Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental News

The hotel business was never an easy one for online travel companies. Far from it. But compared with the complexities of alternative accommodations, executives at Booking Holdings may come to regard the hotel business as a relative cakewalk.

Does anyone remember when Travelocity was the leading U.S. online travel agency? We're thinking about that because a milestone may have taken place in the first quarter when Airbnb attracted more room nights booked than did Expedia. What it does clearly show is that the online travel pecking order is very much in flux.

The short-term rental ecosystem, from property managers and platforms to business-to-business vendors, is rapidly expanding. As this continues, there is a fine balance to be struck where the sector professionalizes — without commercializing beyond recognition.

The short-term rental sector is rapidly expanding, and it is not just Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com that benefit from this. A growing ecosystem of property managers and B2B vendors are professionalizing the sector, while making a decent penny.

Vacasa will roughly double the inventory its team has to manage. That's a lot to chew on. The risk is falling prey to hubris.

Once again — and this time it's the issue of pricing transparency in alternative lodging — European regulators are out in front of their counterparts in other parts of the world, including those in the United States. Travelers shouldn't have to be detectives in trying to figure out what their lodging tab will be.

There appears to be a growing chorus of voices saying they are not able to completely delist themselves from Agoda, which begs the question why they want to do so in the first place.

The Vietnamese are known for their entrepreneurial spirit. A growth spurt in homesharing listings shows how eagerly they have sought a share of the tourism boom. But yields are falling even as the supply of homes and hotels are continuing to increase. Crunch time is near or perhaps even here.

The use of technology in hospitality must go beyond improving consumer-facing products and digital experiences. Its true potential will be realized when hotel staff are empowered with the right insights at the right time so that they can transform guest experiences.

Some hotel chains, such as Marriott, feel they have no choice but to get into homesharing. Marriott is trying to turn it into a loyalty play to keep its customers engaged with the brand.