Skift Take
Direct-booking advocates in the short-term rental space will face tough going long term because they have to deal with plenty of juggernauts. When the travel recovery gets under way in full, it will be Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia spending billions of dollars to win over fickle, bargain-hungry travelers.
Dennis' Online Travel Briefing
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.
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