The acquisition adds fifteen years of French property management expertise to Guesty, deepening its presence in the world's second-largest short-term rental market.

NEW YORK and PARIS, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Guesty®, the AI platform for short-term rentals, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Smily® (formerly BookingSync®), a leading property management system (PMS) and channel manager in France, built for vacation rental hosts and property managers.

France is the second-largest short-term rental market globally, with more than 1 million active listings and $9 billion in gross booking value generated across online travel agencies (OTAs) over the past year¹. The acquisition reflects Guesty's commitment to the French market as the company continues to accelerate global growth.

Smily's channel manager was built in 2005 by Sébastien Grosjean to run his family's rental business, among the first in the vacation rental industry, and opened to paying customers in 2010. It has since grown into a full-featured PMS trusted by property managers across France and Europe, offering channel management, centralized communication, direct booking websites, payments and task management.

"France is one of the fastest-growing short-term rental markets in the world, and Smily has earned the trust of operators there for more than fifteen years. Bringing Smily into the Guesty family helps build on that trust. Guesty is the market leader in size and more importantly in innovation, with more than 300 new features shipped in 2026 alone. Many of which are from direct customer requests. We are excited to offer French property managers with the best technology and look forward to hearing from them how we can help them run their business better" said Amiad Soto, Co-Founder and CEO of Guesty.

"My family have been in the vacation rentals industry for 40+ years, it's fair to say we not only know the industry well, but it's part of who we are. Since 2010, we have taken customers from a handful of properties to hundreds, sometimes thousands, and processed €3.3 billion in bookings for 13 million travelers. That is our team's work, and our customers' too, because they told us what to build year after year. We could have carried on alone. But with this industry and its technology moving as fast as they are, the better path is to bring Smily's team and everything we know about France and Europe to Guesty, the clear world leader," said Sébastien Grosjean, Founder and CEO of Smily.

With the acquisition complete, the two teams will now build together, combining product, engineering and customer support resources behind one best-in-class platform for the French market. The focus is on moving faster, investing deeper and setting a new standard for the technology French property managers can build their businesses on. The teams will also work closely with Smily customers as AI reshapes how short-term rental businesses operate, bringing Guesty's AI capabilities and Agent Hub to a market with huge potential.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. All five of Smily's founders and a group of its shareholders are reinvesting part of the proceeds in Guesty equity.

About Guesty

Guesty is the AI platform for short-term rentals, where a coordinated system of AI agents works across revenue, guest communication, operations, and finance so property managers and hosts can grow without growing complexity. Trained on more than a decade of real STR operations data, Guesty's agents don't just suggest actions, they carry them out, with you in control.

Guesty has the largest R&D team in the industry, having shipped more than 300 product features in 2026, and is the engine inside 500,000+ properties across 100+ countries. The company is integrated with every major OTA, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Hopper, Google Travel, and Homes & Villas by Marriott. Engineered for global operators, the platform runs under rigorous data governance requirements, providing the industry's most trusted, compliance-certified infrastructure.

Backed by $410 million in funding from KKR, Apax Digital Fund, Inovia Capital, DFO Management, Sixth Street Growth, Viola Growth, and Flashpoint, Guesty's global team is pioneering the agentic era of hospitality, building what comes after tools.

https://www.guesty.com/

About Smily

Founded by Sébastien Grosjean, Philippe Grosjean, Florian Stenström, Ella Fraase Storm and Karol Galanciak, Smily® (formerly BookingSync®) is the number one property management system and channel manager in France, purpose-built for short-term and vacation rental managers. Built in 2005 to run its founder's family rental business, among the first in the vacation rental industry, and opened to paying customers in 2010, Smily has processed more than €3.3 billion in bookings for 13 million travelers² and has held the top tier of Booking.com's Connectivity Partner Programme for eight consecutive years, most recently as a Premier Plus Connectivity Partner for 2026. It combines a PMS, channel manager, direct booking website and payments, and is known for taking operators from a handful of properties to hundreds, and in some cases thousands, without adding operational complexity.

https://www.smily.com/

Media Contacts

press@guesty.com 

¹ Active listings from data provided by PriceLabs; Gross Booking Value by AirDNA.

²Smily figures as of 31 August 2026.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/guesty-acquires-smily-deepening-its-investment-in-frances-booming-short-term-rental-market-302881661.html

Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier hat den Festakt zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit in Bremen für eine eindringliche Warnung vor der Gefährdung der Demokratie genutzt. In seiner voraussichtlich letzten großen Rede zu diesem Anlass sprach er von einer angefochtenen demokratischen Ordnung und mahnte, radikale Kräfte entschieden abzuwehren. Angesichts wachsender Erfolge populistischer und extremistischer Parteien sieht Steinmeier nicht nur Freiheit und Demokratie, sondern auch die innere Einheit des Landes unter Druck.

Steinmeier verwies darauf, dass inzwischen „ein Viertel und mehr“ der Wähler mit ihrer Entscheidung deutlich machten, dass sie sich von wichtigen Grundentscheidungen der Bundesrepublik abwenden. Diese Entwicklung werde begleitet von „unerträglicher politischer Demagogie“, in der Menschen verhöhnt und bedroht würden. Die Diskreditierung demokratischer Verfahren, die Radikalisierung der Öffentlichkeit und die Diffamierung des Kompromisses seien Warnsignale, die man nicht ignorieren dürfe. Populistische Parteien aller Couleur destabilisierten die parlamentarische Demokratie, sagte er.

Deutliche Kritik übte der Bundespräsident an der Rolle der sozialen Medien. Eine „Flut der Manipulationen und der Lügen“ trage zur „schrillen Emotionalisierung“ des politischen Diskurses bei und befeuere extremistische Tendenzen. Steinmeier forderte, die demokratische Streitkultur zu verteidigen und den Kompromiss wieder als Stärke zu begreifen. Ob die Demokratie in Deutschland einer Entwicklung ähnlich der Weimarer Republik entgegengehe, sei nicht entschieden – man habe es „in der Hand“.

Zugleich erinnerte Steinmeier an die historischen Grundlagen des Feiertags. Vor 36 Jahren sei mit der deutschen Wiedervereinigung eine „tiefe Wunde“ geheilt worden, die das Land zuvor über Jahrzehnte in einem „unnatürlichen Zustand der inneren Spaltung“ gehalten habe. Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit sei Anlass, die erste friedliche Revolution für Freiheit und Demokratie in Deutschland und ihre Protagonisten im Gedächtnis zu behalten. Die Errungenschaften der Einheit dürften von aktuellen Krisen nicht überdeckt werden, mahnte Steinmeier, und rief die Bürger dazu auf, sich aktiv für die liberale Demokratie einzusetzen. Er zeigte sich überzeugt, dass diese den aktuellen Belastungen standhalten könne: „Wir sind so viel stärker, als wir glauben.“