Srividya Kalyanaraman travel tips

Miami-based Here.co, which offered fractional ownership investments in short-term rentals, has ceased operations.

Good morning, and happy new year, folks. Hope 2024 is off to a good start. Today we’re considering the opportunities and challenges of themed rentals, and an important court decision in Hawaii. We’ll also take a peak into 2024 with a forecast.

Airbnb is among the companies that will be required to provide transaction details to UK authorities under new legislation aimed at combating tax evasion. 

Despite a 2022 ordinance making short-term rentals illegal in Hawaii, a district court judge ruled that existing short-term rentals can continue their operations and advertising of rentals for stays of 30 to 89 days.

This was the year that all the occupancy gains from the short-term rental boom went away. Demand for short-term rentals declined in the U.S. as Americans opted for overseas trips and cruises.

This year has been an eventful one for short-term rentals around the world: The boom-bust saga and seeming unending fights about new regulations.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green has asked for 3,000 condos and homes operating as short-term rentals to be converted into long-term housing for those displaced by this summer’s wildfire in Lahaina.

HomeToGo, the short-term rental comparison-shopping engine, acquired a 51% majority stake in two German companies: KMW Reisen and Super Urlaub. 

Two UK-based short-term accommodation brands are joining forces: UnderTheDoorMat Group and Veeve are merging in a share exchange. 

Global connectivity, hyper personalization, an improved loyalty program, an airline built for digital natives — these are some of the promises Riyadh Air is making to its future fliers. 

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour made headlines even before it began — by overwhelming booking platform Ticketmaster and drawing attention even from the U.S. Senate. 

Dealmaking has kept short-term rental businesses in Europe busy. The past few months have seen an uptick in activity — be it mergers, or acquisitions or rebrandings. 

This is not a story of “Airbnbust,” but instead we’re talking about a correction of the “Airbnboom” that has taken place since the highs of the pandemic.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! I know you’d rather carve a turkey than open your inbox, so we will keep this brief.

Presented by

You read it here first: We’re halfway into the year, and the short-term rental industry has been buoyed by summer travel picking up, despite prevailing economic uncertainty.  

You read it here first: Swiss travel investor Viadi Group has acquired British luxury villa rental marketplace, Edge Retreats. 

Stat of the Day: Thinking that you, like us, are wondering what’s happening to occupancy levels this summer, we had some numbers crunched for us by data analysis firm Beyond Pricing and this is what it found: U.S. occupancy for July is pacing about 5 percentage points down year-on-year, from 37 percent in 2022 to 32 percent in 2023. 

New This Morning: Following extensive discussions within the community spanning almost four years regarding short-term rental homes, the Dallas City Council implemented zoning limitations to prohibit their presence in single-family neighborhoods last week. However, as a middle ground, short-term rentals will still be permitted in commercial areas and multi-family neighborhoods. 

AvantStay confirmed late Tuesday afternoon it cut 37 employees, or nearly 10% of its workforce. Responding to a Skift inquiry, the Los Angeles-based vacation rental property manager tied the layoffs to platform and tech improvements, adding that the company is profitable.

Only on Skift: What’s a key part of Booking Holdings‘ strategy to attract hotel and short-term rental guests? The company, which owns brands including Booking.com, Kayak and Priceline, spent around $6 billion on marketing in 2022 — and that was about 35% of its total revenue. A BTIG investor report published last week stated that Booking gets around 50% of its traffic direct; around 20 percent from free search engine listings; roughly 15% from social media, email, display ads and referrals, and 15% from paid search engine marketing — “and it spends billions annually to get that last piece.”