STRs peg increasing occupancy rates and revenue as priority No. 1

Short-term rental (STR) operators are increasingly using property management systems (PMS) to improve efficiency, citing increasing occupancy rates and revenue as the top priority.

Data was published in Guesty’s 2025 STR Pulse Report, including responses from 655 global STR operators.

Survey respondents said increasing occupancy rates and revenue (68%) is the most important initiative, followed by maintenance and property care (58%). And approximately 76% of respondents said they’ve now implemented a PMS, which signals “a clear industry shift toward operational maturity,” Guesty said. The move also improves their ability to take advantage of automation, AI features and multi-channel listing. 

Over half of STR operators (51%) saw an uptick in revenue over the last year, while 26% saw decreases and 23% remained steady.

Low occupancy was an issue for 62% of these declining operators, which Guesty said indicates supply may be outpacing demand.

Top factors stunting occupancy included high local competition (66%), poor channel placement (21%), insufficient marketing investment (16%), negative reviews or not enough reviews (16%) and not listing on enough channels (15%).

Conversely, having more positive reviews was the top factor driving occupancy and the second-largest revenue driver for STR operators. But reviews present challenges as well, as 45% of survey respondents said just one bad review outweighs dozens of positive ones and 39% said they struggle to get more guests to leave reviews.

Guesty further asked STR operators about AI use cases. Respondents said the technology has the strongest applications in guest communications (65%) and listing descriptions (58%), but it's less frequently employed for dynamic pricing (38%), reviews (23%) and search engine optimization (23%).

Automated guest communications helped save time for 61% of respondents, while 57% said using AI for calendar and reservation syncs was also a timesaver. According to Guesty, this highlights that AI's “biggest efficiency gains still come from eliminating repetitive, daily tasks.”