Rakuten : LIFULL STAY and Booking.com Agree to Collaborate in Vacation Rental Business

Tokyo, Japan, Dec 11, 2017 - Rakuten LIFULL STAY, Inc., a Rakuten Group company providing vacation rental services, and Booking.com B.V., operator of the world's largest online accommodation booking site, today reached an agreement to form a business collaboration in the vacation rental business. Booking.com also announced that through the collaboration, it will enter the vacation rental market in Japan through its Japanese subsidiary Booking.com Japan.

Based on the agreement, Rakuten LIFULL STAY will make the vacation rental properties listed on its 'Vacation Stay' (tentative name) service, scheduled for launch after June 2018, available to book on Booking.com. With this partnership, Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay, aims to provide even more types of properties, which are all instantly bookable. In addition to hotels, ryokans and business hotels, Booking.com also offers vacation rentals, apartments, holiday homes and so called 'minpaku' (vacation rental) properties to its hundreds of millions of users across the world through one single booking site. The two companies will collaborate on marketing activities aimed at tourists visiting Japan, and aim to expand the country's vacation rental market as apartments and homes become increasingly popular accommodation choices among international travelers.

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch startup to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Each day, more than 1.5 million room nights are reserved on the platform. The Booking.com website is available in over 43 languages, offers more than 1.5 million properties and covers over 120,000 destinations in 229 countries and territories worldwide.

Rakuten LIFULL STAY is now working to expand its listings of Japanese vacation rental properties and aims to launch its vacation rental service after the new Private Lodgings Business Law in Japan comes into effect in June 2018. The business collaboration with Booking.com Japan is part of Rakuten LIFULL STAY's strategy to partner with companies providing vacation rental services in countries and regions around the world in order to efficiently provide information about Japan-based vacation rental listings to users overseas.

'We are delighted to partner with Rakuten LUFULL STAY. Japan is a very important market for us, and has grown remarkably as one of the most popular travel destinations in the world,' said Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com. 'Through this partnership, we are able to offer an even greater selection of vacation rental properties which provide exciting opportunities for Booking.com customers from all over the world to experience more of Japan.'

'Rakuten LIFULL STAY is thrilled to partner with one of the world's largest online accommodation booking sites,' said Munekatsu Ota, Representative Director of Rakuten LIFULL STAY. 'We will work closely with Booking.com to promote Japan as an exciting travel destination to international travelers and to expand inbound demand. We look forward to offering more diverse accommodation options as we add more homes and apartments to our platform in the future.'

Going forward, Rakuten LIFULL STAY and Booking.com will offer a broad range of lodging options to meet the rising demand for accommodation from international visitors to Japan, contributing to the development of the local vacation rental market, and continue making efforts to add more value to the travel industry.