October Market Update: Airbnb's New Rules, Vrbo's Commission Hike, and 22.5% Revenue Growth

Jasper covers the October 2026 portfolio performance update for Freewyld Foundry clients, plus two major platform changes operators need to know about: a sweeping Airbnb policy update and Vrbo's new commission structure. October turned out to be one of the strongest months Freewyld Foundry has recorded, with portfolios up 22.5% year over year against a market that was down slightly, for a corrected impact of 23.58%.Jasper also walks through Airbnb's new house rules and guest data restrictions, which limit what hosts can require from guests and what personal information they can collect, and explains exactly how Vrbo's commission change from 5% or 8% up to a flat 12% affects host payouts if markups aren't adjusted. He closes with what to focus on heading into low season.You will learn:Airbnb's new house rules - hosts can now only choose from seven standard rules, with anything extra treated as a request guests can declineAirbnb's guest data restrictions - hosts can no longer collect guest email, phone number, ID copies, or other personal data during booking or the stay, even to send a door codeVrbo's commission change - moving from either a 5% or 8% commission to a flat 12%, effective October 29th, and why markups need to be adjusted immediately to protect payoutsOctober performance breakdown - 83 client portfolios up an average of 22.5% year over year, 23.58% once corrected for a slightly down marketImpact by client tenure - 20% for portfolios live under 2 months, 30.1% for 2-12 months, and 11.5% for clients over a yearLow season pricing strategy - why occupancy and booking momentum matter more than per-booking revenue once a market drops below about 30% occupancyWe also talk about:Why third-party check-in and guidebook apps that collect guest email addresses may now be out of compliance with Airbnb's new rulesOctober's top five gaining markets: Halifax, Camas, Nassau, San Antonio, and MiamiOctober's top five declining markets: Branson, Gainesville, San Diego, Myrtle Beach, and North Topsail BeachWhat's driving the slowdown in booking pace heading into November and December, including gas prices, travel costs, and broader economic uncertaintyWhy operators are leaving money on the table by overpricing far-out dates like next summer or spring breakA preview of Freewyld Foundry's upcoming free webinar on building a revenue management AI agent in ClaudeMentioned in the Episode:Vrbo's new commission structure: live October 29thFree revenue audit: freewyldfoundry.comGet Paid for Your Pad is the number one podcast for short-term rental operators who want to maximize revenue and run a professional business.New episodes every Monday.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jasper Ribbers, Eric Moeller, and Kaye Putnam sit down two weeks after VRMA Nashville to recap everything that stood out: the AI conversation that dominated every booth, the wave of private equity rolling up property management companies, the booking channel changes already live or coming, and why the team is still betting on human judgment over full automation.What you will hear:• The two things that came up in nearly every conversation on the show floor: AI and private equity • Why a client is getting approached by private equity firms "every single day" to sell his company • Vrbo's new commission structure going live October 29th, and why operators need to adjust their markups now • How Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com are all copying each other's discount strategies, and why that's making markup math harder for operators • Why the team thinks Airbnb is positioned to win the shift toward AI-powered search, not lose to it • What it looked like when Jasper's "build your own AI revenue analyst" workshop packed the room, with attendees leaving in 45 minutes with a working agent • Freewyld Foundry winning Best Booth at the showWhat you will learn:• Why AI is good at deterministic, high-volume work but still falls short on judgment, trust, and accountability • The internal test that convinced the team AI alone can't set a pricing strategy: feeding years of their own portfolio data to AI and getting nothing better than what they already do • Why a service business with real human accountability may be more resistant to the ups and downs of the AI wave than a pure software play • How to evaluate any company claiming to be "AI-powered": look at who actually built it, not just what it claims to do • Why Gen Z increasingly searches for a place to stay through tools like ChatGPT instead of going straight to an OTA, and what that means for your direct booking site • The early, real numbers behind AI-driven traffic to a direct booking site, and why it's still small but growingMentioned in the Episode:• Vrbo's new commission structure: live October 29th • VRMA 2027: Denver • Freewyld Foundry: freewyldfoundry.comGet Paid for Your Pad is the number one podcast for short-term rental operators who want to maximize revenue and run a professional business.New episodes every Monday.