July 2, 2025

How to use AI for vacation rentals

by Beth | July 2, 2025

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Around 100 million people currently use ChatGPT, and as that number grows, the impact of artificial intelligence will be felt across almost every industry you can think of.

Travel is no exception, and in fact, travellers are already using AI to compare prices, get recommendations and plan and book ideal trips from start to finish.

And it’s not only guests who are turning to AI for help. As we’ll cover in this article, hosts and property managers can use AI tools to update and improve their listings, stay competitive and increase profits.

In this article, we’ll explain:

  • Why guests are using AI to book dream trips
  • How hosts and property managers can optimise their listings using AI
  • Other ways to use AI tools for vacation rentals

How AI is revolutionising travel

More and more people turn to AI tools like ChatGPT for help and advice, including to plan and book dream vacations.

While chatbots have been around for a while, the advanced, conversational abilities of ChatGPT bring another layer of personalisation to the experience. 

With a tool like ChatGPT you can plan an entire trip, and this could be a great way of creating bespoke travel plans. 

Therefore, it’s no surprise that companies such as Expedia have started to get in on the trend. The travel group has developed a ChatGPT plug in meaning guests can start a conversation with an AI assistant from within the Expedia app. This AI assistant can then help with hotel and property recommendations, experiences and tourist attractions to visit at their destination. 

Guests can then automatically save hotels and recommendations from the conversations to their own trip planner, and get more personlised recommendations, price tracking and virtual assistance as well. 

This may become a bigger trend in the travel space with more travel apps and booking sites integrating AI tools to help guests design every aspect of their trips.

The benefits of using AI to check your listings

If your listing is missing information or isn’t completed to its full potential, you could be missing out on bookings.

The key to getting more bookings and increasing your revenue could be a few simple changes that will make your listing perform much better in terms of ranking and conversions.

For example:

  • With all amenities completed, you have more chance of appear in filtered searches
  • Having a fully completed description and bio helps build trust with potential guests
  • High-quality, professional photos will increase your chances of getting bookings.

The tool will remove any mystery or doubt about how to improve your listings by scoring each section and giving you detailed tips and recommendations on how to make any aspect of your listing better.

Other ways property managers can use AI

As well as optimising your listings, there are other ways to use AI in vacation rentals.

Set accurate prices

Automates Revenue Management.

Complements Dynamic Pricing Tools.

Dynamic pricing tools like Beyond Pricing and Wheelhouse use AI to help you set the best prices all year round to maximise bookings and revenue.

These tools analyse historical booking data, seasonal trends, local events and competitor prices to recommend the optimal rates for your properties.

You can allow the pricing tool to adjust your prices automatically, or just review the suggestions and set your own rates.

Message guests easily

You can use AI to quickly compose and send messages to guests. 

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About the Author

Beth

Author

Preferred+ Software Partner 2026

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Frequently asked questions

Rentals United is a vacation rental channel manager built for short-term rental hosts and property managers. Rather than replacing your property management system, it plugs directly into it, syncing your listings in real time across 90+ booking channels, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia, Homes & Villas By Marriott Bonvoy, all from one dashboard. With AI-powered analytics, and guest communication tools built in, it automates distribution and helps you grow bookings without adding complexity to your existing workflow.

 

A vacation rental channel manager — sometimes called a short term rental channel manager — is software that connects your listings to multiple booking platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, keeping rates, availability, and reservations in sync so you never risk a double booking. If you’re updating calendars manually, missing promotion opportunities, or leaving bookings on the table because a listing isn’t optimized, this is exactly the problem it solves. A revenue-first channel manager like Rentals United goes further, using AI-driven insights and multi-rate pricing to help you win more bookings on the channels you already use — properties using multi-rate pricing have earned up to 3x more revenue

No minimum size required. As a channel manager for vacation rentals of every size, Rentals United works for hosts managing a single property up to enterprise portfolios — it’s part of a network of 403,000+ properties connected worldwide. Whether you connect directly through Rentals United, through your existing PMS, or via our channel manager API, the platform scales with you, so you can add channels, features, and properties as you grow without switching systems.

Getting started is straightforward, whether you connect directly, through your existing PMS, or via API. After signing up, Rentals United’s onboarding specialists personally import your listings, connect your booking channels, and recommend the right channel mix for your portfolio. You’ll get strategic setup guidance on pricing and promotion features from day one, plus ongoing support from a dedicated account manager to keep your distribution and revenue performing as you scale.

Every Rentals United account comes with a dedicated Account Manager and access to channel experts who know both the platform and the short-term rental industry — not just generic technical support. Beyond one-to-one guidance on optimizing your channel mix, pricing, and promotions, you’ll have access to Rentals United’s knowledge base, API documentation, and ongoing performance reviews, so you’re never troubleshooting alone. Enterprise clients are also backed by SOC II-compliant security and operational reliability.

Rentals United takes data security seriously, protecting both your business data and your guests’ personal information with encryption, strict access controls, and regular security audits. Enterprise accounts are backed by SOC II-compliant infrastructure, the same standard referenced for our operational reliability, and our systems are built to align with GDPR requirements for handling guest and property manager data across Europe and beyond. Every integration, whether direct, through your PMS, or via our channel manager API, follows the same security protocols, so your listings, rates, and reservations stay protected no matter how you connect. If you have specific compliance requirements, such as industry certifications or data residency needs, our account managers can walk you through Rentals United’s security documentation before you get started.