Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental News

HomeAway’s fee hike spotlights the shifting economics of the vacation rental business. Property owners are weighing how much of a cut technology companies deserve when making it easier for them to put heads in beds.

Airbnb is getting into the very business it has spent the past decade disrupting. Will Niido Powered by Airbnb usher in an era of co-living residences that encourage homesharing?

With the sharing economy accounting for almost one in three vacation beds in Australia, the impact of Airbnb and Stayz is being widely questioned. But with hotel occupancy levels and room prices still rising, hotels and lobbying groups' efforts to restrict private rentals seem like an overreaction.

Expedia and Priceline, watch out. Airbnb is very obviously coming for you. Today, it's bed-and-breakfasts. Tomorrow, it'll be more boutique and independent hotels.

For anyone who’s ever had to wrangle a payment from a friend for a trip, this new Airbnb payments feature is a very welcome early holiday present.

In other words, don't expect AccorHotels to be vying for Wyndham's European vacation rental business anytime soon.

While Blecharczyk wouldn't say anything about Airbnb's impending IPO, he did reveal some interesting perspectives on how and where he sees the $31 billion company continuing to grow.

Let's do some math, first: How do you calculate 20x growth when you're not given a baseline for comparison? Our guess is whatever that adds up to, it may not be very much.

As Airbnb tries to become the only brand in travel that you'll ever need, it's not just the hotel industry that the company has to contend with, but online travel agencies, too. We can just imagine the hotels telling Airbnb, "Welcome to the club."

Professionalizing the homesharing experience is helping to alleviate travelers’ concerns and anxieties about staying in a stranger’s house. But there's always room for improvement.