(Photo: BigTunaOnline/Shutterstock.com)

From privacy to payments specialists, it took about a dozen Airbnb lawyers to pull off the short-term lodging service's biggest acquisition. And those were just the in-house lawyers.

In a statement to The New York Times, Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky said the company's planned acquisition of HotelTonight is a step toward “serving every guest, whether they plan their trip a year or a day in advance.”

HotelTonight caters to discounted last-minute bookings, though in recent years has expanded its booking time frame to 100 days. For its part, Airbnb has expanded from home rentals to boutique and luxury hotels, as well as activities, according to the Times.

To Christian Salaman, a San Diego-based partner and leader of the travel and hospitality team at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who has worked with tech companies in the hospitality space, the deal represents the natural evolution he said he sees with many startups.

“The startups become bigger, and then they become emerging companies, and then they become big companies,” he said. “And Airbnb has been on that path fast.”

Sand Francisco-based Airbnb's current legal department has more than 100 legal professionals worldwide, including in all of its largest offices, a company spokesperson said in an email. The team is run by general counsel Rob Chesnut, a former federal prosecutor and senior vice president at eBay Inc. who already had plenty of experience with startups when he took the helm in April 2016.

Neither Chesnut nor Sara Marston, HotelTonight's GC since last July, could immediately be reached for comment about the deal and any challenges it presented.

In a move designed to grow the legal team to support the new hotel category on Airbnb, the HotelTonight legal department is expected to join Airbnb's, an Airbnb spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the Airbnb legal team that worked on the HotelTonight deal included: Jia Liu and Allie Hastings on corporate merger and acquisition issues; Paul Nikhinson and Polina Zvyagina on privacy; Ryan Decker on payments; David Rak and Zach Dunn on product and commercial issues; Leola Meiners on integration; Peter Urias on employment; Alica Del Valle on intellectual property; and Rob Haslam on Europe, the Middle East and Africa legal issues.

Marston was the main lawyer on the HotelTonight side, with support from Melissa Hung, associate GC, and Linda Lui, legal operations manager.