly Rentals and its 65 employees. "Friendly Rentals has played an active role in the market for renting city apartments for more than 13 years. Joining forces with NOVASOL, one of the largest vacation rental companies in Europe, gives new options and growth possibilities for our well-tested and proven business model. It also gives us more possibilities to offer better service to our apartment owners as well as to guests," says Mr. Zubicaray.
In total, the brands of NOVASOL, Happy Home, dansommer, Cuendet and Friendly Rentals have more than 42,000 holiday homes under contract. Within Europe, the NOVASOL Group has a leading position within rental of holiday homes, and every year more than 1.5 million holidaymakers celebrate holidays in an accommodation provided by NOVASOL.
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