Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental News

In the HomeAway-Airbnb-Booking.com love triangle, it is maverick Airbnb and Booking.com that actually have the most in common in terms of their preference for instantly confirmable bookings. And, like a scorned lover, HomeAway has been ratcheting up its criticisms of Booking.com.

Until Airbnb gets its regulatory issues settled it will need to raise money like this rather than going for an IPO.

HomeAway just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Now there is a big question as to whether it will still be an independent company by the time the 11th anniversary rolls around. The company would be expensive to buy, but the betting here is that someone will acquire it, sooner rather than later.

Everyone loves the concept of the sharing economy, but when it comes close to home, feelings about it are a lot more nuanced. Lots more research needs to be done at the local and neighborhood level on the effects of the sharing economy, positive and negative.

A fascinating peek into how user reviews get changed in a sharing economy platform site like Airbnb, but this paper leaves the possibility of tons more research that could be done from here.

Whether it's a spending study that says how much Airbnb contributes to a community or a campaign like this, Airbnb excels at community-minded moves that are squarely focused on its bottom line first.

Airbnb needs to figure out a way to work neighbors into the equation.

Hotel Urbano is now offering short-term rentals while Expedia is showing HomeAway's vacation rentals and Booking.com has lots of apartment hotels. Convergence extraordinaire.

It is interesting to see that the Travel Technology Association, which takes the online travel agency side on the hotel tax issue, is siding with members HomeAway and Airbnb on short-term rental legislation.

There are holes in the arguments of both the City of San Francisco and HomeAway. The new short-term rental law would indeed put HomeAway in the new position of collecting taxes from renters, and HomeAway could find a way in its business model to make that happen. Still, the new law does appear to favor Airbnb, which already collects fees from guests.