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How OTA Travel Trends Will Impact Short-Term Rentals In 2025 – Image Credit Lighthouse
For travelers, lines continue to blur between choosing a short term rental or a hotel when considering their next stay.
Proliferating short-term rental supply and increased visibility of these accommodations on major Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) continue to make them a viable, and even routine option for travelers who may have previously not considered them.
That said, while guests may be less hesitant to book a short term rental for their next vacation, short-term rentals still show some unique trends when looking closer at the data. If you are a short term rental host, understanding the latest online travel trends is crucial if you want to stay ahead of the curve and prepare yourself for the uncertainty a new year brings.
In this blog, we’ll revisit some of our past data and observations updated for the upcoming year, along with new findings.
A look at the current state of the short-term rental market
From a supply perspective, In 2024 the number of listed units reached all-time highs for all major regions (Europe, North America, Asia, LATAM, and Oceania).
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Asia, LATAM, and Oceania show much more modest growth rates and property counts, but there are silver linings in regions such as LATAM, where booking volume has exploded in some cases by more than 100% – compared with 2019 levels (more on this later in the article)
Although supply trends are extremely promising, there are some headwinds, especially in the form of anti-short-term rental legislation, and a growing anti-tourist sentiment in some destinations that have long been subjected to ‘overtourism’.
Despite these headwinds, and estimates that the overall short term rental industry will be a $172 Billion industry by 2030, all signals point toward additional short term rental supply growth in 2025.
From a demand perspective, things remain hopeful for short term rentals worldwide, with levels continuing to show strong growth over pre-pandemic levels (2019).
Also, as we’ll discuss below, the frequency with which short term rentals and vacation rentals are appearing in hotel searches on OTA platforms is increasing, which is likely unlocking additional demand, especially in the EMEA and LATAM regions.
Vacation rental inventory distribution across top OTAs
When we first wrote on this topic in 2023, we found some fascinating trends: then, 33% of short term rentals were listed across multiple top OTAs. When it came to channel preference, 57% of vacation rental inventory was listed solely on Airbnb with only 6% exclusively listed on Vrbo (a subsidiary of Expedia), and 3% exclusively listed on Booking.com
Also, in 2023 10% of worldwide short term rental supply was listed on all three of the main OTAs (AirBnB, VRBO and Booking),and only 1% is listed on a combination of just Booking.com and Vrbo. Cumulatively, Airbnb listed 89% of global short-term rental properties on its platform, with Booking.com and Vrbo both at 27% in 2023.
When looking at the rental data at the end of 2024 however, some rather surprising trends have emerged. First, and perhaps most surprising is that the number of worldwide short term rentals listing on more than one OTA provider has actually declined to just 28.8%, indicating that short term rental property managers increasingly prefer to list on just one OTA, rather than multiple.
According to the latest data, the number of short term rentals listing on all three major channels (AirBnb, VRBO, Booking.com) has also decreased to 5.82%, a major shift, further reinforcing the finding that short term rental properties are preferring to list on just a single OTA.
Surprisingly, the % of short term rentals listed solely on AirBnB declined to 45.95%. The amount of short term rentals listed only on Vrbo also dropped to 3.34%, but the largest surprise came from booking.com. As of December 2024, the number of worldwide short term rentals that are listed for sale only on booking.com has jumped to 13.6% of total listings.
One factor that could be driving this is the increase in the number of short term rentals showing up in hotel searches on booking.com.
Short term rental owners who choose to list on Booking.com do gain access to a wide audience of shoppers who are looking for hotels, but may also be open to booking a short term rental.
Our Lighthouse data shows that as recently as November of 2024 the % share of short term rental listings appearing in booking.com searches is 26.61% in the EMEA region, 14.61% in the LATAM region, 5.98% in APAC, and 4.19% in North America.
