China's Airbnb-of-sorts Tujia is shaking up its existing structure and will integrate Ctrip and Qunar's homestay businesses as part of an acquisition and partnership.
In a wide-ranging announcement, it said "the homestay channels of both Ctrip and Qunar's web sites and apps, along with their operation teams and the entire business, will be merged into Tujia."
In summer Tujia bought short-term rental platform Mayi.com.
It added that the Ctrip/Qunar consolidation "symbolizes that the market has exited the start-up stage and moved into the growth stage."
The obvious reference point here is Airbnb, although there are a number of material differences - the most significant is that Tujia is involved in the actual bricks and mortar development of accommodations in conjunction with real estate developers.
Tujia said that the next five years will be about growth, a key element of which is separating out its online booking platform from its offline development and management businesses.
It will consolidate all the online businesses onto a unified IT platform and talks about the "fusion" of brands over time. Creating a point of sale where it can distribute its own inventory alongside the third-party inventory it has taken on via the Ctrip and Qunar deal will create something closer to Airbnb.
Airbnb has points of sale across the globe, while Tujia is very much concentrating on China as its source market for travellers. But more M&A activity is hinted as, with Tujia looking at ways to "complete the ecosystem". Developing source markets outside of China could be on its radar in this context.
Its ownership structure throws up some interesting names, including Ctrip itself which was involved in its $100 million Series C (June14) and its $300 million Series D (Aug15) rounds. Expedia Inc's HomeAway took part in its reported $15m Series A (May12) as well as the Series C round.
Related reading from Tnooz:Tujia reports best-ever day, tips house-share for bumper 12 months (August 2016)
Zhubaijia raises $78M to mimic Airbnb in China (Aug15)
Airbnb adds local VC partners to open doors in China (Aug15)