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We were at VRMA Nashville 2026, talking to operators and vendors on the show floor about what's actually shaping the short-term rental industry right now. Jasper walks the floor of the largest event in the industry, catching conversations on AI, guest screening, private equity consolidation, and what it actually takes to get guests to come back.What you will hear:• Operators and vendors reacting live from the floor of VRMA Nashville, the largest event in the short-term rental industry • PriceLabs announcing Athena, their new AI revenue analyst, just days before the conference • Beyond Pricing's read on how private equity and consolidation are changing the vendor landscape • Truvi, formerly known as SuperHog, on guest screening and damage protection • AutoHost walking through their new listing optimization tool, built around photo analysis • An operator who scaled from zero to 400 properties in Aruba sharing how he did it • Why conference networking matters so much for operators who normally work in isolationWhat you will learn:• What PriceLabs' Athena actually does: it runs in the background on a schedule, flags issues like underperforming listings or fast-filling dates, and waits for you to accept, review, or reject each recommendation before anything changes • Why guest screening and damage protection give operators the confidence to open up more direct bookings instead of relying only on OTAs • How private equity and consolidation are reshaping which vendors survive and how they compete • What actually brings guests back to a short-term rental instead of defaulting to a hotel: raising the guest experience, not just cleanliness and keyless entry • How to scale a portfolio from 0 to 400 units: persistence, consistency, and treating every lesson learned as something to put into practiceMentioned in the Episode:• PriceLabs' Athena: hello.pricelabs.co/athena • Truvi (formerly SuperHog) • Beyond Pricing • AutoHost • VRMA Nashville 2026Get Paid for Your Pad is the number one podcast for short-term rental operators who want to maximize revenue and run a professional business.New episodes every Monday.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jasper covers the September 2026 portfolio performance update for Freewyld Foundry clients. September was the best month in the company's history: comparable units finished up 37% year over year while the average market was up 7.3%, putting Freewyld Foundry's measurable impact at 27%, the highest they have ever recorded. Jasper walks through the market breakdown, shares which markets were up and which were down, and explains why September showed such strong numbers year over year. He also shares observations going into October and Q4.In addition to the numbers, Jasper shares takeaways from GuestyVal in Madrid, including what the industry is learning about AI in revenue management, what Airbnb presented about visibility and discounts on their platform, and the news that Vrbo is moving to a simplified commission structure similar to Airbnb's. He closes with a personal story: the first time in over 100 Airbnb stays that he left a listing before his checkout date, and what going through the guest-side resolution process taught him.You will learn:September performance breakdown - Freewyld Foundry portfolios up 37% YoY, market up 7.3%, impact at 27%, the highest in company historyWhy September was strong - Labor Day weekend shifted from August to September this year, and what that means for reading year-over-year dataWhich markets stood out - Gainesville and San Antonio were the biggest movers; beach markets in the Carolinas and a few Canada markets were down; Kansas City dealing with post-World Cup inventory hangoverWhat Jasper learned at GuestyVal - AI needs human oversight for judgment calls; the consensus is human plus AI, not AI alone; the human relationship will become more valuable as AI becomes more commonAirbnb on visibility - flexibility, availability, and discounts are the levers; Airbnb wants operators using their new promotions, and stacking discounts requires a channel markup to protect ratesVrbo commission change - Vrbo is moving to a single percentage model, dropping their fixed-fee plan tier, following Airbnb's commission structureThe direct booking share decline - OTAs are gaining market share versus direct bookings this year, counter to the trend of prior yearsThe Airbnb resolution process from the guest side - what it looks like to submit a claim, how the host responded, and what Jasper wishes he had done differentlyWe also talk about:Portfolio count now at approximately 80 clients and growing, with several new clients signing up in SeptemberAirDNA data showing US RevPAR up only 3% for the year, coming primarily from ADRWhy AI performs well on deterministic logic and data processing but struggles with judgment calls that cannot be expressed as numbersHow Freewyld Foundry uses AI to flag price points that have the highest likelihood of needing human review, rather than letting AI set prices autonomouslyThe mold situation: why a quick clean was not an acceptable fix, and what Jasper offered the host before escalating to Airbnb supportMentioned in the Episode:Free Revenue Report: freewyldfoundry.com/reportVRMA Nashville October 4-6: Booth 1143, Tuesday workshop at 11:30 AMGuestyVal Madrid, September 2026Email Jasper: [email protected] Paid for Your Pad is the number one podcast for short-term rental operators who want to maximize revenue and run a professional business.New episodes every Monday.