This Week’s News & Insights

Good morning,

Here’s what’s going on in the short-term rental world this week:

Airbnb avoids sharing key performance metrics from its $200M Experiences and Services rollout, Airbnb's Chief Business Officer signals a unique loyalty program is "under consideration", and new data suggests stay limits won’t push most STR hosts into the long-term market.

This week in the markets: Mortgage rates held near 10-month lows, Santa Barbara’s crackdown on illegal rentals cut unpermitted units by 25%, and Vail, CO, Pittsburgh, PA, and Columbia, SC are advancing plans to tighten regulations and raise costs for operators.

Lets dive in. 

NEWS

Headline Roundup

• First Look: Airbnb avoids sharing key metrics on new Experiences and Services businesses (The Host Report)

• Airbnb’s Considering Launching a Loyalty Program (The Host Report)

• 3 Lessons from Key Data's Q2 STR Report (The Host Report)

• Booking Holdings and Airbnb strengthen positions among top 10 global OTAs (Skift)

• TripAdvisor's Viator unit outperforms parent company with strong Q2 experiences growth (Phocuswire)

• Hostaway Launches AI Auto Reply for automated guest messaging (The Host Report)

• Survey finds 88% of Airbnb hosts won't switch to long-term rentals if caps imposed (Airbnb News)

• Over 10,000 European hotels join class action lawsuit against Booking Holdings (Travel Weekly)

• NYC Airbnb hosts rally to roll back Local Law 18 restrictions (Brooklyn Paper)

• Luxury vacation rental platform Elivaas raised a $10.4 million Series B to expand across India (Phocuswire)

• Oyo Buys Airbnb Management Platform MadeComfy for Over $50 Million (AFR)

• Journey Raises $7.7M to Expand Hospitality Loyalty Platform (PhocusWire)

• Crew Raises $3M to Scale Services for STR Owners (Utah Business)

Custom Maps: The Easiest Way to Boost Your Bookings

INTERESTING INSIGHTS

Key Takeaways from Airbnb’s Q2 Earnings Call for Hosts & Property Managers

Host-Only fee is coming

Brian Chesky signaled more pricing changes ahead: "We're exploring different ways to present pricing, moving towards a host-only fee." 

A host-only fee seems like another change that would be good for guests, but bad for hosts on the Airbnb platform. There’s not many details out yet, so it's something that we’ll have to monitor. 

Booking lead times are back to normal

Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz confirmed that booking lead times have returned to normal after being compressed 7% YoY in April. Lead times have now lengthened slightly compared to last year, which indicates higher guest booking confidence, and is a positive sign for hosts.

Loyalty program 

Chesky confirmed plans for a loyalty program: "I absolutely think you should see something from us in the future. Not imminently, but in the future." He emphasized it wouldn't be a traditional points program but "something much more interesting and novel."‍

Other forward-looking indicators for hosts:

• Marketing shift: Airbnb will shift from TV ads to social-first campaigns which target inspiration-led travelers, benefiting listings with strong visuals or unique experiences.

• Mobile momentum: Mobile app bookings hit 59% of total nights booked, and is growing 17% YoY.

• AI integration: Chesky discussed Airbnb becoming an AI-first application, meaning hosts should focus on things that can position their listings to benefit from AI-driven discovery. 

• Co-Host Network: Now supports 100k+ listings and has delivered 10M+ nights booked

• Quality crackdown continues: 500k+ low-quality listings removed since 2023.

MARKET INSIGHTS

Mortgage Rate Snapshot

Mortgage rates stayed near 10-month lows over the past week, with only minor fluctuations and no meaningful lender changes. A mixed CPI report balanced tariff-driven increases with softening in key categories, leaving the average 30-year fixed rate unchanged in the mid-6% range.

Regulations Update

• Santa Barbara's enforcement task force collected $2.6 million from illegal rentals over two years, reducing unpermitted operations from 1,300 to 974 units through voluntary compliance and penalties

• Columbia, South Carolina, preliminarily approved raising minimum renter age to 25, mandating two-night stays, and basing occupancy on total guests with neighbor notification requirements

• Vail, Colorado, is putting a new tax on condotel short-term rentals to a resident vote, which could significantly increase operational costs for STR investors in the area

• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is considering legislation requiring operators to live within 25 miles of properties, limiting units per operator, and mandating special permits for out-of-state investors

• Buena Vista, Colorado, is debating capping licenses for out-of-county owners at current levels (119 fully allocated with waitlist) and potentially requiring two-year ownership before STR eligibility

See this weeks full regulations report here: (The Host Report)