Vacasa's $4.5B Dream Is Over. What Comes Next for STR.

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane each share the stat from Skift's State of Travel 2026 report that hit hardest for them, with Seth Borko, Skift's Head of Skift Research, joining to close with the bigger picture on where travel is actually heading. This episode is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠StayFi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bilt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you’re ready to start turning today’s guests into tomorrow’s direct bookings, head to stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality and use code GOODMORNINGHOSPITALITY to get 50% off your first three months. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joinbilt.com/gmh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more for GMH listeners!

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into four stories about how hotels earn and protect their position right now. The conversation opens with IHG Hotels & Resorts taking a deliberately different approach to the owner economics conversation that Marriott International and Hilton started last week. While rivals cut fees and launched rebate programs, IHG is arguing that its eight-year technology overhaul is the real answer. From there, Sarah and Steve get into Google's new agentic AI inside Maps and hotel search and what hotel operators need to do right now to make sure their properties show up correctly. They also dig into Aman's decision to threaten a paying creator guest with police involvement, a video that reached 15 million views and became a case study in what happens when brand protection tips into brand hostility. And they close with how Spain built a full tourism strategy around a solar eclipse and what that model teaches hotels about manufacturing demand in slow periods. This episode is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠StayFi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bilt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you’re ready to start turning today’s guests into tomorrow’s direct bookings, head to stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality and use code GOODMORNINGHOSPITALITY to get 50% off your first three months. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joinbilt.com/gmh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more for GMH listeners!

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane break down three stories about who is winning the race to control how travel gets discovered and booked. The conversation opens with Airbnb's Q2 earnings: nights and experiences booked up 9%, revenue up 11%, and 100 new features shipped in a single quarter using AI. Brian Chesky is calling it a compounding advantage that rivals cannot close easily. From there, the crew digs into why Expedia Group is doubling down on B2B, where gross bookings are growing at more than twice the rate of its consumer business, and what the Layla AI Travel Agent acquisition means for how vacation rentals get discovered inside bank and airline platforms. They close with Booking Holdings flagging Google AI Overviews on an earnings call for the first time and what it means when the biggest OTA in the world admits the search landscape is shifting underneath it. This episode is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠StayFi⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bilt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you’re ready to start turning today’s guests into tomorrow’s direct bookings, head to stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality and use code GOODMORNINGHOSPITALITY to get 50% off your first three months. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joinbilt.com/gmh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more for GMH listeners!

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into what the major brands are actually doing to keep hotel owners from walking. The conversation opens with Marriott International launching a rebate program for owners ahead of a $125 million credit card fee increase, and Hilton cutting fees across seven brands in the same week. Two of the biggest brands in hospitality both responding to owner pressure simultaneously is not a coincidence. They also dig into what Club Med's 12% revenue growth and 18% rate increase teaches any hotel thinking seriously about a premium pivot, and close with Hyatt's pipeline delays and what they mean for anyone underwriting mid-tier development right now. This episode is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠StayFi⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bilt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you’re ready to start turning today’s guests into tomorrow’s direct bookings, head to stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality and use code GOODMORNINGHOSPITALITY to get 50% off your first three months. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joinbilt.com/gmh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more for GMH listeners!

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane break down three stories about how the STR discovery and booking funnel is being rebuilt from scratch. The conversation opens with Airbnb's next big move: tickets and a native wallet that would let guests store credits and spend across the entire Airbnb ecosystem. The crew digs into what a more financially sticky Airbnb means for hosts who built their businesses on the platform. From there, they get into Expedia Group's acquisition of AI trip planner Layla AI Travel Agent, which had already helped plan more than 135 million trips, and what it means for STR operators when the platform that distributes your listings now owns the AI layer that recommends where guests go. They close with Google's Q2 earnings and what AI Overviews appearing in more than 50% of travel queries means for how vacation rentals get discovered before anyone opens a booking platform. This episode is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠StayFi⁠⁠⁠. If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners!

