Around the world: Inspired by Spotify’s Wrapped series, we’re reviewing the 20 stories from 2023 that explained a year for short-term rentals, as well as our favorite videos, podcasts, and webinars from the past year.
Saudi Arabia is launching its own asset rental portal to conquer markets such as Airbnb, following the passage of a new tourism law in the Kingdom.
European Camping Group [ECG], an excursion operator specialising in the mobile home holiday market, has completed the €1 billion acquisition of France’s Vacanceselect Group.
The deal saw ECG triple its campsite portfolio to include 500 sites across France, Spain, Italy, Croatia and the Netherlands, making it the largest provider of outdoor accommodation in Europe.
Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank at the time in the United States, was closed on 10 March by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The collapse of SVB, which specialised in lending to tech firms and startups, was the largest failure of a US bank since Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crash, and sent shockwaves around the world.
After a frantic weekend of negotiations, U. S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen approved measures that allowed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [FDIC] to complete Silicon Valley Bank’s solution, protecting all creditors and “strengthening public confidence” in the U. S. banking system.
French home exchange platform HomeExchange acquired British competitor Love Home Swap to strengthen its position in the UK, the United States and Australia. Prior to that, the company had raised around €54 million in funding and recorded 225,000 home exchanges in 2022 – a 32 per cent rise on 2019 figures,
It was HomeExchange’s first acquisition since 2019, when NightSwapping was acquired for an undisclosed amount, and then the company acquired French rival My Weekend for You, also in March. Co-founder Emmanuel Arnaud was a speaker at the first STRz Summit in October in London. .
Short-term rental accommodation company Sonder laid off about a hundred workers from the company in early March, representing about 14% of the startup’s total workforce.
The layoffs took effect at the end of the first quarter, representing the latest wave of layoffs at Sonder after it laid off 21% of its corporate team and seven percent of its frontline staff in June 2022 as part of a restructuring.
Previously, Sonder reduced its stake by 22 percent at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hostaway, an all-in-one vacation rental management software and system, announced a $175 million capital build in May.
The investment was led by PSG, an expansion capital firm that partners with software and generation companies to help them drive their expansion.
The company planned to use the proceeds to fuel its expansion trajectory, expand globally, increase its headcount, its visitor service, improve onboarding processes, and look for biological and inbiological opportunities to increase its walk percentage.
Habitas, a luxury hotel brand, accommodation and experiential reporting company, has earned $400 million [1. 5 billion riyals] from the Saudi government and investment network as the Kingdom develops its tourism industry for a wave of visitors foreigners in the coming years. .
The money was invested through a “Habitat Fund,” created through the Saudi Arabia Tourism Development Fund [TDF], to help the company expand across the Kingdom and attract more tourists.
Reportedly, the company is planning to expand to more destinations such as Jeddah and Riyadh.
Lyric, a provider of apartment-style accommodation, has been relaunched with a new property after being acquired through investment advisory firm Black Swan.
The news came two-and-a-half years after the original company was forced out of the lease due to the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a year after profit monitoring tool Wheelhouse was spun off from Lyric [its parent company].
Originally founded in 2014, Lyric sold its newest location at 70 Pine Street in New York City in November 2020 to New York-based operator Mint House. In April 2019, the startup raised $160 million in a Series B investment circular run through Airbnb. However, it laid off about 20% of its staff at the start of the pandemic, a year later.
Expedia Group introduced its new loyalty program across its three brands, allowing users to earn and redeem rewards on eligible flights, hotels, vacation homes, car rentals, cruises, and activities.
One Key unifies the group’s three brands (Vrbo, Expedia and Hotels. com) into one versatile loyalty program. Lately it will be available in the U. S. It will launch globally starting next year.
The programme will have more than 168 million members across the combined brands with membership divided into four tiers.
Expedia Group has ended its relationship with rival online [OTA] company Hopper, accusing the latter of “exploiting customer anxiety and confusing them. “
The group, which for several years had provided Hopper with vacation rentals and hotels, informed its competitor that it would end the partnership as soon as possible. Expedia Group’s decision prompted a swift reaction from Hopper, who said the decision was made because Expedia considered Hopper to be “a significant competitive threat. “
In October, Hopper ended its hotel partnership with Booking. com.
Proptech startup Casai ceased operations in Brazil and Mexico in July after its founders sold their operations and portfolio to other operators based in Latin America.
In a candid letter posted on LinkedIn through Nico Barawid, Casai’s co-founder and CEO, he showed that the company had moved its homes to operators in Mexico and Brazil, adding Blueground, Wynwood House, and Oasis Collections.
The explosive announcement came less than three years after Casai raised $48 million in a Series A investment round. At the time, it was the largest Series A through a company in Mexico and one of the largest in history from Latin America.
