Skift Take
Optimism about recovery, a wariness about the tricky nuances of each sector, and suppliers demanding respect from online brands were among the themes at the Skift Short-Term Rental and Outdoor Summit. Plus: the past year's boom isn't a one-off.
The short-term rental, vacation home rental, and outdoor adventure sectors have been the most resilient parts of the travel industry during the pandemic. Brands have used recent waves of consumer and investor interest to raise their games and ambitions. Yet questions remain for all three segments.
Skift as a brand has been wondering: Is the biggest story of the past year about consumers adopting new behaviors and expectations that will create lasting breaks from the past? Or is the story that the crisis has sped up and intensified trends that had already been ongoing?
Overall, one of the main takeaways from the Skift Live Short-Term Rental and Outdoor Summit, which took place as a virtual event on May 19, is that these fast-growing segments have nuances in their business dynamics that can trip up players coming from the outside.
Optimism about the recovery and optimism about long-term growth were other themes. We also heard that the owners of inventory in these markets demand more respect from online travel agencies and will reward the ones that respect them first.
Optimistic Notes About the Recovery
Cautious optimism seemed to be the catchphrase of analysts when considering this year's outlook.
On the vacation rental front, average daily rates in the U.S. are more than 10 percent higher this summer than last year's strong numbers, said Jason Sprenkle of Key Data, who presented survey results pulled from the intelligence service's 2,300 property management companies. But European markets are, on average, still well behind pre-pandemic nightly rates.
"The performance of vacation rentals and short-term rentals is very far off being back to pre-pandemic levels," noted Wouter Geerts of Skift Research. He offered several data-filled slides showing how performance has fluctuated in recent months in many countries and within countries at the market-by-market level.
While some destinations, such as the Outer Banks of North Carolina, have mostly sold out of vacation rental inventory, other markets in the U.S. and abroad are either struggling or are seeing bookings rise and fall as events change. For context, read the
