Niche Short-Term Rental Startups Are Saturating the Market: It Can’t Last
Skift Take
Independent short-term rental software startups have done well during the post-pandemic travel boom, but the market is starting to get tougher, so they would do well to tighten their business plans and expand their assets.
Travel Tech Briefing
Editor’s Note: Exclusive reporting on technology’s impact on the travel industry, delivered every Thursday. The briefing will guide executives as they decide if their companies should “build, buy, or partner” to stay ahead.Just about everyone has heard of Airbnb.
What about Vacasa? Bob W.? Ukio? Raus?
The likely answer for most people, particularly those who do not work in the travel industry, would be no. All five of them are startups with their own niche portfolio of properties that customers can choose from, and several have raised venture capital for proprietary software systems used to book those properties.
Basically, they could all be seen as competitors with the likes of Airbnb.
There are many others, and many tend to be made for customers in a specific niche: luxury, dog owner, RVs, yurts, remote moderns cabins, tiny houses with open ceilings to view the stars.
In competition with the big names like Airbnb, along with big online tr
