Articles tagged “skift short-term rental summit”

People may see short-term rentals as a good get-rich-quick scheme. But according to former Airbnb CFO Laurence Tosi, it's not a simple business. The most successful companies in the space, he said, are also the most sophisticated.

In the wake of recent bad publicity and plans to go public in 2020, Airbnb has no choice but to take concerns among users and neighbors seriously. Its recent steps are a good start, but shouldn't these have been a part of the strategy to begin with?

Kayak is making a landmark departure from its current strategy. It will add a tool to its mobile app to let users who book select short-term rentals and boutique hotels through it check in and check out via its app. That moves the travel metasearch player beyond merely listing accommodations to actually providing extra services for guests at partner properties.

Hospitality giants moving into the short-term rental space hasn't always gone smoothly. But Marriott's vice president of Homes & Villas said that the company isn't getting its feet wet anymore — it's found a business model that works and wants to grow it.

CEO Francis Davidson is clearly very, very ambitious — and has identified a path for Sonder to go on and challenge the very biggest names in hospitality.

The deal gives a nice return to private equity firm Livingbridge, which bought Sykes in 2015 for about $75 million. What makes Sykes Cottages stand out is that it has fully built almost all of its technology on its own and has almost 80 percent direct bookings. New majority stakeholder Vitruvian is now placing a bet on short-term rentals.

Short-term rental companies can't believe their luck. Private equity and venture capital continue to pour into their sector despite a hot market. Vacasa has remained an investor darling, in part, because it has branched into opening real estate brokerages to help boost the supply of units.

Altido, a short-term property management group based in Europe, plans to grow through bite-size mergers in 2020. Its new CEO seems right in saying that the dynamics driving the company's strategy speak to larger dynamics in the sector.

Short-term rental tech vendors are increasingly forced to pick a side: Focus on professional property managers or focus on the long tail of independent hosts. There's business in both, but understanding customer needs is paramount.

In online travel, everything is tactical and not necessarily permanent. But for now, at least, those coveted Airbnb listings are appearing in Google's vacation rental pages in some European cities. This could have big implications for both companies if those listings remain.