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Javier Vasquez, one of Freewyld Foundry's revenue managers, joins Jasper to walk through a pricing strategy he built from scratch for a portfolio of glamping dome units near Toronto. These units run at 97-98% occupancy year-round with booking windows of up to 212 days and a waiting list. Because they attract destination travelers who book specifically to stay in those units, standard PriceLabs market factors did not apply. So Javier turned them off entirely and built a custom Portfolio Occupancy-Based Adjustment matrix instead. The result: ADR jumped from $493 in July to $565 in August. Jasper and Javier walk through the full setup live, including the screen share.You will learn:What Portfolio Occupancy-Based Adjustment is in PriceLabs, and why it is the right tool when your inventory does not follow regular STR market patternsWhy Javier turned off both seasonality and demand factors entirely for this portfolio, and what that changes about how the base price worksHow the matrix calculates occupancy on a per-day basis rather than a date-range basis, and why that distinction is critical for high-demand destination inventoryHow to build separate matrices for different unit types and day-of-week patterns, including why Sundays need their own factor separate from weekdays and weekendsWhat the Javier Effect looks like in the data: ADR from $493 in July to $565 in August within two months of implementing the strategyHow to use the PriceLabs pacing dashboard to monitor whether a new strategy is working and where to adjustWe also talk about:How to tell when your inventory warrants a custom strategy versus following standard market factors: the main tell is that your occupancy and booking patterns do not look like the market around youWhy last-minute discounts are built directly into the matrix for this portfolio, eliminating the need for separate last-minute discount settings in PriceLabsThe difference between regular occupancy-based adjustments (date-range basis) and portfolio occupancy-based adjustments (per-day basis), and why the distinction mattersHow booking windows shaped the date range columns in the matrix: 212 days for Forest Domes, 140 days for the middle units, and why a 366+ day column was added after October 2027 bookings started arrivingWhat the pacing report shows heading into October: ADR $30 higher than the same period last year with occupancy also aheadWhy most of the measurable impact so far is coming from weekday dates, and why the weekend impact will be clearer next year when weekend inventory was not already sold out before the strategy launchedMentioned in the Episode:Free Revenue Report from Freewyld Foundry: freewyldfoundry.com/reportPriceLabs Portfolio Occupancy-Based Adjustment: enable through the PriceLabs control panel; requires a group to be set up before the feature appearsVRMA Nashville October 4-6: Booth 1143, Tuesday workshop at 11:30 AM, Sunday mastermind for Freewyld Foundry clientsEmail Jasper: [email protected] for new episodes every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Short-term rental conferences are a big investment of time, money, and energy. Are they worth it? And if you go, how do you actually get the most out of them?Jasper shares 12 years of conference experience, from Airbnb Open in 2014 to GuestyVal Madrid and VRMA Nashville, with practical advice on how to maximize the value of any STR conference you attend.Want to outperform the market? Freewyld Foundry's Revenue and Pricing Management service is driving an average 19% performance lift for $1M+ STR operators, even in down markets. If you are managing 15+ listings and want a free pricing audit, apply here: freewyldfoundry.com/get-startedYou will learn:Why the operators who get the least value from conferences are the ones who show up without a plan, and what to think through before you book your ticketHow getting on stage or joining a panel changes the entire conference experience, saves you money on the ticket, and gives you automatic credibility before you say a wordWhy most operators underestimate how much value they have to share, and why you should apply for a speaking slot even if you are not sure you will get itHow to use the conference app to book meetings before you arrive, and why protecting your open time from aggressive vendors is just as important as who you scheduleWhat Freewyld Foundry is doing at VRMA Nashville: a workshop on building an AI revenue management agent (Tuesday 11:30 AM), a surprise in-person event Monday night, and a booth with free revenue auditsWe also talk about:The real value of going to a conference is not the sessions, it is the personal connections, and most people are too passive to make themHow VRMA compares to IMN and regional conferences, and which type fits your goalsWhy traveling with a baby has kept Jasper to two conferences in 2026, and what the European conference calendar looks like for 2027The energy and motivation from being around other operators is underrated, and why getting out of your day-to-day once or twice a year is worth it on its ownMentioned in the Episode:Freewyld Foundry Free