Rakuten Life Stay (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), a Rakuten Group private lodging company, and Booking.com Japan (Minato-ku, Tokyo), the world's largest OTA, announced on December 11th that they will form a business alliance in the private lodging business. Since its establishment in June this year, Rakuten Life Stay has formed a series of business alliances with major private lodging intermediary companies HomeAway (USA), AsiaYo (Taiwan), and Tujia (China) to provide private lodging properties in Japan, but this is the first business alliance with an OTA that does not primarily provide private lodging intermediation. Under the alliance between the two companies, Rakuten Life Stay will supply domestic private lodging properties from its private lodging intermediation platform "VACATION STAY," which will begin service on June 15, 2018, when the new private lodging law (Housing Accommodation Business Law) comes into effect, to Booking.com. The properties will also be listed on the Booking website from the same day. Booking, on the other hand, aims to meet the needs of visitors to Japan who are interested in private lodgings and expand demand by listing private lodging facilities on its website. At the press conference, Rakuten Life Stay President Munekatsu Ota stated his aspirations, saying, "Through this alliance, we want people around the world to learn about Japanese private lodgings. On Booking's website, people will be able to compare Japanese hotels, inns, and private lodgings. We want to use Booking's explosive ability to attract customers to expand the reach of legal private lodgings." Adam Braunstein, Head of Asia and Regional Director for Japan at Booking, also said, "We will develop our business in accordance with local laws and regulations. We will increase the number of private lodging options available to travelers. Compared to intermediary businesses that specialize in private lodgings, our strength is the variety of accommodation types we offer."