In this sponsored episode of Good Morning Hospitality, Wil Slickers introduces a conversation between Skift’s Darren Frei and Elizabeth Mullins, President of Evermore Orlando Resort, about why human connection is becoming a bigger part of the hospitality and wellness travel conversation. Elizabeth explains Evermore’s approach to relational wellness, how the resort was designed around togetherness, and why the company is working with social health expert Kasley Killam to shape guest experiences, employee culture, and long-term strategy. The conversation also explores what hotel, resort, and vacation rental leaders can learn from Evermore’s model as travelers seek more meaningful shared experiences. This episode is presented by Evermore! 00:00 Show Intro00:24 Why Connection Matters01:53 Evermore Origin Story03:15 Interview Begins03:50 Relational Wellness Explained05:31 Designed for Togetherness06:54 Meet Kasley Killam: Leading social health expert08:50 Building Staff Connection11:17 Hotels Meet Rentals12:41 On Property Experiences15:20 Balancing Me Time16:27 Advice for Operators17:59 Measuring Success19:21 Closing Thoughts

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into four stories about where premium experience is being redefined across the industry. The conversation opens with a one-year check-in on what actually happened after Marriott International bought the citizenM hotels brand. The answer: 50% of CitizenM occupancy now comes from Marriott Bonvoy members and all of it is incremental demand. From there Sarah and Steve get into IHG Hotels & Resorts becoming the third major hotel group to launch AI search after Hilton and Marriott, with a detail every franchisee needs to hear: IHG is now asking hotel owners to upload floor plans, videos, and updated imagery or risk being invisible in AI-driven search. They also dig into why Travel + Leisure Co. paid $343 million for two timeshare companies and why the CFO said they bought the deals for 100,000 owners, not the resorts. And they close with Southwest Airlines signaling that lounges are coming, the latest step in the carrier's full premium pivot. This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt. StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wifi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools. Visit https://lnkd.in/giZWR52y to learn more. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane get into three stories about where the STR industry is headed now that the FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States is behind us. The conversation opens with Airbnb's partnership with CarTrawler for car rentals in five countries, the latest step in Airbnb's quiet transformation into a traditional OTA. It already has homes, hotels, experiences, services, and airport pickups. The crew digs into what that means for hosts who built their business around a platform that was supposed to be different. They also run through the final World Cup numbers for STR operators: rate gains were real across host markets but occupancy told a different story, and hosts who priced too high too early paid for it. They close with the Freddy Effect and what a German tourist who fell in love with Waffle House, Inc. House and Buc-ee's, Ltd.'s teaches operators about authentic guest experiences and word of mouth that actually moves markets. This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt. StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wifi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools. Visit https://lnkd.in/giZWR52y to learn more. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.

On this week's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast: Hotels Edition, Sarah Dandashy and Steve Turk dig into how hotels earn money and keep it. The conversation opens with Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta making the case that 28 brands is a data-driven strategy not sprawl, and calling out the hotel industry's default fix for unhappy guests: a pile of loyalty points at checkout. He says AI can catch the problem while the guest is still in the building. From there Sarah and Steve get into why Accor, Melia, and The Social Hub are circling student housing as a four-income-stream asset class, why micro-creators with under 20,000 followers are now driving real hotel bookings through affiliate deals, and close with Skift's Rafat Ali on the quiet reinvention of the hotel tax and the fight over who controls where that money goes. This episode is presented by StayFi & Bilt. StayFi helps short-term rental operators build direct guest relationships through branded wifi portals, email marketing, and guest data tools. Visit stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality to learn more. And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to joinbilt.com/gmh to learn more.

On Monday's Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin get into three stories making headlines across the STR industry. The conversation opens with Casago having sold nearly all of Vacasa's 32,000 units in just over a year, what the franchise model means for STR at scale, whether the Vacasa brand can become a real consumer platform, and how many units it actually takes to build a recognizable national STR brand. They also react to Airbnb paying $81.5 million for its first ever building in New York City, in the city where it is mostly banned, and close with Barcelona's pledge of not one tourist more and what the 2028 vacation rental ban means for operators watching overtourism regulation spread. This episode is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠StayFi⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bilt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you're leaving direct bookings on the table, StayFi turns your wifi into a guest relationship engine. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://stayfi.com/goodmorninghospitality/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠to learn more about their special offer of 50% off for GMH listeners! And for hotels with restaurants and restaurant owners, Bilt Hospitality is finally here. Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠joinbilt.com/gmh⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more.