Updated on September 7, 2023
Does the vacation rental industry need accreditation? This is a question more vacation rental professionals are posing as they cope with a constant influx of new hosts on the market.
Approximately 900,000 new listings worldwide joined the Airbnb platform in 2022, out of a total of 6.6 million active listings, according to Airbnb’s 2022 fourth-quarter financial report.
Accreditation was a hot topic at the recent Skift Short-Term Rental Summit in New York City, popping up in almost every session throughout the day. This article highlights the takeaways from two sessions discussing the topic in depth.
How can new hosts create problems?
Hosts are the foundation of the vacation rental industry. They collectively built the industry through renting out spare bedrooms or second homes to earn extra money to support families, pay mortgages, and fulfill personal needs or goals.
However, new hosts often enter the industry with little to no experience or education.
“None of us are sitting there in kindergarten saying, when I grow up, I want to be a short-term rental host and training for this for 20 years. We just start it on a whim quite often,” said Alexa Nota, founder and chief operations officer at Rent Responsibly, speaking in a Skift session on “What do short-term rental hosts need?”
This knowledge deficit can impede the success of the host.
An education program “probably would have encouraged me to get started a little bit quicker,” said vacation rental host Angelique Lewis who was a co-panelist with Alexa. Angelique said she hesitated in getting started because she was concerned about the safety of hosting guests at her properties.
“I feel like it’s a little too easy to get started,” she said. “I say that because hosts are getting into it as a hobby … when a lot of us are taking this seriously, and it’s our livelihood.”
On a broader global level, not knowing how to operate responsibly can lead to some of the nuisances and safety hazards that trigger community backlash against vacation rentals and restrictive regulations, said Coletta Consulting President Tiffany Edwards, a government affairs expert that works on vacation rental regulations, in a Skift session on “Creating smarter regulatory frameworks.”
The mistakes, or in some cases, negligence, of new hosts also can undermine the credibility of experienced vacation rental professionals who are advocating for regulations that don’t hamper their ability to operate.
How do hosts educate themselves?
Right now, there is no standardized education program for short-term rental hosts.
“As a brand new host, you learn the hard way if you don’t have a place that you can go to learn some things proactively, like some universal vacation rental school of some kind,” Alexa said.
Hosts have to proactively seek education from Rent Responsibly, the Vacation Rental Management Association, mastermind groups, podcasts, social media posts, and blog posts, or seek advice from more experienced hosts in Facebook groups.
“The key is, those hosts need to be searching the right terms or stumble upon those kinds of things,” Alexa said. “Otherwise, they’re just kind of out in the wild.”
“What I see a lot of hosts doing is turning to these Facebook groups that are the worst possible places to go for advice,” she added. “You get either great answers or terrible answers, and as new hosts, you don’t know which is which.”
What is accreditation, and how is it different from a STR license?
A license is granted by local government authorities. For example, in the city of San Diego, California, operators need a license to legally operate a short-term rental. The criteria to obtain the license include making all required tax payments, signing off that the home complies with the fire code, having a good neighbor policy for guests, and displaying information to report suspected instances of sex trafficking.
An accreditation is voluntary and awarded by an independent, third-party organization of professional standards that verifies and acknowledges that a host meets or surpasses industry standards.
Accreditation needs to be managed by a third party “to make it impartial and to make it available on every platform and direct booking site,” Alexa said.
What is the benefit of a vacation rental accreditation program?
Since 2021, the United Kingdom has had an accreditation program for short-term rental operators managed by Quality in Tourism.
Quality in Tourism assures the quality of the hosts belonging to the U.K. Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA). Some STAA partner agencies make the accreditation mandatory.
The program has allowed the vacation rental industry to work more closely with local governments and to work as a unified voice in effecting positive changes for the industry, said Merilee Karr, chairperson of STAA and founder and CEO of UnderTheDoormat Group who was a Skift co-panelist with Tiffany.
“All of us need to have a single approach to [accreditation] because … as soon as there is that standard across the industry that means we can go to regulators no matter whether it’s a city council or a national government or the European Union and say, guys, we do have standards,” Merilee said.
Some state legislatures in the United States have discussed state accreditation for short-term rental operators, but none have gained enough support to be passed into law, Tiffany said.
Read more: Vanessa de Souza Lage on how sustainable vacation rentals can make a better world
How can the vacation rental industry help educate new hosts?
More thought leaders see a standardized education and accreditation program for hosts as the next step in overcoming the challenges of new hosts and credibility with regulatory agencies.
“I would love to see something like a driver’s ed or some type of program where as soon as you start hosting, you know you need to go do this program,” Alexa said.
The industry needs to be proactive in embracing a global education standard enforced by an independent third party versus waiting for local governments to impose licensing requirements, Merilee added.
“Personally as a property manager myself I don’t want a government official coming in and inspecting our properties,” she said. “I would much rather have an industry expert who comes in, coaches and guides my team on how to increase our standards and work to best practice.” That leads to another question.
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