2022 Industry Roundup: Short-Term Rental Top Trends (According to the Experts)

Experts share top short-term rental industry trends from 2022

As we get ready to head into the new year, it’s important to look back at what we’ve seen the short-term rental industry do thus far. While things are constantly changing, we know history has a way of repeating itself, so taking some time to reflect on what we’ve seen from the industry in 2022 can give us some insight on what to expect in 2023. 

To establish some of the biggest trends we saw this year, we asked five of our industry experts to give us their biggest takeaways from the short-term rental industry in 2022. This is what they said: 

Comfort of Home

More guests were seeking the comfort of home when looking for short-term rentals this year. Instead of opting for a hotel or a standard rental, we saw guests gravitating towards rentals that provided a sense of comfort.

“Guests consider homes first for stays that are best suited for them, and are becoming more comfortable with the ‘unique’ features of these properties.” – Andrew Bate (CEO, Safely)

Professional Process Improvement

We saw more property managers shift focus to adding in more automation; investing in new resources, tools, and technology to increase business in a more professional and streamlined way.

“Professional property managers (PMs) continue to professionalize, and this professionalization is increasing due to availability of good technology, increased revenue, and competition.” – Andrew Bate (CEO, Safely)

Multi-Family Properties Add Short-Term Rentals

With an increase in demand for short-term rentals, multi-family properties found value in adding short-term rentals to their portfolios. This allowed for property owners to choose where they would get more value, as well as appealing to a wider audience.

 “Multi-family properties are looking to manage short-term rentals themselves, alongside their long-term rentals.” – Andrew Bate (CEO, Safely)

Continued Growth

With more guests seeking the comfort of home and more property managers seeing the value of short-term rentals, it makes sense that a huge trend we saw in 2022 was continued growth in the industry. We know guests are seeking more unique experiences when traveling and short-term rentals fit right into that need.

“There continues to be a large amount of growth in the STR space. We are seeing more and more homes (inventory) being added into this space as options for travelers. Average daily rates (ADR) continue to grow to match the economy that we are in currently.” – Jamey King (VP of Travel Partnerships, Safely)

Longer Stays

This may seem obvious, but this year showed us that working from home is likely a more permanent solution for a lot of people. Because of that, people can really work from anywhere, which is why we saw such an increase in longer stays.

“Since people can now work remotely, the stays are longer where possible: 30, 60, 90+ days.” -Heather Lewitt (Director of Customer Onboarding, Safely)

Automation and Personalization

As we mentioned previously, we saw PMs focus more of their efforts on improving their processes to be more automated and professional. As a result, this allowed for PMs to have more time to provide a more personal relationship with their guests.

“While traveling to the various conferences, I met a lot of the PMs face to face either for the first time or once or twice before. And the sentiment of the conversation was always the same. The PMs were looking for ways to automate a lot of their systems while still offering a personal touch of service to their guests. I feel this is our sentiment as well. A PM told me that once a year, her team assesses where they can “trim the fat.” She said that her team always reminds her that they can cover their stays for cheaper and Safely is not the cheapest option. And she said, every year she reminds the team she has the cell phone number of the Claims Manager and she can call at any time and get things handled. So, as we get busier and busier, remember our PMs appreciate phone calls.” – Amber Harris (Head of Insurance Claims, Safely)

Property Manager and Vendor Relationship Improvement

Similar to PMs improving the relationship with their guests, they also shifted focus to improving their vendor relationships.

“PMs value the personal touch from their vendors. They like building a relationship. They are all entrepreneurs and care about their business and customers. When they build a relationship, they know that we care about them.” – Lui King (Head of Partnerships, Safely)