Denver-based property manager Evolve is laying off 20% of its workforce, Skift has learned.
25.08.2023 - 14:35 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal
Despite lots of vacation rental industry talk about making inroads in attracting more direct bookings, a global survey of property managers and individual hosts reported those percentages were stable, if not decelerating.
That was one of the key findings in property management software vendor Hostfully’s 2022 Vacation Rental Industry & Hospitality Report.
The survey of 375 property managers and individual hosts (75 percent in the U.S., 13 percent in Europe, and 12 percent in the rest of the world) also found that direct bookings and referrals accounted for around 19 percent of reservations in 2022, down from 24 percent in 2020 and 21 percent in 2021. However, larger property managers reported a higher percentage of direct bookings than smaller property managers and individual hosts.
The 2022 survey was not an apples to apples comparison with previous years because this was the first year that the Hostfully survey included individual hosts as a separate category.
The size of a property manager’s portfolio skewed the findings on a number of fronts.
“What is fairly consistent and interesting from last year and this year is: As you grow in portfolio size you get more direct bookings as a percentage of your total bookings, you get fewer Airbnb bookings as a percentage of your total bookings, you get approximately the same amount of Vrbo bookings as a percentage of your total bookings, and you get more Booking.com bookings as a percentage of your total bookings,” said Hostfully co-founder and President David Jacoby.
The competitive environment heated up considerably in 2022 compared with pre-pandemic 2019 and 2021 for vacation rental property managers and individual hosts as portfolio expansion became the top growth strategy, the survey found. Some 80 percent of property managers and hosts indicated competition was more intense in 2022, versus 57 percent in 2020 and 61 percent in 2021.
Competition was particularly acute, according to the respondents, when the vacation rentals were positioned near major tourist attractions, including national parks.
In other key findings from the survey, Hostfully stated: “Revenue and income continues to be on the rise for most operators (although the trend is slowing), technology adoption is still climbing, and guest experience automation solutions have kept their place in post-pandemic vacation rental businesses.”
A majority of survey respondents indicated their revenue grew in 2022 compared with 2021, although the growth pace slowed. For example, around 20 percent of property managers and hosts said their revenue climbed 50 percent or more year over year in 2022. However, the 2021 survey, which didn’t include individual hosts, found that 26 percent of property
Denver-based property manager Evolve is laying off 20% of its workforce, Skift has learned.
September 5 was the first day of New York City’s short-term rental registration rules, but the city’s electronic verification system isn’t operational yet, Skift has learned from three sources familiar with the new process.
Airbnb was the top-spending travel brand on U.S. national TV during the first 11 months of 2022 at an estimated $86.5 million, but it was merely the ninth most-seen among travel websites, hotels and motels, resorts and theme parks, cruise lines and airlines.
Property management tech company TravelNet Solutions has acquired vacation rental revenue management company Rented.
In a second round of cuts since mid-year, property manager AvantStay laid off 144 staffers, about 22 percent of its workforce, according to a published report from Short Term Rentalz.
A new study on the impact of short-term rentals in Puerto Rico, where the proliferation of Airbnb listings played an outsized role in its tourism recovery following Hurricane Maria, found that a 10 percent increase in short-term rental density in relation to the total number of housing units, led to a 7 percent increase in median rents and a 23 percent jump in housing unit prices.
Property manager Sonder is positioning itself long-term to take advantage of higher-spending business travelers, and added 200 corporate travel accounts — and a former CWT CEO to its board — during the third quarter.
Airbnb took several steps to ease the process of onboarding new hosts, increased damage protections, and added a half-dozen new search categories, including trending homes and those adapted for wheelchair access.
California-based RedAwning announced it acquired channel manager Lexicon Travel Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
HomeToGo, the Germany-based short-term rental comparison-shopping engine, has been making strides in a booking model that peers like Kayak, Google, and Tripadvisor downplayed or abandoned.
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