Short-Term Rental and Vacation Rental News

For years, Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia's HomeAway, and TripAdvisor have been scrambling for market share in vacation rentals to drive consolidation. But TripAdvisor says it is now focused on "quality" listings, rather than quantity.

When it comes to short-term vacation rentals, a guaranteed level of service is goal of luxury and non-luxury travelers alike.

In other words, there’s plenty of opportunity out there for third parties or the big players like HomeAway and Airbnb to capitalize on offering more ancillary guest services for professionally managed vacation rentals.

Booking.com grew its vacation rental supply at a hyper clip, 51 percent in the first quarter. But vacation rentals are different than hotels, where the company has excelled, and the same formula might not be a slam dunk.

With its latest public policy efforts, Airbnb is inching toward legitimacy by being more willing to share information with cities. But is this enough to appropriately address the real issues, and will cities be willing to meet them halfway?

Whatever can be done to prevent discrimination and bias on the Airbnb platform is a good thing. Let's just hope this plan works toward that goal.

Wyndham might not have 30 hotel brands like Marriott, but it does have the world's largest timeshare business and a pretty robust vacation rental business, too. Leveraging the power of all three of its businesses just makes us wonder: Why haven't they tried to do this before?

There's not a David and Goliath battle happening here. It's more like new money versus old money, and we expect to see some excellent public relations work on every side.

Business travelers and their employers want safety, quality, and consistency; if homesharing companies can provide those things, we expect more acceptance from travel policies.

Vacation rental bookings are increasingly going online but there is still a dichotomy in models -- instant confirmations versus a 24-hour fail-safe vetting period. Because of the fragmented nature of the vacation rental market, one-size-fits all doesn't seem to be in the offing.