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Latest news
Every story the desk has filed, newest first: the crackdowns, the platform moves, the money, host life, design, the stays going viral, the markets and the world.
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Platforms
How a Delayed Refund Exposes the Broken Payments of Vacation Rentals
A guest canceled a thirteen-thousand-dollar booking, and the refund took two years. The breakdown shows who really holds the cash and who gets burned.
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The Money
The Secondary Debt Trap Gutting Vacation Rental Portfolios
During the post-pandemic vacation rental rush, thousands of retail investors tapped their primary home equity to fund down payments. Now, the double-l
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World
England Mayors Set to Gain Tourist Tax Powers as Devolution Reshapes Short Term Rentals
The era of tax-free hosting in England is drawing to a close as the government prepares to hand metro mayors the statutory power to levy local visitor
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Design
The Scottish Bookshop Let That Proves Guests Will Pay to Work Your Shift
A tiny bookstore in Wigtown challenges everything we know about hosting. Inside the high-margin world of sweat-equity tourism and the regulatory maze
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Exposed
Extortion Rings Threaten Ruinous Reviews for Cash Refunds
Predatory guests are exploiting platform safety policies, fabricating severe hazards, and forcing professional hosts to pay cash refunds or face ruino
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Markets
Google Strips Rates and Dates from EU Travel Search in Antitrust Retreat
Under pressure from Brussels, the search giant has gutted live pricing and date filters from European hotel and vacation rental results, handing contr
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Design
The Retro Liquidation: Why BC's $1.8M Themed Mansion Signals the End of Algorithmic Design Arbitrage
As British Columbia's strict principal-residence rules choke off commercial short-term rentals, highly stylized properties are hitting the block. Here
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World
Thailand Bans Daily Rentals but Looks the Other Way on Platforms
Thai law makes stays under thirty days illegal without a hotel license. Yet platforms thrive, towers fill with lockboxes, and enforcement strikes like
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Crackdown
Tokyo Hotspot Bans Short-Term Rentals as Tourist Surge Overwhelms Ward Streets
A premier Tokyo destination cuts off short-term rentals following a spike in neighborhood complaints, exposing the fragile truce between municipal pow
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Platforms
The European Guillotine: Inside the Leaked EU Affordable Housing Act
A leaked draft of the EU Affordable Housing Act reveals Brussels plans to dismantle the legal defenses of short-term rentals, giving cities total powe
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Every Pool Has the Same Flamingo Now
The inflatable pink bird is the default hero shot of the short-term-rental web. One agency says it put it there first. In the agentic era, that claim
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Platforms
Airbnb Hires Booking Veteran Pepijn Rijvers as Chief Business Officer
By handing Homes, Hotels, and Enterprise to a thirteen-year Booking veteran, Brian Chesky signals that the era of homespun hosting has formally surren
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Crackdown
New York Short-Term Rentals Plummet 85 Percent Following Local Law 18 Crackdown
A year after the implementation of the city's aggressive registration system, the short-term-rental market in the five boroughs has been almost entire
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Platforms
Vrbo’s Global Sponsored Listings Just Killed the Organic Meritocracy
Expedia Group is bringing the pay-to-play model to vacation rentals worldwide. Prepare for a margin-crushing bidding war where the mega-managers hold
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Markets
The End of the Scarcity War: Why the STR Industry Must Now Fix Dying Towns
For a decade, the short-term rental debate was defined by housing shortages. Now, the industry is being asked to absorb millions of empty homes in shr
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The Single Feature That Drives Listings Viral
Forget scattered upgrades. The short-term rental market's new arbiters are algorithms, and they demand a singular, jaw-dropping visual hook that sells
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Design
The Mirror Cabin Disappears Into the Treeline and the Balance Sheet
Mirrored glass structures generate massive social media saves and high average daily rates, but operational realities like bird strikes and thermal lo
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Platforms
Booking.com Virtual Credit Card Delays Are Wrecking Host Cash Flow
The platform holds the money, issues high-fee virtual cards at checkout, and leaves professional property managers to shoulder transaction costs and l
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Crackdown
The Revolt Begins: Folly Beach Hosts File Class-Action Over Permit Fees
The era of pleading at city council meetings is over. Owners in South Carolina are taking the city to court over alleged shadow taxes, and the whole i
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Crackdown
Poland Moves to Hand Neighbors the Power to Ban Short-Term Rentals
The Polish government is drafting legislation that allows housing communities and municipalities to outlaw short-term rentals, shifting the battle fro
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Platforms
Vrbo Just Lit the Fuse on a Bidding War: Pay Up or Fade Out
The platform's global rollout of sponsored listings isn't just a new feature; it's a seismic shift, forcing hosts and managers into a brutal pay-to-pl
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The Money
AirDNA's AI Gambit: Is The Data Kingpin About To Remake STR Pricing?
The market intelligence giant just dropped 'Adapt,' an AI-native revenue management system. This isn't just another software launch. It's a shot acros
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Exposed
Blood on the Strip's Edge: A Killing Shakes Clark County's STR Crackdown
A teenage life cut short at an Airbnb property rocks Las Vegas, forcing Clark County to overhaul its short-term rental enforcement. The party's over,
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Markets
Milford's STR Embrace: Is the Regulatory Pendulum Swinging Back?
A single council's decision to 'back' short-term rentals in Milford might seem small, but in the brutal, high-stakes war for the industry's future, ev
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