Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental News

Can Airbnb succeed in making packaged tours or peer-to-peer travel experiences cool? That's the big question when it comes to its latest investment, which is set to debut at its upcoming Airbnb Open in November. We have a feeling Airbnb just might be able to.

Airbnb has made it clear it's not a hotel company in the traditional sense, but with its latest loyalty play, it appears to be taking its lead from hotel-airline partnerships. Which makes us wonder: Will it eventually launch its own loyalty program in the not-so-distant future? Are other airline partnerships in other global regions also in the works now that they've already formed deals in Australia and the U.S.?

While regulation is catching up with the Alternative Accommodations scene, the sector itself is still booming thanks to its social and tech-savvy consumers.

While regulation is catching up with the alternative accommodations scene, the sector itself is still booming thanks to its social and tech-savvy consumers.

Given the popularity of alternative accommodations providers like Airbnb, should the hospitality industry rethink its definitions of hospitality and service? What can hotels learn from Airbnb about delivering hospitality and, by contrast, what is Airbnb learning from hotels? Here’s what Airbnb Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy Chip Conley had to say about hospitality’s continuous evolution.

Want to fight back against Airbnb as a hotelier? Create a hotel that people actually want to hang out at. Airbnb, as a networking company between hosts and users, has largely abdicated this space-- so far.

By tackling the issue of trust, not only will companies in the sharing economy be able to raise standards, they might also be able to keep regulators off their backs.

These are the hospitality trends we were talking about this week.

Airbnb is doing all it can to scale up its listings globally, including using more management companies. The problem for Airbnb as it goes corporate is how will the guest experience retain any semblance of authenticity.

Is Airbnb's valuation for real? We'll have to wait for it to go public to see how it would really stack up against the market caps of major hotel chains.