Short-term Rental News Digest – October 2020

Noise monitoring services have made a lot of noise this month. Both Airbnb and Vrbo have partnered with companies to offer vacation homeowners, and property managers discounted prices for these services. 

To help prevent parties, Airbnb also took it one step further and banned one-night stays over Halloween weekend. While some hosts have been tricked in the past by guests throwing a party, the majority of hosts have been treated by guests who treat their properties with the utmost respect. 

So, do not let the few stories scare you from hosting. Instead, let’s look to 2021, which is around the corner, and start preparing our properties and adjust our marketing for the new travel trends that have emerged.   

Airbnb Announces New Changes to Prevent Parties

Based on the feedback received from hundreds of hosts, Airbnb has introduced new features to help curb unauthorized parties and big gatherings. These changes include improving the visibility of a host’s house rules and showing more flexibility if a host cancels a booking when they have a sound reason to believe that there will be an unauthorized party. 

In a bold move, Airbnb has also disallowed guests from making a one-night booking on October 30 or October 31 in Canada and the US. For any confirmed bookings that have already been made before this ban, Airbnb will reimburse both the guests as well as the hosts. 

Airbnb and Roomonitor Join Forces

Thanks to a partnership between Airbnb and Roomintor, some hosts in Barcelona and Madrid will be able to access noise monitoring services free of charge for 6 months. Roomonitor analyzes sound patterns and then notifies a host when the level of noise is higher than the limit determined by the host beforehand. As it does not access audio, the privacy of guests remains protected.   

NoiseAware and Vrbo Offers Noise Monitoring Discounts

In a similar move, NoiseAware and Vrbo have joined forces to offer homeowners who list on Vrbo special discounts and services. Thanks to the special pricing offer, homeowners can save as much as 50%. They are also offering a free 60-day trial to property managers who have multiple properties. 

Hosts who want to use a noise monitoring solution must indicate it in the description of their listing on Vrbo. Also, NoiseAware only takes decibel readings regularly and then converts it to a Noise Risk Score. Thus, no audio will ever be transmitted, streamed, or recorded. 

Kevin Locraft, the vice president of Vrbo’s Partner Success Strategy & Operations explains, “Working with NoiseAware as a trusted noise monitoring solution furthers our commitment to helping our homeowners and property managers provide great vacation rental experiences for their guests and their communities.”

Airbnb Updates Their Covid-19 Safety Practices

From now on, Airbnb will require all hosts and guests to adhere to Airbnb’s Covid-19 Safety Practices. These practices include social distancing and wearing a mask when interacting. 

Hosts must also ensure that Airbnb’s five-step enhanced cleaning process is implemented. Hosts will have till November 20 to implement this new cleaning protocol to avoid account suspensions or possibly even removal. 

The needs of guests have changed and internal data gathered by Airbnb has shown that the listings that have already implemented the new cleaning protocol are getting more bookings. Hosts can refer to Airbnb’s Resource Center and Airbnb Cleaning Hub for more information and resources like recommended cleaning products and checklists.  

AirDNA Shares a Report About US Rental Investments

According to a report released by AirDNA, Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the best US cities to invest in a vacation rental. The Best Places to Invest in US Vacation Rentals in 2020 were selected based on revenue growth, demand, and other investability statistics to calculate the AirDNA Investor Score. According to this report, travel behavior has changed, and, as a result, the majority of the markets are completely new. Some of the rising markets include the Appalachian Mountains and northern California.

Top Three Travel Trends for 2021

It is almost time to usher in the new year. Airbnb has identified three trends that could possibly impact travel behavior in 2021. The pandemic had a tremendous influence on the tourism sector this past year alone, and these effects will continue to shape the travel industry in 2021. 

Firstly, the platform predicts that remote working will continue to play a factor and an increase in people choosing to relocate is anticipated. According to the data gathered by Airbnb, 20% of the participants who were surveyed have relocated recently. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of guests who booked a property to familiarize themselves with a new neighborhood before moving. 

A second trend for 2021 is the increase in domestic travel. Not only will travelers continue to show more interest in destinations that are in driving distance, but unique travel experiences will continue to be popular choices. Airbnb predicts that accommodation like yurts, domes, and treehouses will be trending. 

Lastly, Airbnb also predicts that “pod” travel will increase. More guests will travel as a group of friends or family in order to reunite or simply stay safely together. 

New Hospitality Show Launched

NoiseAware, the hotel booking platform Bidroom and Wil Slickers of Slick Talk: The Hospitality Podcast have created a new morning show aimed at the hospitality industry. The new show will offer valuable content aimed at all sectors in the hospitality industry, helping these professionals to remain knowledgeable. Good Morning Hospitality will air on Monday mornings in the US and will be hosted by Slickers, Michael Ros (the CEO of Bidroom), and Michael Goldin (NoiseAware’s director of business development).