What’s The Prediction?

If you have or are thinking about investing in a short term rental, then following travel trends is an important metric. This article, One Chart Shows How Airbnb Is Preparing For A Travel Boom, shares predications for the upcoming travel season.

A few highlights from the article that predict increased travel are:

  • employee headcount increased by 15%
  • increased search results for vacation terms like “beach” and “island”
  • if projections are correct, travel would surpass pre-pandemic levels by about 6%

One of the most important factors that stood out is a quote about why travel may boom over other industries. “At the same time, they built up their savings. At the same time, it’s not easy to buy a lot of things you’d like because of supply chains. So let’s say you want to buy a new car. Well, not so easy getting new cars sometimes right now. Let’s go and travel.”

Previously, we shared about supply chain issues here. With so many different factors that can affect the supply chain, some people may choose to forgo spending their money on something risky, like a car that will likely be delayed, and line up a vacation instead.

What Investors Should Watch For

If you currently own a short term rental, you’ll want to pay close attention to these trends with supply and demand.

  • Pay close attention to your pricing strategy. Are you able to charge more?
  • When business is booming, it can be easy to let things slip. Make sure your systems are dialed in now before you’re too busy to focus on them.
  • Communicate with your team that things may be busier than normal to help set expectations. Think about how you and the team can handle the increased workload.

If you don’t own a short term rental yet but have been wanting to dive in.

  • Watch which markets are busiest. Are they drive-in or fly-in vacation destinations?
  • Go into Airbnb or other platforms. Analyze which properties are the most booked. What stands out about those properties?
  • Research regulations in the area. Some markets have certain properties grandfathered in and don’t allow new short term rentals. Is this a market worth analyzing further?

Wrapping It Up

It will be interesting to see just how much travel happens during these next spring and summer months. Will short term rental investors have one of their best years yet? We’ll be keeping our pulse on these trends.