Airbnb Debuts New Tools for a Bigger Cut of the $138 Billion Vacation Rental Industry
Photo Credit: As Airbnb pursues an eventual IPO, the company wants to significantly grow its traditional vacation rental business by adding more tools that make it easier for property managers to use the platform. Airbnb
Skift Take
This makes perfect, if long overdue, business sense for Airbnb. But can Airbnb really make sure these tools won’t be abused by commercial operators running illegal hotel businesses in cities like San Francisco or New York?
It was only a matter of time before Airbnb began seriously addressing the vacation rental market business —a global market worth an estimated $138 billion in 2016 and expected to grow to a value of $194 billion by 2021.
Skift outlined Airbnb's prospects in vacation rentals earlier this year.
Speaking to an audience of vacation rental management industry executives on Monday in Orlando at the Vacation Rental Management Association's national conference, Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk announced the debut of a new set of tools created for vacation rental property managers, some of whom manage hundreds or thousands of listings.
These tools, said Jonathan Lesser, Airbnb head of global host and community operations and general manager of vacation rentals, are Airbnb's way of "embracing" the traditional vacation rental market, which is a significant portion of the alternative accommodations space that Airbnb has been slow to incorporate in the past
