GuestReady expands into the Canary Islands with Lightbooking deal
GuestReady, a Switzerland-based short-term rental management company, has acquired Lightbooking, a Spanish vacation rental management and distribution operator, in a move that significantly strengthens its presence in Spain and adds a new regional stronghold in the Canary Islands. The transaction will add more than 200 units to GuestReady’s Spanish portfolio and lifts the company’s global total to over 4,000 managed units across Europe and the Middle East.
The acquisition is designed to accelerate GuestReady’s expansion beyond Spain’s major urban markets into leisure-heavy island destinations, where professionally managed short-term rentals have continued to draw both traveler demand and investor attention. It also underscores a broader European trend toward consolidation and scale in hospitality operations supported by technology-led platforms.
Leadership: “A key step in our European journey”
Alexander Limpert, CEO and co-founder of GuestReady, said the deal strengthens the company’s position among Europe’s leading professional hospitality operators by adding deep local expertise in a strategically important region.
“This acquisition marks an important step in GuestReady’s European journey. Expanding into the Canary Islands strengthens our position among Europe’s leading professional hospitality operators,” Limpert said, adding that under Gustavo Guevara’s leadership, Lightbooking built a market-leading platform in the archipelago with a strong reputation among owners and guests.
Gustavo Guevara, CEO of Lightbooking, framed the deal as an opportunity to scale under a unified operating model. “What impressed us most about GuestReady was the professionalism of their operating model and the strength of their technology platform. RentalReady is truly best-in-class,” he said.
Why the Canary Islands matter to GuestReady
Until now, GuestReady has been active in Spain’s major urban hubs including Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia. The purchase of Lightbooking provides immediate scale in Southern Europe—particularly the Canary Islands and Andalucía—through an operator already embedded in local supply and operations.
Following the acquisition, GuestReady said it manages roughly 400 active apartments nationwide, nearly doubling its footprint in Spain. The company’s updated regional presence includes close to 170 properties in the Canary Islands and around 50 properties in Andalucía.
In the Canary archipelago, the portfolio spans Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, El Hierro, and La Gomera. In Andalucía, the company operates across destinations including Seville, Cádiz, Málaga, Granada, Huelva, and Córdoba.
The asset mix is also notable: approximately 70% of the Spanish portfolio consists of entire buildings, with the remaining 30% owned by individual landlords. Entire-building and complex-style inventory can enable more standardized operations, tighter cost control, and easier rollouts of technology-driven processes—an approach GuestReady has emphasized as it scales.
Integration plan: culture first, then optimization
Lorenzo Ritella, Country Manager at GuestReady, said the near-term priority is operational integration and team alignment. “In the short term, our focus is on integrating teams and building a shared culture, as both organisations come from different backgrounds,” he said.
Over the medium term, the company aims to optimize resources and grow sustainably, positioning itself as a leading reference for professional property management in the Canary Islands while delivering consistent service quality to owners and guests.
Technology and operations at the center
GuestReady plans to deploy its technology platform and standardized operating procedures across the expanded Spanish footprint. The company highlighted its AI-driven short-term rental property management system and automation tools under the RentalReady platform, alongside standardized processes intended to improve performance and guest experience.
Lightbooking complements these capabilities with end-to-end services such as multi-platform listings, dynamic pricing, guest communications, check-in processes, and property maintenance—tools designed to maximize owner returns while smoothing the traveler experience.
Consolidation continues across European hospitality and PropTech
While the deal is focused on Spain, it lands amid continued capital formation and platform-building across Europe’s hospitality and property technology landscape. Recent funding rounds cited in the broader market include Switzerland’s Azuro raising €5 million to develop a user-owned portfolio of smart vacation homes; Berlin-based Buena securing €49 million to digitize residential property management workflows using AI; and Dutch hospitality software provider Mews raising €255 million in January 2026 to expand automation and payments for hotels and serviced accommodation.
Together, those rounds represent roughly €309 million invested into hospitality and PropTech platforms across Europe over 2025–2026, indicating sustained interest in technology-led operations and scalable models adjacent to short-term rental management.
What comes next: 600 units in Spain by 2026
GuestReady said the acquisition is its 12th since founding and the third completed over the past 12 months. Looking ahead, the company is targeting 600 active apartments in Spain by 2026 through a mix of organic growth, portfolio expansion, and additional strategic transactions.
The Canary Islands are expected to be central to that plan, particularly through the management of entire buildings and bungalow-style complexes, which can support more efficient and sustainable scaling. As more property owners look for alternatives to traditional tour operator models—often criticized for limiting flexibility and compressing profitability—GuestReady is positioning itself as a professional, tech-enabled operator offering adaptable management and performance optimization.
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