This Week’s News & Insights

Good morning,

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

Casago just absorbed Vacasa in a $130M deal, emerging as a vacation rental powerhouse. Airbnb is quietly making moves – 50% of its U.S. users now talk to an AI agent instead of a human, and it’s becoming a big player in this year’s local elections to keep the STR engine running. And after a regulatory slap from the ad watchdog, Vrbo’s Nick Saban commercials are getting benched.

This week in the markets: 30 year mortgage rates have stayed within a tight range, Airbnb released its Q1 earnings report, and new STR regulations are developing in NYC, British Columbia, Vermont, and Utah.

Lets dive in. 

NEWS

Headline Roundup

• Casago Closes $130M Vacasa Deal (The Host Report)

• 50% of Airbnb users in the U.S. are now interacting with its AI customer service agent  (TechCrunch)

• Beyond Launches Free Real-Time Market Trend Reports for STR Pros (The Host Report)

• Airbnb Wins Claim Against Vrbo: Vrbo will modify or discontinue its Nick Saban Commercials (Global News Wire)

• Venture Capital Heats Up in Short-Term Rentals: $400M+ Pours Into STR Startups (The Host Report)

• Airbnb is significantly influencing local elections - increasing spending in NYC, Dallas, and Washington (Politico)

INVESTMENT INSIGHTS

Mortgage Rate Snapshot

Mortgage rates remained pretty flat and stayed within a tight range over the past week.

• A stronger-than-expected jobs report on Friday pushed the average 30-year fixed rate back up, but a solid 10-year Treasury auction on Tuesday nudged rates down again.

• Volatility stayed low, with new economic data continuing to steer the overall trend.

Airbnb’s Q1 Earnings Report

Airbnb met its Q1 Targets, but strong international growth couldn’t offset slowing U.S. travel and a weaker Q2 outlook — shares slipped as investors digested mixed signals.

• Airbnb hit its Q1 numbers with $2.27B in revenue (up 6% YoY), but profit dropped 42% YoY due to stock-based comp and investment losses. 

• The company flagged “softness” in U.S. travel demand, shorter booking windows, and broader economic headwinds such as trade uncertainty and inflationary pressures, all of which are slowing U.S. growth.

• In contrast, global bookings rose 8%, fueled by strong performance in Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

• On the earnings call, Airbnb also discussed doubling down on host quality (removing 400,000+ listings), investing up to $250M in product expansion, and teasing non-lodging services coming soon.

Regulations Update

• In New York City, new legislation could reopen some areas to short-term rentals after years of heavy restrictions—though strong opposition from tenant advocates remains.

• British Columbia has extended its platform compliance deadline to June 1, 2025, with unregistered listings facing removal starting June 2.

• Vermont’s proposed statewide Bill H.242 could introduce further regulations to STR’s.

• In Utah, the so-called "Knotwell Rule" still blocks cities from using online listings as enforcement evidence—but proposed HB 256 aims to reverse that restriction.

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

EDUCATION

The Most Interesting Thing I Read This Week

Jeffrey Breece, Beyond’s Director of Revenue Management and Data Science, had an excellent Linkedin post sharing data on the recent impacts on reservation share since Airbnb rolled out upfront total pricing worldwide.

Here’s Jeffrey’s post:

“Since April 21st, Airbnb’s global rollout of total price display has gone live which is a continued shift in toward booking transparency. We were curious to see if this had any impact and took a look!

Looking at reservation data before and after the change, the early results are striking:

- Airbnb’s share of bookings actually jumped +6.7 percentage points
- Vrbo dropped -5.2 points, and Direct bookings fell -2.9 points
- Booking was also up +1.4 points

This is only a few days of data and there is plenty of other things going on that could impact the numbers, but it appears that travelers are clearly rewarding transparency.”