Good morning,

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

New PriceLabs data shows pricing isn’t the main issue for most underperforming Airbnb listings, fresh research breaks down what top-performing Vrbo listings consistently get right, and World Cup bookings are up 869% year over year but average length of stay is dropping as much as 44%.

Lets dive in. 

NEWS

Headline Roundup

• Pricing isn’t the problem for most underperforming Airbnb listings (The Host Report)

• Data reveals the shared traits driving Vrbo’s highest-performing listings (The Host Report)

• Introducing Airbnb’s 2026 Host Advisory Boards (Airbnb Newsroom)

• World Cup bookings surge, but stays get shorter (The Host Report)

• Mount and Popfly merge to build a unified platform for travel content and creator discovery (PhocusWire)

• Glamping platform Pitchup becomes Top 50 Global OTA for organic traffic (Travolution)

• Kindred raises $125 million to scale home swapping as an alternative to traditional vacation rental stays (PR Newswire)

• Key Data partners with BookingsCloud to help managers capture more direct booking revenue (Key Data)

The #1 Priority for 84% of people booking a place to stay is The Location!

INTERESTING INSIGHTS

Pricing Isn’t the Real Problem for Most Underperforming Airbnb Listings

New data suggests many hosts are adjusting the wrong lever.

As Airbnb and other booking platforms put more weight on engagement signals to determine which listings are shown to guests, listing visibility is becoming just as important as price. A recent analysis from PriceLabs shows that content quality, not nightly rate, is often the factor separating top-performing listings from the rest.

The Study

Pricelabs Data Science team reviewed more than 10,000 listings across 9 global cities and evaluated performance independent of pricing. 

The result was consistent across markets: listings with strong, clear, and consistent content were far more likely to outperform their local comps. Of the 10,000 listings analyzed, only 12% earned high content quality scores, yet those listings were 35% more likely to beat their market.

This helps explain a common pattern: When bookings slow, hosts first reaction is typically to lower prices, add discounts, or loosen minimum stays. But the data shows that many underperforming listings were already priced competitively. So the issue isn’t affordability, it was that the listings were never being shown to guests in the first place.

PriceLabs identified the top content quality issues that drag down visibility: low-quality photos, incomplete descriptions, mismatches between amenities and images, and recurring guest confusion reflected in reviews. 

The Takeaway 

If a listing is ranked lower due to weak content, price changes won't make a big difference because guests never even see the listing. And poor content quality signals compound over time, reinforcing weaker search placement and reducing future booking opportunities.

In many cases, fixing content leads to performance improvements that pricing changes alone cannot.

MARKET INSIGHTS

Mortgage Rate Snapshot

Mortgage rates started the week near a two-week high, then moved lower on weak employment and Retail Sales data, ending at the lowest level in more than three weeks.

Regulations Update

• Arizona legislators advancing multiple bills that would let smaller towns cap STR permits, ban rentals in guest houses, and reclassify properties commercially, while Governor Hobbs proposes a $3.50-per-night state tax

• Idaho GOP leaders introduced competing bills to override local STR regulations statewide, potentially eliminating Boise's $80 license and local representative requirements for most operators

• St. Louis is proposing a new 3% nightly tax and business license requirement for STRs while its 2023 registration law remains frozen in court

• Buena Vista, Colorado, imposed a moratorium on new STR licenses through September while a working group rewrites the town's licensing policy from scratch

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