Guesty buys France's Smily to expand in $9B rental market
What's the deal? Guesty, an AI platform for short-term rentals, has acquired SmilyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a French property management system and channel manager formerly known as BookingSyncDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Terms were not disclosed. The deal, announced September 17, 2026, deepens Guesty's presence in France, the world's second-largest short-term rental market.
Who's who? Smily was built in 2005 by Sébastien Grosjean to run his family's rental business and opened to paying customers in 2010. It has since grown into a full PMS offering channel management, communication tools, direct booking websites, payments, and task management. Since 2010, it has processed €3.3 billion in bookings for 13 million travellers.
Why now? France has more than 1 million active listings and generated $9 billion in gross booking value across online travel agencies over the past year. Guesty says the acquisition reflects its commitment to the market as it accelerates global growth.
What's the endgame? The two teams will combine product, engineering, and customer support behind one platform for France. Guesty plans to bring its AI capabilities and Agent Hub to Smily customers as automation reshapes how rental businesses operate.
"Smily has earned the trust of operators there for more than fifteen years," said Amiad Soto, co-founder and chief executive officer of Guesty. Grosjean said his family had been in the industry for over 40 years, adding: "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."
All five of Smily's founders and a group of shareholders are reinvesting part of the proceeds in Guesty equity.
The signal: Guesty, integrated with every major OTA and running inside more than 500,000 properties across 100-plus countries, is consolidating fragmented regional rental software under one platform. As AI tools reshape property management, scale and reach are becoming the deciding advantage.
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