Skift Expands to Daily Coverage of the Short-Term Rentals Sector

There are few sectors in the travel industry subject to more of the rat-a-tat-tat pounding of deals, product launches, tactical competitive moves, and business developments than the global short-term rental industry, and that’s why Skift has decided to expand our commitment to the editorial coverage of the sector.

This comes on top of our existing news stories and columns, as well as Skift Research reports, and featuring the sector’s leaders at our variety of Skift forums and summits throughout the year. One event on our calendar sure to be of interest is the Skift Short-Term Rental Summit June 7 in New York City, which will produce Skift reporters and research analysts asking no-holds-barred questions to top industry leaders on issues of the moment and future scenarios.

To broad and deepen its reporting and analysis of an always-dynamic global industry, Skift has hired veteran business journalist and researcher Srividya Kalyanaraman as a short-term rental reporter.

Based in Belgrade, Serbia, Kalyanaraman began her Skift reporting a month ago, and has already written stories about the soaring luxury vacation rental market, the acquisition of the UK’s Love Home Swap, Portugal’s proposed short-term rental ban, and short-term rental businesses turning to discounted last-minute sales.

“Skift has always valued and focused on the global nature of the business of travel, and Srividya’s journalism chops will quicken the cadence and enhance the depth of our reporting on the short-term rental industry around the world,” said Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali.

Look for a new product launch related to vacation rentals and other short-term rentals. Stay tuned on that. And, as part of her duties, Kalyanaraman will also devote more attention to tracking and analyzing developments in the timeshare industry.

We decided there was too much going on in short-term rentals to stick with the resources we had focused on the sector.

That’s why Skift’s short-term rental reporting team now includes Kalyanaraman and Executive Editor Dennis Schaal, who will continue covering short-term rentals and online travel.

Kalyanaraman is a veteran business journalist, having served in editing or reporting roles at The Economic Times, BostInno, deBanked, and PYMNTS.com, among other publications.

In 2020, she received a German Chancellor Fellowship to study the government’s skilled immigration policies. Kalyanaraman that same year gave a Tedx talk at StoneHill College in Easton, Massachusetts about her odyssey from reporting for a print journalism publication in India to editing for a tech news platform in Boston.

Kalyanaraman has a master’s degree in business and economic reporting from New York University, and a bachelor’s degree in mass media and journalism from the University of Mumbai.