The vacation rental industry showed resilience early in the pandemic relative to other elements of the travel industry.
Many consumers sought out an environment they felt they could control, and properties in more rural destinations fared well.
AirDNA has joined forces with real estate analytics specialist RealPage to assess the opportunity represented by rental arbitrage - renting out an already-rented property on vacation rental platforms.
In a report, the companies say long-term rentals have grown more than 10% in a third of U.S. cities in the past year.
Short-term rentals meanwhile, despite dropping 50% in 2020, have rebounded quickly, with more than 70% occupancy recorded in June 2021.
The study goes on to reveal that there are more than 600,000 multifamily short-term rental listings on Airbnb or Vrbo currently with the vast majority in U.S. cities.
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Unsurprisingly coastal areas such as Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York saw significant declines in listings.
The study attributes this to a number of factors including regulation, the closure of some short-term rental players and the changing economics of short-term rental opportunities.
Demand for short-term rentals in coastal destinations was up more than 20% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with 2019.
This has pushed revenue earned per unit up while there have only been small increases in apartment rents giving growth to rental arbitrage.
The report goes on to say that in many sub markets in the U.S., renters can rent out apartments for as little as five nights a month to cover an entire month’s rent.
Scott Shatford, CEO of AirDNA, says: “The rental arbitrage model has really taken on a whole new form in 2021. What was once seen as ‘house hacking’ has now become a fully streamlined, transparent way for renters and owners to both benefit from flexible living.”
He adds that technology such as that provided by RealPage is helping renters to list multifamily home-sharing properties on platforms such as Airbnb.
The report highlights cities such as Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans as among the best for rental arbitrage while some destinations such as San Diego are new to the top of the list.
The full report can be viewed here.