The Grip of Airbnb and Short-Term Rental Giants Leaves Direct Bookings Elusive

Online Travel This Week Marriott's insistence that it will control guest data — online travel agency-style —for bookings on its Homes & Villas site has some property managers feeling even more deeply committed to finding ways to generate more direct bookings. "We have hosted many guests who we know to be Marriott Bonvoy members, and we have never needed Home & Villas By Marriott International to book them in the past," said Robin Craigen, co-founder and CEO of Moving Mountains, a luxury vacation rental collection in Colorado. If Moving Mountains indeed gets most of its vacation rental bookings directly, and not through Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo, then it would be the exception to the rule. Peruse any host forum these days, and it's clear that short-term rental hosts and property managers are urgently seeking to generate more direct bookings. One of the big drivers of the movement — yes, some hosts view this in existent