Vacation Rental News & Insights

Good morning,

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

Fall travel spending has dipped by $1.2 billion as government shutdown fears and TSA slowdowns keep guests closer to home, while new 2026 predictions from Expedia, Booking, and Key Data all point to bright spots that will lead next year’s recovery.

On the regulatory front: Maui County’s proposed tweaks to Bill 9 could save 4,500 vacation rentals from an outright ban, while Sydney considers a 60-day cap that might push 5,000 listings back to long-term housing, and Europe prepares a sweeping STR rulebook as part of its first continent-wide housing strategy.

Lets dive in. 

NEWS

Headline Roundup

• New Airbnb Experiences update lets guests chat, share, and plan together (Airbnb)

• Fall travel slows as government shutdown fears keep travelers closer to home (The Host Report)

• Lodgify announces inaugural Independent Host Summit (Yahoo Finance)

• Airbnb partners with Strava to launch rural 'run-cations' (Airbnb)

• PriceLabs unveils new AI tools (The Host Report)

• AirDNA’s September recap reports slowest supply growth of 2025 (AirDNA)

• Key Data releases its Vacation Rental Industry Outlook 2026 (Key Data)

• Expedia’s “Unpack 2026” report spotlights seven travel trends shaping next year (Expedia)

• Booking releases 2026 travel predictions (Booking.com News)

• Awayday selects PriceLabs for revenue management across its 11,500 properties (Newswire)

• Sonder partners with TreviPay to simplify payments for corporate clients (TreviPay)

• STR tech investment surpasses $500 Million as sector matures (The Host Report)

• Arbio raises $36M Series A to build AI-native holiday rental platform (Arbio)

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

Get your booking booster map today! Click here

INTERESTING INSIGHTS

Tilt the Odds in Your Favor

I love finding simple hacks that help hosts get more bookings, and sometimes the smallest tweaks make the biggest difference.

Let's start with the numbers:

The average Airbnb listing gets about 600 impressions per month. Of those 600 views, only 4.5 turn into bookings.

Think of it like a funnel:
600 potential guests see your listing while scrolling past. Just 4.5 actually book.

Want to increase bookings? Then we need to convert more of those 600 scrollers into clicks, and ultimately into guests.

And nothing drives more clicks than optimizing your hero image.

It's intuitive, right? Your cover photo (what we call your “hero image”) is the very first thing guests see. That single image determines whether they click on your listing or keep scrolling. So optimizing your hero image to get that click is the first critical step in the booking journey - at the top of your conversion funnel.

That's why I created our newest booking booster tool:
The Hero Image Helper

Here's why it works:

Studies show that listings with twilight or golden hour photos:

• Receive 60% more views online

• Get up to 3x more clicks compared to standard daytime shots

• Generate up to 42% higher click-through rates

The Hero Image Helper uses a fully optimized AI pipeline to instantly transform your current hero image into a booking magnet. Here's a few before and after examples:

Twilight, Lights On

Golden Hour Sunset

The Result:

More Views → More Clicks → Higher CTR → More Bookings 💰

Get studio-quality results in under 60 seconds. Simply upload your photo, select an effect, and download your new image.  No designers. No photographers. No waiting.

A simple photo upgrade could be the highest-ROI move you make this week.

Try the Hero Image Helper here →

MARKET INSIGHTS

Mortgage Rate Snapshot

Mortgage rates dipped to their lowest levels in over a year, holding near 6.1% as bond market momentum and calm trading kept conditions steady ahead of Friday’s CPI report.

Regulations Update

• Maui County recommended modifications to Bill 9 that would spare approximately 4,500 vacation rental units from the STR ban.

• The European Commission plans to propose EU-wide short-term rental regulations in December 2025 as part of its first affordable housing strategy, marking a shift from traditional non-interference toward unified rules potentially targeting property speculation across member states

• Sydney, Australia, may impose a 60-day annual cap on unhosted short-term rentals that could force over 5,000 properties back to the long-term rental market

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