Short-term rental data story

The story of Q1 2023 in short-term rental data. Scroll to read through animated chapters on on the outlook, OTA platforms, industry growth & evolution vs hotels

Just 33% of vacation rentals are listed across multiple top OTAs

The majority (57%) of current global vacation rental inventory is listed solely on Airbnb. Booking.com holds 3% of global listings exclusively, with 6% only listed on Vrbo.

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A further 33% of inventory worldwide is listed on multiple platforms. 10% is listed on all 3 of the main OTAs while only 1% is listed on just Booking.com and Vrbo.

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Cumulatively, this means that Airbnb lists 89% of global short-term rental properties on its platform, with Booking.com and Vrbo both at 27%.

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OTA supply occupies different geographies

Considering the distribution of this inventory, the majority of properties hosted on Airbnb lie in the states.

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Conversely, Booking.com supply sits predominantly over the Atlantic in European countries.

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Vrbo meanwhile has more of an even spread of listings, with stronger footholds in the rest of the world than its counterparts.

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Overall, Europe holds over 7 million listings to 3.7 million in North America. Latin America and Asia are both home to just under 1 million, while Oceania is growing from 300k listings.

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Airbnb are tackling their host churn

After 1 year... While 72% of hosts joining in 2018 were still active one year on in 2019, 79% of 2021 joiners were still hosting as of 2022 - a 10% improvement!

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After 2 years of hosting...62% of hosts are still active as of 2022. This is up on just 54% of 2018 joiners persisting into 2020.

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3 years on...For 2022 churn stands at 52%. Roughly translated this means that half of Airbnb hosts remain active for 3 years. This longer retention has seen less improvement over the past 5 years than the shorter terms of 1 and 2 years, but it's worth remembering that other inevitable factors come into play such as relisting or change of ownership.

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You may have noticed that this reduction in churn has been a consistent trend until 2023, where we see a drop in retention. A proportion of hosts who haven't been active through Q1, will likely host at some stage through the remainder of 2023. As such, we expect retention to pick up through to Q4. The farthest reach of our data suggests that around one third of hosts will now still be active after 5 years on Airbnb.

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Vrbo sells the most expensive short-term rental nights on average

One night in a 2 bedroom vacation rental takes $324 on average on Vrbo, compared to $209 on Airbnb. Booking.com sits towards Airbnb at the lower end of the scale at $235.

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Booking.com short-term rental stays are shortest

Vrbo and Airbnb stays are more comparable in duration at 4.4 and 4.2 days respectively, both exceeding Booking.com which averages 3.8 days.

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Airbnb bookings have the shortest booking lead time

On the other hand, Airbnb bookings are more likely to be last minute (booked 41 days ahead on average) while Booking.com (66 days) and Vrbo (71 days) draw longer lead times.

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Vacation rentals, and OTAs, are a seasonal game

Airbnb sees the highest percentage of its check-ins in the months of March, July, August, September and October. January is the low point.

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Interestingly, April welcomes fewest Vrbo check-ins. Properties see their stay peaks similarly to Airbnb between June and September. Predictably the hotspot for all 3 OTAs is Summer, but reservation distribution outside of that varies and should play into management strategy.

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