Tumultuous, Promising: The State of the Short-Term Rental Market
This summer, Airbnb’s participation in New York’s home-rental market was further wounded by the New York City council’s demand for names and addresses of hosts located in the city. While Airbnb argues that the bill is an unreasonable violation of users’ privacy, the city still insists on receiving information regarding illegal rentals.
This isn’t good news, but we still believe that New York is a unique animal (and if you’re a New Yorker, you nearly certainly agree with us!). Because while New York battles Airbnb, cities in China, India, Australia, and Cuba are actively pushing for more users, more activity, and more property availability. Now that’s a change — and one that we like at Propzie.
The hotel industry has a bone to pick with Airbnb, but in some ways, it makes sense. We know how profitable short-term rentals can be. In the United States alone, 260 million guests booked stays in 2017, and this number is expected to grow to 600 million by 2020. We’re still enjoying forward motion in our industry, but with higher profits and more guests comes greater responsibility. Customer service can be intense and homes need to be guest-ready (meaning professionally cleaned with clean linens and stocked with home essentials), and nothing gets done unless you hustle.
You might be asking who we are, and why we care — we’re Propzie. Propzie is changing the way short-term management is organized, with a multi-platform app that fully automates rental property management. As the first property management solution that utilizes the concept of a service provider marketplace, we help landlords connect to services like cleaning, laundry, and key exchange for their property. Using the Propzie dashboard, landlords and property managers can manage every aspect of guest turnover. It’s an on-demand, app-based service for short-term rentals management, and it’s changing how properties are managed.
As our industry grows, we see limitless possibilities for expansion, even with shifts in our industry from city-to-city. Naysayers do have a point, though — entrepreneurs specializing in short-term rentals have natural limitations in their business model simply due to management constraints. Unless you find the right team and automate some of your services, you can only take things so far. Eventually, managing bookings, taking payments, and organizing turnover will take a huge bite out of preparing for the next phase of your business… which is why Propzie exists.
There’s room in our industry for growth bolstered by huge demand for short-term rentals, and even if you’re in the industry, there are places to improve and streamline your business.
