Collaboration: the key word for responsible recovery in vacation rentals

The travel industry in the United States is losing an average of $1.6 billion per day from COVID-19, leaving cities across the country reeling from the lack of revenue and local lawmakers grappling with how to responsibly revive economies that rely on tourism dollars.

Vacation rentals have served as a rare bright spot amid the prolonged economic downturn as families, frontline health workers and newly minted remote workers sought out socially distanced lodging options.

According to a joint report from STR and AirDNA, from early April 2020 to early July 2020, the global vacation rental industry experienced a 257% increase in global bookings and average length of stay also increased by 58% during the crisis.

Vacation rentals play a critical role in local economies, providing essential tax revenue to cities; supporting jobs for maintenance workers, landscapers, housekeepers and other contractors; and keeping tourism dollars circulating within communities as visiting families patronize locally owned businesses.

To ensure that vacation rentals’ V-shaped recovery is an enduring trend, all key players in the industry must proactively partner with city and state governments on effective public policy.

Policy that works

A holistic approach to public policy, grounded in open dialogue and productive partnership with all community stakeholders, has proven successful in helping advance fair and effective regulations across the country. For example, La Quinta, a desert city in southern California, recently adopted an ordinance that allows responsible vacation rentals operations to continue while simultaneously addressing neighborhood concerns - ensuring that vacation rentals can contribute to the city’s long-term economic growth.

Similarly, historic agreements have been reached in San Diego, Kauai and Honolulu as a result of key stakeholder engagement within these communities.

In San Diego, that engagement included City Council members and UNITE HERE, a leading labor union, among others, to reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on how to safely and effectively regulate vacation rental properties through comprehensive new guidelines - a milestone, first-of-its-kind agreement, which is also endorsed by San Diego’s local short-term rental owners and managers alliance, Share San Diego.

The proposed vacation rental ordinance was the result of this MOU, and it was unanimously endorsed by the city’s Planning Commission before being forwarded to the City Council for a vote later this month. 

In Hawaii, MOUs have been signed in both Kauai and Oahu, facilitating the governments’ tracking and enforcement of illegally operated vacation rentals while ensuring that communities can still enjoy the economic benefits provided by responsible properties and operators as safe travel resumes.

Trusted solutions

Working alongside local governments to enact balanced regulations that promote post-pandemic recovery is only one piece of the puzzle. Equally important is restoring and growing traveler trust in booking their next getaway, and much of that comes down to transparency around health and hygiene measures.

At the onset of the pandemic, travel leaders including online travel platforms, the U.S. Travel Association and the Vacation Rental Management Association came together with public health officials to develop enhanced vacation rental cleanliness guidelines based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and Cristal International Standards. 

To reassure travelers, it’s important that they can filter online property listings based on the specific hygienic procedures owners and property managers have adopted, allowing them to book and travel with confidence.

Many owners and property managers also use tools and resources available to them, such as cleanliness checklists, to report on and add sanitation measures to their individual property descriptions and listings.

In addition to providing travelers with the tools they need to confidently search for and book their next trip, a concern of many owners and property managers, along with the communities they operate in, is how to be a good neighbor and book respectful stays, meaning stays that won’t disturb neighbors or damage hosts’ properties. 

Innovative community initiatives, such as Stay Neighborly, is one way vacation rental owners and managers can access resources to stay compliant with local regulations and avoid community complaints. Data-powered technology solutions are also supporting in this area, tapping into companies like NoiseAware, a noise monitoring company, to help prevent nuisance complaints before they occur.

Looking ahead

The pandemic brought unprecedented shifts in the travel landscape, but while travel dramatically slowed, travel planning did not, as 82% of families already have travel plans for 2021.

And travel experts expect that vacation rentals will remain a top choice for consumers going forward, contributing to economic recovery efforts in every corner of this country.

Despite increased traveler preference for vacation rentals, widespread economic recovery depends on collaborative efforts between cities, platforms and vacation rental owners and managers to enact balanced regulation that builds a strong foundation for accelerated and sustained growth, putting the travel and tourism industry in a position to welcome travelers back when they’re ready to return safely and confidently.