Tujia.com, China’s Airbnb-of-sorts which includes Ctrip and HomeAway among its investors, will distribute its house-sharing inventory via WeChat’s hotels channel.

Tujia held a meeting with analysts and investors last week, which revealed the extent to which the sector is growing in China.

The statement talks specifically about “house-sharing”, suggesting that some of the growth is coming from people using the site for rentals as well as vacations. Last June Tujia bought Mayi, a platform for short-term rentals.

The tie-up with WeChat will go live by the end of Q3 this year, by which stage Tujia will also be distributing via eLong, another of Ctrip’s investments. It already sells via the Ctrip main brand and via Qunar, also owned by Ctrip.

The multi-distribution approach is a consequence of a big Tujia shake-up announced last November when it effectively split its business into two, keeping its bricks and mortar housing development operations separate from its distribution business. It bought the homestay businesses of Qunar and Ctrip at the time and integrated their inventory – where it sits with its own properties and third parties’ – onto a single platform.

At the time Tujia said that home-sharing was entering a five-year growth phase in China and the evidence so far backs this claim. It said at the meeting that in June this year business was 350% ahead of the same month in 2016.

However Analysys data revealed at the event said that the market has been growing by 60% over the past three years and that in 2017 transaction volumes are expected be more than RMB 12 billion ($1.8 billion).

Tujia also has its eye on international markets, concentrating its efforts on Japan and Korea. Japan has been a home-rental battleground of late, with Airbnb and HomeAway both stepping up their presence  after the government made some positive regulatory changes.

However Tujia said at the meeting that “the amount of online housing resources it has in Japan is expected to outnumber overseas competitor brands in 2018.”

Click here to read the official summary of the event.

Related reading from Tnooz:
HomeAway and Airbnb home in on Japan (Jun17)
Airbnb China reveals numbers, taps senior citizens as hosts (Nov16)