Nights in e-cities saw a 13% year-on-year increase as visitors returned to cities, while analysts said the strong position of the U. S. dollar had prompted more consumers to e-book flights to destinations as well as domestic stays.
New short-term rental regulations went into effect in September in New York, affecting tens of thousands of properties.
The move came after a state Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Airbnb against New York City over what it called “extreme and oppressive” restrictions and a “de facto ban” against its short-term rental operations in the city.
Eligible hosts will now have to prove they live in the assets they’re renting and that they comply with municipal protection codes and other regulatory requirements, or they could face fines of up to $5,000.
A move to end a short-term rental licensing formula in Scotland has been defeated after a vote in the Scottish Parliament failed.
Using its parliamentary space, Scotland’s Conservative and Unionist Party forced a vote on a 12-month delay of a national short-term rental licence formula before the October 1 deadline. They argued that the implementation of the proposed new regulations would have a very negative effect on Scotland’s tourism sector and the economy as a whole.
The deadline to apply for a license from suppliers had already been extended to October 1 for further consultations on the issue. However, Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Humza Yousaf ruled out a second extension of the deadline following protests from accommodation providers.
Global hospitality company Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced that it was introducing a new short-term vacation rental platform – Homes & Hideaways by World of Hyatt.
Loyal World of Hyatt members will be able to e-book a variety of private rental hotels in the U. S. and Canada. From beachfront getaways to mountainside ski chalets, you can earn and redeem emissions if you deviate from a traditional hotel stay.
While making plans to expand housing
Google introduced price comparisons as part of its vacation rental search experience, building on its existing offering for hotels and flights. Travellers will be able to see multiple travel sites on which a property is listed and choose the site with which they want to book as they browse for vacation rentals on Google.
The new feature was introduced “in most parts of the world” in November, with other EU countries expected to follow in 2024.
Google needs valuable comparison to help users save money, make eBooks with confidence, and make it easier to plan their trip, as well as drive more traffic to attractive partner sites by expanding impressions for all resources and helping users make more informed decisions.
Ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), Indian hotel chain OYO was seeking $250 million from investors in a pre-IPO investment round. A very significant portion of the financing is expected to be used to pay off OYO’s $660 million B term loan and debt.
The chain first filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2021, but its potential board has been delayed several times. At the time of writing, OYO is yet to close its IPO and high-profile figures have left.
In November, Airbnb made its first acquisition as a public company, buying GamePlanner. AI, a stealth artificial intelligence company run by Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer and Siamak Hodjat, for about $200 million.
Notable acquisitions that led to Airbnb’s initial public offering in 2020 included hotel booking service HotelTonight, extended-stay accommodation platform Urbandoor, French concierge company Luckey Homes, and Danish booking site Gaest.
Airbnb is GamePlanner. AI’s expertise to power some AI projects and integrate teams into its own platform. It already uses AI on its platform, adding giant language models, PC vision models, and device learning, as well as an AI-based photo tour. tool introduced at its winter launch.
Canadian personal justice company Brookfield has scrapped plans to sell the resort chain Center Parcs in a £4 billion deal due to high interest rates and inflation. The agreement would have concerned the sale of Center Parcs’ six holiday resorts in the UK and Ireland.
Center Parcs was put up for sale through Brookfield in May for between £4 billion and £5 billion, more than double the £2. 4 billion it paid to buy the chain from Blackstone eight years ago. However, Brookfield was unable to locate a client because no offer was made before the deadline set for the end of July.
In November, The European Council and European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a draft regulation on data collection and sharing for short-term rental accommodation services across the European Union [ EU ], in a bid to “promote a balanced tourism ecosystem”. The legislation is expected to be formally confirmed this month.
The proposed regulation aims to increase transparency in the short-term rental sector across the EU, as well as to help public governments regulate this segment appropriately. The new regulations will require unique registration numbers to be displayed on real estate internet sites to gather information. and share with hosting providers and online platforms.
Steve Milo [VTrips], Ben Edgar-Spier [Sykes Holiday Cottages], Viktorija Molnar [EHHA] and Keiran Craig-Jones [STAAA] discussed the existential threats to the short-term rentals industry, what advocacy organisations are doing to combat disproportionate regulations, and why now is the time to join an industry association.
Catherine Powell, Airbnb’s Global Head of Accommodation, spoke about safety and security on Airbnb’s platform, prioritizing sustainable and guilty tourism, and how artificial intelligence and device learning will create a more personalized booking search experience.
We recorded an interesting verbal exchange with Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy, about how his time at Airbnb motivated the launch of MEA, the growing need for entrepreneurship, and Airbnb’s increased opportunity as a knowledge company to shape the future of travel. .