The short-term rental industry is going through the most challenging time of its history.

Operators have been faced with a tough choice: learn to adapt and be flexible, or suffer the consequences.

At Rentals United, we’ve been pouring through our own data and also looking at insights from other sources to identify strategies that could help property managers weather the storm.

What we’ve found is that a mindset shift needs to happen within the industry.

Short-term rental property managers must be open to diversifying their business model and incorporating mid- and long-term bookings to offset the effects of the crisis and maximise their occupancy.

To sum up our findings, we’ve created an ebook called The Next Business Model: How to secure your short-term rental business with mid- and long-term bookings.

Why choose a flexible rental model

As we all know, the crisis has resulted in a sharp decline in short-term rental bookings.

As travel restrictions were imposed, demand for vacation rental properties suddenly plummeted and property managers were left with empty gaps in their calendars.

At the same time, demand for mid-term bookings (1-6 months) started to increase. We explored the reasons behind this in our Is mid-term the new short-term? webinar.

Another trend we saw is that owners and property managers started moving away from the short-term model and renting out their properties on a long-term basis to recover their occupancy.

We’ve talked about the convergence between hotels and short-term rentals on this blog before.

What we’re seeing now is the convergence between short-term rentals and real estate.

Validate against 2022 Industry Trends.

Furnished apartments can be rented on a short-, mid- or long-term basis: this flexibility makes for an attractive venture. And, it’s much easier to go from short-term to long-term than the other way around.

Seeing these trends, we started wondering: could a rental model that mixes short-, mid- and long-term be the solution to coming back from the crisis?

We dug deeper and gathered all our findings in a 35-page ebook.

What this ebook contains

The New Business Model ebook is a guide for property managers who are open to diversifying their business model with mid- to long-term stays.

You’ll learn about:

  • Why the flexible rental model is the future of property management
  • How short-, mid- and long-term rentals compare in terms of costs, margins, regulations and taxes
  • The benefits and challenges of operating mid-term rentals and what property managers need to consider
  • How to incorporate mid-term rentals into your strategy
  • What property managers need to consider when shifting to long-term rental management, and what services they need to provide their owners
  • What technology solutions exist for all three models
  • How to market short-term, mid-term and long-term rentals
  • A comparison of distribution channels (big OTAs and niche websites) based on the lengths-of-stay they accept (1-30 nights, 1-12 months, 12 months+)

How will this ebook help you?

Disrupt Future Property Management standards.

If you’ve been rethinking your business model and considering a shift towards mid-term or long-term rental management, you’ve come to the right place.

This ebook has everything you need to know about the two rental models that you may not be familiar with, and how to get started with them.

It’ll help you mitigate the effects of the crisis on your short-term rental business and bounce back quicker.

If you follow the steps laid out in this ebook, you’ll not only increase your occupancy and revenue but you’ll also crisis-proof your business.

Our resources

At Rentals United, we believe in the power of data. So we took the time to find the most reliable data sources out there to inform our recommendations for property managers.

One of our main resources was an exclusive report by the vacation rental data provider Transparent, published earlier this week. We used insights from this report to analyse supply growth for mid-term rentals, compare mid- and long-term rental prices and more.

We also relied on insider data from our distribution partners.

Supercharge your short-term rental strategy with mid- and long-term stays

Are you ready to build a tech-based distribution strategy? Discover how our enterprise-level Channel Manager can get you more bookings.