Short-term Rental News Digest – August 2019

Here’s to our sixth Short-term Rental News Digest! We hope that it has helped you to stay up to date with regard to the latest developments in the industry. While we’re celebrating our sixth digest, Airbnb has also celebrated a milestone of their own this past month. Over four million people spent the 10th of August in an Airbnb listing! This was their biggest night yet! Let’s review the major short-term rental news in August (luckily all of the other stories are also cause for congratulations and celebration)… 

Visit Seattle and Airbnb launch a new partnership

Last month we reported about Airbnb and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce working together to grow Airbnb Experiences with the hopes of creating more opportunities for local businesses. This month Airbnb and Visit Seattle have announced their partnership aimed at giving the travel and tourism sector a boost in the Emerald City by marketing some of the local Airbnb Experiences. Airbnb and Visit Seattle will use this new partnership to teach and motivate members of Visit Seattle to host an Airbnb Experience. This way neighborhoods that would not usually attract many tourists can enjoy more economic benefits.

Airbnb buys Urbandoor

More than half a million businesses from all four corners of the globe already turn to Airbnb when it comes to business travel! To increase the popularity of Airbnb amongst business travelers even further, Airbnb has acquired Urbandoor, an international online marketplace helping professionals to locate serviced and furnished apartments. Urbandoor is especially popular amongst those who are planning a business trip which means that this new acquisition will for sure bolster Airbnb for Work too. Airbnb’s President of Homes, Greg Greely explained, “With the Urbandoor team, we’re looking forward to building on this work by developing new technology to benefit the real estate community and improve the guest booking experience for business travelers.”

Business made easy

To help business travelers even further, Airbnb has also introduced a new toggle that guests can use to indicate if they are planning a work trip when they are searching for accommodation. In short, when a guest indicates that he/she will be traveling for business purposes, the search results will concentrate on listings that are more suitable for business trips based on the ratings received from previous business travelers. Thanks to this new toggle, it will be much simpler to book accommodation for your business trip via Airbnb.

Staycations on the increase in London

All work and no play will make Jack a dull boy. However, the pound’s weaker performance of late has thrown a spanner in the works of Brits planning their summer holidays. City Relay, one of London’s main property management companies, has revealed that staycations in the capital is becoming more popular and has risen by more than 100% in a year. According to them, over 40% of guests staying at their listings situated in London are in fact citizens of the United Kingdom. So, hosts get ready to open your home to locals and make your property their home not so far from their real home. 

Short-term rentals on the increase in Edinburgh

Staying in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh has seen a huge increase in the number of properties listed on Airbnb. In the past three years, the number of rentals available on Airbnb has doubled! One of the reasons why so many landlords in the capital of Scotland have decided to opt for vacation rentals instead is the fact that these have less stringent safety checks and fewer codes of conduct that they need to comply with compared to long-term rentals. 

Austin is awesome

According to a report released by RedAwning, Austin is fast becoming one of the most popular destinations. Last year alone, Austin welcomed 30 million travelers! This is close to a 50% increase in a span of two years. In this report, attention was also focused on the increase in investor attention in Austin’s vacation rental industry.

Airbnb has also released a new list of destinations that have received the biggest increase in travel search bookings this upcoming autumn compared to the same period last year. Both Beatenberg in Switzerland and Regina in Canada have enjoyed an increase of more than 300%, while Beppu in Japan boasts an increase of close to 300%. The latter will be hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup later this year which most likely plays a major factor in this city’s significant increase in popularity.

Safety first!

Although this is our last story for this month, safety should always come first. One provider that realizes this is CertiStay. In our very first digest in March, we reported that CertiStay has announced that they would start to audit short-term rentals enabling property owners to get their properties certified. The good news is that CertiStay’s proof of concept trial has been successful and they will now make this service available in various locations throughout North America. 

Although short-term rentals have increased dramatically, there is still not a lot of safety standardization for property owners or managers. Guests also have no clear way of making sure that the listing that they have booked meets these safety standards. 

Randy Bacik, the CEO of CertiStay, commented that the current short-term rental regulations were unclear and lacked consistency and that their audited certification solution will offer property owners the chance to minimize their security issues and liability, while at the same time giving their guests peace of mind that they do follow best practices. What’s more, homeowners might even benefit from the cheaper insurance!

That’s it for now. Stay in touch and subscribe to our newsletter not to miss the next Short-term Rental News Digest.