Consider the various factors at play: The proliferation of short-term rental supply in Europe, the increase in short-term rental listings in Booking.com hotel searches, combined with the popularity of Booking.com as the primary platform in Europe, is leading to an environment where hosts are now much more comfortable using booking.com as their only OTA partner!
Our director of hospitality research Blake Reiter recently did a Lighthouse Quick Take on this very topic which you can see here!
Trends in ADR, Length of Stay, and other metrics
But what about trends in ADR and length of stay? Does all of the increased supply and demand mean longer stays and higher rates for short-term rental operators?
Pricing Trends
2024 was a banner year for short term rental ADRs – to illustrate, 2024 weekly ADR performance in the global short-term rental market was higher than any previous year for all but 10 weeks of the year.
It is interesting to note that for 10 of the final 11 weeks of 2024 pricing did slip below 2023 performance, but for the vast majority of the year, 2024 ADRs far surpassed 2019 – 2023 performance.
Length of Stay
Length of stay trends remain very much in line with 2022 and 2023 performance, and there haven’t been many shake-ups since the tumultuous effects of the pandemic. Interestingly, the effects of covid seem to have permanently increased consumer preferences for longer lengths of stay, likely due to travelers taking domestic ‘staycations’ during lockdown due to international travel restrictions.
Country of origin
Broadly, the percentage of domestic travelers staying in short-term rentals continues to fall, but countries such as the US still see 84% of travelers coming from the domestic market. Spain was the country with the lowest percentage of domestic guests at only 55%. It is important for short-term rental operators to understand how much domestic vs. international demand they can expect to better tailor their marketing strategies.
What do these trends mean for 2025?
What are some of our main takeaways from these findings, and how can you as a short term rental owner / operator/ host start preparing for the new year?
Here are our takeaways and predictions for 2025:
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Short-term rental property managers will continue to participate with major OTA’s, but with a heavy dose of ‘favoritism’ for only those channels that provide steady bookings and easy distribution. Expect short-term rentals to be reluctant to list across multiple OTAs unless there is a big benefit for doing so.
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Supply and demand will likely both increase in 2025, especially in markets with plenty of room to grow such as APAC and North America. Europe may eventually see downward pressure on rates/ADR if supply continues to surge higher, but this trend hasn’t materialized yet.
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Online Travel Agents will continue to increase the number of short term listings appearing in hotel searches, as they aim to offer more diverse and better offerings to travelers. Expect OTA’s to continue drawing from the vacation rental market and short term rental markets to bolster organic hotel search results.
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Savvy short-term rental operators will continue improving their distribution technology, especially for the occupancy benefits they can receive during low-demand periods. While it may be easy to sell rooms via just one OTA channel in the peak season, or over a major event – for off-peak seasons, the benefits of the added visibility far outweigh the costs. Recent advancements in distribution technology now make distribution much easier for short term rentals to utilize these tools.
Stay up to date with evolving short-term rental trends
As mentioned, the lines between hotels and short term rentals continue to blur, and it’s important as a short term rental owner/operator to understand key trends happening with Online Travel Agents.
Depending on your market it’s crucial to broaden your horizons and think about market segments like a hotelier. Not all guests will be a typical leisure tourist, so consider strategies that you can implement now that will capture longer LOS guests, maximize ADR, and visibility.
The short-term rental landscape continues to be more fragmented than the hotel space simply due to differences in distribution and operations of short-term rentals as compared to hotels. There are still major opportunities for short-term rental property owners to adopt solutions that help them reduce booking friction, increase visibility on multiple channels, and reduce issues like parity and stale inventory.
About Lighthouse
Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) is the leading commercial platform for the travel & hospitality industry. We transform complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth. We continually innovate to deliver the best platform for hospitality professionals to price more effectively, measure performance more efficiently, and understand the market in new ways.
Trusted by over 65,000 hotels in 185 countries, Lighthouse is the only solution that provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. We strive to deliver the best possible experience with unmatched customer service. We consider our clients as true partners – their success is our success.