Revenue Report: freewyldfoundry.com/get-startedVRMA Nashville: October 4-6, stop by the Freewyld Foundry boothEmail Jasper: [email protected] for new episodes every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Midterm rentals are already happening in your short-term rental portfolio. Most operators just are not being intentional about it yet. Frank Bosie, Senior Director of Partnerships at Hostfully, joins Jasper to break down the data, the economics, and the strategy behind adding midterm rentals as a revenue lever, without giving up your short-term rental business.Want to outperform the market? Freewyld Foundry's Revenue and Pricing Management service is driving an average 19% performance lift for $1M+ STR operators, even in down markets. If you are managing 15+ listings and want a free pricing audit, apply here: https://freewyldfoundry.com/get-started/39% of STR operators have already received at least one 30+ night booking. Midterm rentals represent only 1.7% of reservations but 20% of booked nights. You do not need many of them for them to meaningfully move your occupancy numbers, especially during low season.You will learn:Why midterm rentals are not a separate business model but a natural extension of what is already happening in most STR portfolios, and how to become intentional about itThe hybrid strategy that works better than going exclusively midterm: keep STR open, add long-stay discounts, and let demand self-selectHow to think about the occupancy crossover: why 100% MTR occupancy at $160/night generates roughly the same gross revenue as 53% STR occupancy at $315/nightWhich properties and markets are best suited for MTR, including proximity to hospitals, universities, military installations, and employer hubsWhat MTR guests actually need that vacation guests do not: fast wifi, a real workspace, full kitchen, laundry, storage, and the ability to live comfortably for 45 to 60 daysWhy new listings should not prioritize MTR first, and when the timing makes sense to add itWe also talk about:Hostfully's Furnished Finder integration: the first PMS to connect with Furnished Finder, currently in beta, with calendar sync, guest communication, and payment management coming through the same systemHow MTR nightly rates vary dramatically by market: California averages 95% of STR rates, while Connecticut and Pennsylvania average around 30 to 35%The tenancy regulation risk in some markets where a guest staying 30+ nights may gain renter rights, and how smart operators are navigating itFrank's data on portfolio size and MTR activity: 7.3% of single-property operators have MTR bookings, jumping to 69% for operators managing 6 to 20 properties and over 80% for larger portfoliosTop MTR operators averaging 8 active distribution channels compared to 4.8 for non-MTR operators, and why fragmented demand requires broader distributionJasper's personal experience staying in his own Colombian Airbnb for three months and the improvements he made for long-stay guests, including a standing deskWhy the operational cost savings of MTR (fewer turnovers, fewer cleanings, fewer check-ins) matter as much as the nightly rate when evaluating the economicsMentioned in the Episode:Freewyld Foundry Free Revenue Report: https://freewyldfoundry.com/get-started/Hostfully: https://www.hostfully.comFurnished Finder: https://www.furnishedfinder.comFreewyld Foundry at VRMA Nashville: October 4-6, stop by the boothEmail Jasper: [email protected] for new episodes every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The August 2026 STR Market Update is here. Every month, Jasper shares exactly what we are seeing across 70+ client portfolios: which markets are up, which are down, what has changed on the platforms, and what we are doing about it. Real numbers, real portfolios, no fluff. Think of it as the monthly briefing you did not know you needed.Want to outperform the market? Freewyld Foundry's Revenue and Pricing Management service is driving an average 19% performance lift for $1M+ STR operators, even in down markets. If you are managing 15+ listings and want a free pricing audit, apply here: https://freewyldfoundry.com/get-started/August was the highest-impact month to date for Freewyld Foundry. Comparable client listings, meaning properties that were active in both August 2025 and August 2026, were up 16.3% year over year while the broader market averaged a 2.5% decline. Combined, that produced a 19.3% impact and just over $2.1 million in additional revenue for clients. One number worth noting: Labor Day weekend fell in August last year and in September this year. If your own August numbers are down 5-10%, that shift is likely the primary explanation. The flip side is that September is already pacing well ahead.You will learn:Why Freewyld Foundry clients grew 16.3% in August while the broader market declined 2.5%, and how comparable-unit tracking gives you a clear picture of true performanceThe OTA discount stacking problem that is quietly eroding effective rates across Airbnb and VRBO, and how to calculate the right channel markup to protect your floorHow to position your low season pricing right now to capture midterm rental demand before snowbird bookings dry upWhy Airbnb's new AI pricing model should be treated with skepticism, and