Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental News

Warren's case is not representative of most Airbnb stays in New York City where people are known to run illegal hotels and entire apartments are one of the most common kind of rentals.

When the vacation rental site encourages you to eat like a local, they also mean you're going to need to cook and shop like one too.

eLong is putting its money, specifically $100 million of it, precisely where the company believes its future is, in mobile hotel technology. This initiative has certain parallels with what Concur is doing in using its own, larger investment fund, to encourage the development of travel startups doing interesting things.

Many of these angels have some big wins on their resumes, some more than one. They see a huge opportunity in vacation rentals, a high-growth market where there is tons of room for improvements both on the management end, and the guest experience.

Do you want great hotel rates for tonight, or do you want all the rates for tonight that are available on mobile? Hipmunk is banking on its belief that travelers will go for the latter so they don't have to hop around from app to app.

HomeAway's transition to offering a pay-per-booking model, with some parallels to but not a carbon copy of Airbnb's, may be more difficult than HomeAway and investors expect.

There's been so much talk about hotel rate parity, and the sameness when searching for a hotel room. TripAdvisor's invitation to often-overlooked independent hotels and B&Bs may provide some real choice.

Ease of use should indeed increase conversions, but it's difficult to compare the complexity of dealing with apartment hosts on Airbnb with simply completing a hotel booking from one brand on Hilton.com.

There's a clear financial benefit to the consumer when hosts don't have to pay the high costs associated with regulated transient housing.

The surge in vacation home sales in key resort communities bodes well for vacation rental companies such as HomeAway as buyers often purchase their homes as investments or at least rent them out for part of the year.