Vacation Rental News & Insights

Good morning,

Here’s what’s going on in the vacation rental world this week:

Vrbo’s latest ski season data shows travelers booking earlier in the top resort towns, Spain issued a $75 million fine to Airbnb for listing unlicensed rentals, and a DC judge sided with homeowners saying an Airbnb squatter has no tenancy rights.

On the regulations front: Maui officially signed Bill 9 into law, setting a path to eliminate more than 6,000 licensed STRs, Princeton approved a primary-residence rule that will phase out over 1,000 investor-owned Airbnbs by 2028, and New Orleans advanced a new slate of proposed limits on STRs.

Lets dive in. 

NEWS

Headline Roundup

• Spain fines Airbnb $75 million for unlicensed STRs (The Host Report) 

• Vrbo releases new ski season demand data (The Host Report) 

• Homeowner rights defended in DC as judge rules Airbnb squatter has no tenancy (Yahoo Finance) 

• One-third of hosts report lost bookings from staffing problems (The Host Report) 

• Deloitte forecasts Airbnb earnings potential in U.S. World Cup cities (Axios) 

• Atlanta’s World Cup STR demand already exploding with some neighborhoods posting 4,000% spikes (Urbanize Atlanta) 

• Argentina match drives KC booking surge (KSHB) 

• Rabbu reports facilitating $600 million in STR transactions in 2025 (Yahoo Finance) 

• New research shows weak OTA brand loyalty as 25 percent of users switch providers for “something new” (PhocusWire) 

• Guesty rolls out STR payments suite with faster payouts and real time fraud prevention (Guesty) 

• Boom integrates with Stayfi to eliminate manual guest data uploads and spreadsheet workflows (Travolution) 

• CleanHaus debuts AI powered scheduling tool to simplify STR cleaning operations (Yahoo Finance)

Check out this one-minute video from our partnership with Emmeworks. It shows why a Booking Booster Map belongs in every listing:

• Makes location instantly clear to guests 

• Helps prevent bad location reviews

• Drives more bookings

It takes less than 5 minutes to make, costs less than a cleaning fee, and it pays for itself with your very first booking. 

INTERESTING INSIGHTS

Out of 500M+ daily social media posts, only a few actually deserve your attention.

I scrolled, so you don’t have to.

Here are the 5 best vacation rental social posts I saw this week:

#1:

Sometimes the simplest way to improve is to flip the question.

Instead of asking what great property managers do, study the pain points clients complain about and design your company to never do that.

#2:

In 2024, Airbnb made $818 Million just on interest payments!

One of the most overlooked advantages of direct bookings is the interest you earn on funds held in escrow.

#3:

If you provide a great service, share it through content like podcasts, blogs, or on social media. You never know what AI will pick up, and you can start getting high value leads, for free.

#4:

After analyzing available rates before & after the Host Only Fee, AirDNA data shows:

• 30% of hosts fully offset the fee increase

• 30% partially offset the change

• The rest (40%!) made no meaningful pricing adjustments

#5:

Disappointment in travel (and negative reviews) isn’t always about execution, it can be about mismatching expectations.

As we approach year end, it's worthwhile to think about what type of person you’re trying to attract to your property, and making sure your messaging aligns with it.

MARKET INSIGHTS

Mortgage Rate Snapshot

Mortgage rates bounced up and down after the Fed meeting but ended the week slightly lower. More rate volatility is expected as new inflation data comes out.

Regulations Update

• Maui County signed Bill 9 into law, phasing out over 6,000 liscensed short-term rentals 

• Princeton, New Jersey, approved restrictions requiring all short-term rentals to be owner-occupied primary residences by 2028, with a three-year phase-out period that will eliminate investor-owned properties and impact over 1,000 current Airbnb listings

• New Orleans City Planning Commission held public hearings on proposed STR reforms that could impose limits on commercial STRs in historic neighborhoods and further restrict new commercial licenses through conditional-use permits

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