Alibaba has its future hotel, FlyZoo, launched in Hangzhou inn 2018, Tencent launched an AI Smart Room at the Atour S Hotel in Beijing and there was a time when Amazon sounded out the idea of Amazon-operated hotels.

Where these projects are right now is unclear but Rakuten the Japanese e-commerce giant, is making ambitious moves to building out Rakuten STAY, a vacation rentals model in which it will own, manage and operate its inventory not just in Japan but worldwide – and its accommodation will be fully powered by services within the Rakuten eco-system.

Munekatsu Ota envisions a future where Rakuten STAY will own and manage unmanned vacation rentals around the world.

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