what the 15.5% host-only fee rollout means if you are not on a PMSWhat VRBO's new sponsored listings feature is, how the bidding works, and why early movers may get the cheapest visibilityWe also talk about:The markets that declined the most in August: Branson MO (-25%), Chattanooga TN (-25%), Myrtle Beach SC (-20%), Fredericksburg TX (-20%), Kansas City MO (-16%)Markets that grew: San Antonio TX (+13%), Columbus OH (+12%), Milwaukee WI (+11%), Canada and select European markets (+15%)Airbnb's record Q2 earnings (revenue up 17%, hotel bookings growing 3x faster than homes) and what it signals about where the platform is headingHow VRBO discounts stack differently than Airbnb discounts, and why Booking.com is in a category of its own for complexityThe full fall conference calendar: GuestyVal Madrid, Skift Global Forum NYC, VRMA Nashville, Host Expo Bogota, Vacation Rental World Summit Lyon, Direct Booking Success Summit (online), Skillfest BarcelonaMentioned in the Episode:Freewyld Foundry Free Revenue Report: https://freewyldfoundry.com/get-started/Midterm rental episode with Frank at Hostfully: search Get Paid for Your PadEmail Jasper: [email protected] Foundry at VRMA Nashville: October 4-6, stop by the boothSubscribe for new episodes every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patrick Morton capped one of his properties at $650 a night. He thought that was what it was worth. Then he joined Freewyld Foundry, removed the ceiling, and watched it book at $1,000.In this episode, Jasper sits down with Patrick, one of Freewyld Foundry's own revenue managers, for a look at what actually moves the needle: pricing, listing optimization, and the tactics the team has discovered by managing hundreds of properties together.You will learn:Why setting a maximum price on your listing is costing you bookings, and what Patrick found when he removed the ceiling on his own propertyHow Patrick grew one OR Getaways property from $39,000 to $55,000 in a single month by holding prices and trusting the dataWhy high ratings and strong reviews are no longer enough to rank at the top of Airbnb search, and what actually moves the needle nowThe single amenity Patrick added to a listing that moved it from page 8 to page 3 overnightWhy the answer when a listing is stuck at minimum price with zero bookings is sometimes to raise the priceWe also talk about:How Airbnb custom promotions can create visibility and urgency without actually lowering your effective priceWhat Jasper learned about hiring for values over skills after years of building the Freewyld Foundry teamHow the weekly team brainstorm with ten revenue managers in one room produces better strategies than any individual could find alonePatrick's full circle moment: from assembling furniture and listening to this podcast to sitting across from Jasper as a guestMentioned in the Episode:Free Revenue Audit: freewyldfoundry.com/get-startedCareers at Freewyld Foundry: freewyldfoundry.com/careersFavorite Takeaway:"It's not really up to us to decide what the property is worth. It's the person that books who decides."Want us to audit your pricing strategy?Get your free, personalized revenue report at freewyldfoundry.com/get-started Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jasper sits down at his laptop and shows you exactly how to use Claude to find pricing opportunities in your portfolio, from scratch, in under 30 minutes. No prior AI experience needed. Just PriceLabs and a question.He walks through a live working session: uploading a single CSV from PriceLabs, asking targeted questions to find overpriced and underpriced nights, and using pacing data to flag periods where the market is booking and you are not.Freewyld currently manages over 4,000 properties across 75+ clients worldwide and $200 million in annual bookings. That data set informs every recommendation in this episode.You will hear:Why AI should support a revenue manager's decisions, not replace them, and how Jasper's team uses it at Freewyld Foundry todayThe problem with 365 price points per listing and why a human can only realistically review 5 to 10% per dayHow to download your neighborhood data from PriceLabs and the exact chart options to have selected before you exportHow to prompt Claude to identify dates where you are currently priced 20% or more above the highest price you have ever booked atHow to refine that analysis to compare like-for-like days: weekdays to weekdays, weekends to weekends, and special events to special eventsWe also talk about:How to flip the question and find nights where you are priced below what similar days have historically booked atHow to use pacing data to flag periods where the market is already getting bookings and your calendar has nothing yetHow to use Claude's voice input mid-session and how to teach it the output format you actually wantHow Jasper's team runs this analysis automatically every day across the full portfolioMentioned in the Episode:PriceLabs: pricelabs.coFree Revenue Audit: freewyldfoundry.com/get-startedEmail Jasper: [email protected] Takeaway:"We got to combine the AI and the human being, put them together. And as a team, they can make better decisions than a single human being or a single AI tool." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.