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Thursday 17 June, 2021
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78 per cent of US and EU travellers prefer vacation rentals over other accommodation options
Worldwide: Research from Europ Assistance (EA) and Generali Global Assistance (GGA) found that 78 per cent of US and EU travellers are more likely to book a vacation rental above all other types of accommodations in the next 18 months.
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EDITOR'S COMMENT
17•06•21 Welcome to the latest ShortTermRentalz newsletter.
• The news this week has shed some light on both the public and private moves Airbnb is making to improve its image and enhance its perception with guests and lawmakers alike.
Firstly, the Airbnb Community Fund will distribute $100 million to more than 150 global organisations over the next 10 years, including Mann Deshi Foundation in India, the Affordable Homeownership Foundation in the United States, Urban Refugees in France, and the India Covid-19 Relief Fund.
Airbnb has also partnered with arch rival Vrbo to address disruptive party houses, by developing the Community Integrity Program.
The two industry giants, which previously had separate initiatives to monitor party houses, will work alongside a third-party intermediary to build a process that “identifies properties that have been permanently removed from each platform due to repeated violations of respective community policies”.
Both initiatives are admirable and have obviously benefitted from the full weight of Airbnb's, and in the latter case also Expedia Group's, PR machine.
But Airbnb's attempts to control the narrative don't always work, and there was a fascinating story which was broken by Bloomberg this week, revealing the activities of Airbnb's "Black Box" team - a group of up to 100 agents who were called in to manage crisis situations at properties, which could include criminal behaviour up to and including rape and murder.
It is thought the team spent up to $50 million per year. Former members of the team described paying for bullet holes to be covered in walls, and for body fluid teams to remove blood. The money also went towards counselling, sexually transmitted disease testing, flights, new accommodations, health costs, and more.
Running Airbnb is a case of constantly firefighting - usually metaphorically, but in a few rare cases, literally.
• STRz editor Paul Stevens is on holiday this week, but don't forget to sign up for his next RockStrz webinar - The challenges and opportunities facing the short-term rental industry, which takes place at 4:00pm BST on June 29.
The session will cover:
• The regulatory outlook in short-term rental markets around the world
• The importance of advocacy for fair regulations in the short-term rental industry
• The key to maintaining a balance between attracting domestic travellers and combatting over-tourism
• Growth opportunities for the short-term rental space in the coming years
• How Brian Chesky’s vision for ‘travel redistribution’ will play out
Click here to sign up for the no-cost session.
Please click here or contact me if you have a story you want us to tell the industry, or you would like to take part in a feature, podcast or webinar.
For more information and sponsorship / creative solutions advice, contact us at info@internationalhospitality.media.
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International Hospitality Media is the premier specialist in online publishing; conference, exhibition and events, and advisory services for growth sectors of the hospitality industry. The company publishes three industry-leading b2b websites - BoutiqueHotelNews.com and ServicedApartmentNews.com and ShortTermRentalz.com which keep their respective sectors up to speed with news, comment and opinion.
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