How Vacation Rental Property Owners Can Build Brand, Revenue in the Sharing Economy

Custom Travel Solutions, a provider of elite membership-based travel and lifestyle benefits, published a new report called “Vacation Rentals in the Sharing Economy: How Property Owners and Managers Can Build their Brand & Revenue.”

The report discusses how vacation rentals are being propelled from a network of “mom and pop” agencies to an industry driven by private equity firms, major hotel brands, online travel agencies (OTAs) and new travel technology platforms.  It also details how vacation rental owners and operators can differentiate their offering by leveraging the travel club concept.

Key topics covered in the report include:

• How private equity firms and global hotel brands are investing in vacation rental properties, bringing their branding power and loyalty tactics and creating brand equity where none existed before.
• Why it’s no longer just about the right property in the right location at the right price – it’s also about the right brand in the right channel with the right rewards and benefits.
• Why the vacation rentals industry is still missing a certain brand promise that stands on its own, apart from Airbnb or Vacasa, and how travel clubs can help build that brand promise.

Vacation Rentals and Global Travel

By 2021, vacation rentals (or “holiday villas” as they’re known in Europe) are expected to be a $193 billion global market, with Europe generating the highest revenue and growth.

In the past, people usually found vacation rental properties through loose networks of independent owners and managers selling pieces of paradise to middle class travelers. Today, vacation rentals are part of a global online market of travel inventory – meaning there is much more demand for vacation rentals from the global or “connected” traveler – but to meet that demand the industry needs to understand how to compete in the ‘sharing economy.’

“Vacation Rentals and the Sharing Economy: How Property Owners and Managers Can Build Their Brand & Revenue” can be downloaded here.