Short-term Rental News Digest – August 2022

New feature releases, aimed at making the lives of hosts and property managers easier, dominated the short-term rental news this past month. 

To help hosts with security, Airbnb is launching anti-party technology in select countries, while yours truly launched a useful security deposit feature. 

If you do not need help in the security department, you can always benefit from tools to help you price your listing better. So, be sure to check out AirDNA’s new addition to their MarketMinder dashboard. 

By looking at the numbers achieved this summer in Europe, and what’s predicted for the rest of the year, investing in new tools that can help with your hosting routine makes financial sense. While temperatures are set to decrease in the northern hemisphere, the demand for short-term rental accommodation is not expected to cool down soon. 

iGMS Launches Security Deposit Feature

This month, iGMS introduced a new, exciting feature — the iGMS Security Deposit. 

This feature will help hosts to collect a set amount per direct booking that will be used as a security deposit in case of potential property damage. 

What makes this feature so attractive is that it will give users complete control over the claim process. While other vacation rental sites allow you to charge a security deposit for bookings generated via their site, you will have to stick to their rules. Though, with iGMS, you only have to keep in mind local regulations. 

It also offers hosts more flexibility as they can decide whether they want to charge a percentage of the booking, a flat amount, or perhaps even both.  

AirDNA Announces Big Update to MarketMinder

AirDNA has shared that it will be introducing a big update — a Rates tool — to MarketMinder, its data and analytics dashboard. This new update will help short-term rental hosts to improve their market research and the performance of their listings. 

With the tool, MarketMinder subscribers will enjoy a more customized experience that will help them to understand the type and price point of any short-term rental better. 

With the help of five extra filters, they will be better equipped to optimize their average daily rate. Users will also be able to access and export five years of historical average daily rate data to help them with goal setting and business projections.

The new feature will be made available across the world to all MarketMinder subscribers. What’s more, MarketMinder is also planning to release more customizations in the coming months. 

Airbnb Releases New Anti-party Tech

Over in Canada and the United States, Airbnb has introduced new tools to help curb parties. With the help of this new technology, it will be easier for hosts to identify potentially high-risk guests. 

To do this, it will take into account factors like review history, how long the guest has been using the platform, the length of the trip, and if the booking will fall over the weekend. If this system prevents a guest from booking a whole home listing, they will still be able to book a private room. 

While this new technology will be introduced only in North America, Airbnb piloted a similar system in Australia last year. The results that this pilot program generated look promising and incidents of unauthorized parties decreased by over a third. 

New eCommerce Platform for STR Shopping

Meet Inhaven — a one-stop, eCommerce platform aimed at vacation rental hosts and property managers. Here hosts and managers will be able to shop for a long list of products that will help them to furnish their properties for the ultimate guest experience. 

Included in its product range are towels, bed linen, branded toiletries, and items to make your patio more inviting. 

What makes this such a useful platform is that shoppers will be treated to recognized brands at better pricing. What’s more, if an item still does not quite fit in with your month’s budget, Inhaven also supports popular “buy now, pay later” payment methods like PayPal Credit and Klarna. 

Occupancy on an Upward Trend in Europe 

Vacation rental hosts in Europe enjoyed a strong summer season, according to data shared by AirDNA. Data reveals that Europe recorded nearly 50 million booked nights in July. What makes this number even more impressive is that this is an increase of about 8% compared to pre-pandemic levels. 

While the number of nights booked was higher than in July 2019, occupancy rates have not quite returned to those of three years ago yet. That being said, hosts were still able to charge on average about 3% more than for the same period last year.

Cities that enjoyed the highest growth are:

• Lisbon
• Budapest
• Porto

While these cities might be trending destinations currently, the countries where most travelers are flocking to are:

• Germany
• Belgium
• Greece
• Austria

Summer might be coming to a close, but the rest of the year also looks promising. When compared to the same period last year, nights booked across Europe for the rest of 2022 are more than 35% higher. 

Travel Bookings Expected to Take Off

A white paper published by the Travel Intelligence Network on behalf of the UK Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA) reveals that the demand for short-term rental bookings for business purposes is enjoying great growth. 

Since the pandemic has ended, members of this association shared that they received about a quarter more business travel bookings. One of the reasons for this increase is that travel managers are giving their employees more freedom to choose where they want to stay. Nearly 10% of companies now also include non-hotel accommodation for their employees when they need to travel for work. 

What’s more, short-term rentals are expected to account for nearly 20% of the European accommodation market by the end of this year.