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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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The Money
Interest Rate Swaps Save Large Short Term Rental Portfolios From Insolvency
While individual hosts struggle under the weight of rising mortgage rates, institutional operators are using sophisticated financial derivatives to fr
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World
Airbnb Bullies a Portland Bed and Breakfast Over Its Logo
A small Portland inn is refusing to bow to corporate legal threats after Airbnb demanded it abandon its logo. Here is why the bully tactic backfired.
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Markets
Airbnb Pledges 250 Million Dollars to Underwrite Stalled Rental Projects
The short-term rental giant is pivoting from defensive lobbying to real estate developer, backing stalled affordable housing with sub-market rate capi
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Platforms
Expedia Unified Loyalty Program Devastates Vrbo Visibility
By forcing independent vacation rentals into the same reward ecosystem as corporate hotel chains, Expedia Group has tilted the playing field against h
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World
The Shard’s Fifty-Million-Pound Empty Apartments and the Rise of the Shadow Hotel
How ten unsold ultra-premium penthouses at the top of London’s tallest tower became a private, high-ticket short-term rental operation for global elit
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The Money
Costa Rica Short-Term Rentals Face Oversupply as Tourist Numbers Lag
With active listings nearing 49,000 while international arrivals flatten, vacation rental hosts in Costa Rica are facing a brutal squeeze of high cost
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World
The Athens Lockout: Inside the Mad Rush Before Greece Freezes Central STR Permits
Greece is halting new short-term rental permits in central Athens for a year. The policy has triggered a massive pre-deadline listing rush and a struc
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Markets
Cannon Beach Shuts the Door on New Permits in the Long War for the Oregon Coast
By moving ahead with a strict cap on vacation rentals, the iconic coastal enclave of Cannon Beach is doubling down on a regulatory playbook designed t
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Markets
The Event Pricing Trap: What PriceLabs Data Reveals About Parisian Booking Spikes
When Céline Dion and the Pope head to Paris, hosts immediately jack up their rates. New data from PriceLabs shows why that strategy is a direct path t
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Host Life
The Cheap Nursery Hardware Quietly Locking In Four-Figure Bookings
Multigenerational travellers do not browse properties for design trends. They hunt down the listing that spares them dragging sixty pounds of baby gea
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Markets
The Direct Booking Moat: Inside the Awaze Financial Paradox
While gross revenues flattened, Europe’s largest managed rental group squeezed out a twenty percent jump in operating profits. Here is how they did it
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Design
The Mid-Century Maintenance Trap: Renting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Michigan Masterpieces
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian homes in Michigan are architectural masterpieces. But running these historic properties as short-term rentals is an opera
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Crackdown
The Automated Dragnet: How Algorithmic Noise Patrols Are Killing Short-Term Rentals
Municipalities are writing connected decibel sensors and private security dispatches into local ordinances, shifting the entire cost of policing onto
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Host Life
How Airbnb Uses Latino Wealth Creation to Fight Its Toughest Regulatory Battles
A new platform campaign highlights minority property ownership as a path to equity. But behind the narrative lies a high-stakes chess match against mu
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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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