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Vacation Rental and Corporate Housing Markets Collide

What Is the #1 Market Trend Affecting Vacation Rentals?

Labeled by some as the number one real estate market trend, short-term rental house leasing is making a big splash in many neighborhoods domestically and internationally. With companies like Airbnb leading the way, the boundaries between the vacation rental world and the corporate housing world are becoming increasingly blurred.

corporate housing
The business traveler represents a new demographic for vacation rental companies.

The Evolution of the Short-Term Rental Property

There are a number of reasons that short-term rentals such as serviced apartments have become an attractive corporate housing option. Perhaps one of the most significant factors in the shift toward short-term rental housing involves the increasingly global and mobile way of doing business. Commenting on the reasoning behind the current popularity of short-term rentals for corporations, Knight Frank's "Flexible Living: Short-Term Thinking, Long-Term Rewards" states:

"First, companies have become more cost-conscious after the financial crisis and are curbing the expense and altering the nature of overseas assignments. Second, there is a new generation of younger employees used to more flexible business and leisure travel, which is encouraging companies to deploy people around the world for shorter periods."

According to the article, 63 percent of companies report increased pressure to cut costs for corporate housing needs. The old standard of corporations leasing or buying whole buildings has become too capital intensive for many companies. At the same time, the costs of extended hotel stays and reimbursement for living expenses such as food and laundry are also prohibitive.

As the pattern for short-term assignments to global destinations continues, the demand for short-term rentals will only increase.

What It Means for the Vacation Rental Industry

As the difference between leisure travel and business travel becomes smaller, there are significant opportunities for vacation rental management companies to leverage this "bleisure" trend more fully.

Read this related article: How to Market Vacation Rentals for Corporate Housing

One of the most obvious ways to do so involves marketing your vacation rental properties to the corporate traveler. Our vacation rental management software makes this simple. Many of our listing portal partners offer short-term rentals as corporate housing options. This means that you can seamlessly manage your corporate housing listings right along with your other listings through Kigo Channel Manager.

Attracting More Property Owners with VRMS

Another way you can increase your short-term rental bookings is to add more units appropriate for corporate housing. To do this, you will need to offer your services to more property owners. Online listing sites like Airbnb have inspired some with little or no experience in property management to dabble in vacation rental home investment in record numbers.

As these property owners expand their portfolio of properties, they often do not wish to deal with the hassle of day to day property management. As a result, the services of a vacation rental manager are in higher demand than ever before. Take advantage of this opportunity by actively marketing your services to property owners.

Short-term rentals are an attractive alternative to living in hotels for corporate travelers.

Vacation rental management software makes that a simpler task. By streamlining all your workflows and processes, Kigo enables you to add units without having to add additional staff to handle those units.

Here are a few Kigo features that will help you attract owners and expand your portfolio of properties easily:

  • With Kigo's robust reporting features, you can quickly and easily access up-to-date owner reports on demand.
  • From Kigo's central dashboard, you can easily handle your maintenance scheduling and turn-day cleaning at a glance.
  • Kigo's reservation manager and channel manager enable you to easily manage your bookings across multiple listing portal sites and keep your calendar up-to-date in real time to avoid double bookings.

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