Tuesday 31 August, 2021 - Weekly round-up

LISTEN: STRz podcast: Vacasa CEO Matt Roberts

Vacasa CEO Matt Roberts is the guest for the latest episode of the ShortTermRentalz podcast, discussing everything from the challenges he has faced since the start of the pandemic, the company's aggressive expansion, and Vacasa's upcoming SPAC merger.      

EDITOR'S COMMENT

• The number of companies in the short-term rental space going public or considering it is rising all the time as more and more ambitious brands look to piggyback on the success of Airbnb's IPO from last year.

Since the conclusion of Airbnb's IPO in December, there has been something of a ripple effect of travel unicorns and players making their moves to list on the public markets. Along with the likes of Inspirato and HomeToGo, Vacasa and Sonder are two notable names preparing to go public in the autumn via special purpose acquisition company [SPAC] mergers, which are deemed to speed up the public market entry process, while SmartRent finalised its own $2.2bn SPAC merger this week and The Travel Chapter is reported to be preparing for an IPO imminently.

Speaking in an exclusive podcast interview with ShortTermRentalz, Vacasa CEO Matt Roberts said that his company would be "incredibly well positioned" to "triple" the dollars it was spending on technology and development to provide added value to guests and homeowners, as well as to grow its portfolio by acquiring more smaller property managers.

While it promises to be a crucial juncture in the growing awareness and professionalisation of the overall short-term rental sector, both Vacasa and Sonder have sizeable hurdles still to overcome if they are to match Airbnb's achievements and establish themselves as the outright leading brands providing their unique offerings. Both companies' projected market values [$4.5 billion and a $2.2 billion market cap respectively] and supply numbers are much lower in comparison to Airbnb's figures [$96 billion valuation], while both will require large investment to scale their tech capabilities, although the opportunity is there for both to assert their dominance in their markets, provided that they can retain their units.

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