EDITOR'S COMMENT
• The merger and acquisition frenzy of activity in the short-term rental space continued this week as software, payment and technology solutions provider, Planet, entered the sector by acquiring rental management software Avantio.
After only seven months of 2022, we have already reported on 34 acquisitions. A whole range of companies in this sector are being purchased too, from property management firms to data and analytics providers, OTAs and software companies.
Planet CEO Brent Warrington has cited vacation rentals as a "high growth market with a growing customer base" and it is easy to see the payments service's motivations for the purchase. The transaction feeds into Planet's high growth strategy to create connected commerce solutions for customers in the retail and hospitality sectors, and it will see Avantio as an opportunity to accelerate product development and technological evolution in an industry that is experiencing record levels of demand.
That statement is backed up by new players continuing to make their first ventures into short-term rentals recently. Private equity firm Alpine Investors has bought data provider AirDNA in order to develop more sophisticated intelligence tools, while hospitality business platform OTA Insight has acquired vacation rental market intelligence company Transparent as lodging sectors converge, and it will be intriguing to see who makes the next move.
• Tomorrow is our last STRz webinar [26 July, 4pm BST] before we take a summer break as we explore how realtors are "uniquely positioned" to disrupt the short-term rental space, in a session sponsored by Jetstream. I'll be joined by Jetstream CEO Emmanuel Lavoie, Cape Cod real estate broker Jessica Larsen and August Hill managing partner Shawn Hill - sign up as usual for free at this link.
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