Vrbo Adds Pay-Later Booking, A Year Behind Airbnb
Vrbo now lets guests reserve a rental without paying upfront, matching a feature Airbnb rolled out last year to cut booking abandonment.
Airbnb
Wyndham Adds Vacation Rentals to Its Hotel Loyalty Program
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has rolled out Homes & Havens, a collection of professionally managed vacation rentals that members of its Wyndham Rewards program can now book and earn points on.
Airbnb Masks Phone Numbers, Cutting Off a Host Rebooking Tool
Airbnb will route calls and texts between large hosts and guests through temporary numbers, closing a channel property managers have used to move renters off the platform.
Airbnb Sets November 20 Deadline for Checkout Chore Limits
Airbnb's restrictions on what hosts can ask departing guests to do take effect for any reservation booked from November 20, 2026, pushing turnover cleaning costs back onto hosts.
Airbnb Bans Long Chore Lists and Fees Added After Booking
Airbnb has tightened its Host Standards to cap checkout tasks and stop hosts from tacking on charges guests never saw before they booked.
Airbnb Narrows What Hosts Can Ask Guests to Do at Checkout
Airbnb has tightened its checkout rules again, cutting the chores hosts can require guests to do before they leave, and hosts say it is pushing cleaning costs back onto them.
Airbnb's Amex Exclusive Shuts a Door Vrbo Was Opening
Airbnb's exclusive short-term rental tie-up with American Express Travel also locks Expedia's Vrbo out of a wholesale booking channel it had only just started supplying.
Spain Orders Removal of 8,300 Rental Listings for Missing License Numbers
Spain's Consumer Affairs Ministry has told two rental platforms to pull 8,300 listings that lack a valid registration number under the country's new national rental registry.
Airbnb Steps Up Enforcement on Checkout Chore Demands
Airbnb says it is now reviewing listings and warning hosts who still require guests to strip beds, wash dishes or vacuum before leaving, under a rule the platform introduced in 2024.
Amex Premium Cardholders Can Now Spend Hotel Credits on Airbnb Luxe
American Express has folded Airbnb's search engine into Amex Travel, letting Platinum and Centurion cardholders redeem their annual lodging credits on Airbnb Luxe properties for the first time.
Bridgwater Host Fined Over Airbnb Safety Failings
A Somerset short-term rental host has been fined after a case found paying guests faced a 'serious' risk to their safety, underlining England's reliance on housing and fire law rather than a licensing system.
Airbnb Scraps Guest Checkout Chores Like Dishes, Bed-Stripping
Airbnb says hosts can no longer require guests to wash dishes, strip beds or take out the trash before leaving, shifting that labor and cost back onto cleaning crews.
Airbnb Bars Hosts From Demanding Full Cleaning at Checkout
Airbnb says hosts can no longer require guests to strip beds, wash dishes or do laundry before leaving, pushing checkout duties back toward simple tidy-up tasks.
Airbnb Bans Hosts From Demanding Dishes, Stripped Beds
Airbnb has turned years of informal guidance against excessive checkout chores into a written policy, with enforcement tied to listing status and Superhost standing.
Vrbo Keeps Some Hosts on Subscriptions, Won't Say Why
Hosts and property managers being pushed off Vrbo's flat-fee subscription plan say a subset of listings is quietly being allowed to keep it, with no explanation of who qualifies.
Report Finds Just 11% of Operators Run Fully Linked Tech
A new paper from hospitality tech advisory group TAG and vendor Cendyn argues most operators are still running booking, payment and guest-data systems that don't talk to each other.
Airbnb Follows Vrbo and Marriott With Rain-Refund Guarantee
Airbnb now offers an automatic payout to guests when rainfall at a listing crosses a set threshold during their stay, matching programs already running at Vrbo and Marriott.
HostUplift Adds Sykes Cottages to UK Distribution Mix
Short-term rental manager HostUplift will list eligible UK and Ireland properties on Sykes Holiday Cottages, giving owners a booking channel beyond Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com.
Airbnb's Dynamic Pricing Push Edges Toward Franchise Model
Airbnb's new built-in pricing tool, paired with talk of design and financing services for hosts, points toward a tighter relationship for operators who list nowhere else.
VRMA's Nashville Conference Puts Platform Fees Under the Microscope
The vacation rental industry's largest annual gathering, running this week in Nashville, is dominated by hallway math on new platform commissions and a fresh push to formalize operator training.