{"id":48096,"date":"2023-08-14T06:42:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T10:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/airbnb-mega-hosts-how-large-management-companies-can-affect-your-travel-experience\/"},"modified":"2023-08-14T06:42:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T10:42:12","slug":"airbnb-mega-hosts-how-large-management-companies-can-affect-your-travel-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096","title":{"rendered":"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This <\/em>article<\/em> is reprinted by permission from <\/em>NerdWallet<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a way for homeowners to earn extra income by renting out their spare bedrooms has become a multibillion-dollar, industry-disrupting giant.<\/p>\n

\n

The majority of travelers now rent entire residences rather than stay with hosts. Nights booked at private rooms made up only 16% of U.S. short-term rental bookings in May 2023, an all-time low, according to a report from AirDNA, a short-term rental analytics company.<\/p>\n

And many of the hosts renting their homes are not mom-and-pop homeowners trying to earn extra income. They\u2019re\u00a0large management companies\u00a0with multiple properties in their portfolios, some with dozens or even hundreds.<\/p>\n

More than 30% of active listings in the U.S. are managed by hosts with 21 or more properties, according to data provided by AirDNA. That\u2019s more than the 26% of listings managed by single-property hosts.<\/p>\n

In other words, almost three in four\u00a0Airbnb
\n ABNB,
\n -1.68%<\/bg-quote>
\n listings\u00a0are now managed by hosts with more than one property in their portfolio. This trend raises the question: Is staying with a mega-host good for travelers?<\/p>\n

Read:<\/strong> Judge dismisses lawsuits by Airbnb and 3 hosts over New York City\u2019s short-term rental rules<\/p>\n

The effect on guest experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Staying at someone\u2019s guesthouse has its charms. If the hosts live nearby, they might offer local recommendations or provide other personalized touches. Yet many small-scale Airbnb hosts have little experience with hospitality, and few are available 24\/7 to respond to customer service issues.<\/p>\n

In principle, larger-scale management companies could offer more consistent and professional guest experiences. This comes at the expense of the human factor. Your management company probably won\u2019t be able to tell you which bakery has the best biscuits.<\/p>\n

To address this trade-off with data, AirDNA compared guest reviews for properties in Europe managed by hosts with many properties and those with fewer. They found a consistent trend: The larger the portfolio, the lower the average rating.<\/p>\n

On the surface, this seems to suggest that properties managed by big companies offer a consistently worse experience. But Jamie Lane, chief economist at AirDNA, suspected something else was going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s typically lower review scores when you\u2019re reviewing a company rather than a person,\u201d Lane says, suggesting that meeting and interacting with an individual rather than a management company leads guests to leave higher scores.<\/p>\n

Also see:<\/strong> Airbnb has a new, old plan to eat into hotel business<\/p>\n

To account for this, Lane\u2019s team controlled for the ratings on the \u201clocation\u201d portion of the overall guest review, which should not depend on the host\u2019s portfolio size.<\/p>\n

They found the same trend \u2014 lower scores across several ratings for larger portfolios \u2014 but it also revealed some interesting details. Larger hosts scored only slightly lower than single-property hosts on cleanliness ratings, though hosts with over 300 properties actually scored slightly higher than those with 100-299 units.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

The more units a host owns, the lower the average communication rating. Lane suggests that this makes sense given the lack of personal interaction from larger-scale hosts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will typically leave [a single-property host] a higher review than if I rented with Vacasa and was working with their customer service person in the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do hosts with larger portfolios receive lower scores because their service is actually worse? Or because guests are kinder to smaller-scale hosts? That answer seems to be \u201cboth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also read: <\/strong>5 things I learned while traveling with my wife and adult children<\/p>\n

What to do as a traveler<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Choosing between a small-scale or large-scale Airbnb host depends on your preferences. If you want something more like a hotel, you might actually be more comfortable with a professional management company. If you care more about the personalized experience, consider looking for a host with only one or two properties.<\/p>\n

Airbnb doesn\u2019t make it very easy to search for properties based on the size of the manager\u2019s portfolio, or even to see how many other properties a given host manages. So finding a property and host that matches your preferences requires you to click on individual properties you\u2019re interested in and checking hosts\u2019 profiles.<\/p>\n

Plus<\/strong>: The best and worst days to fly for Labor Day travel<\/p>\n

And keep in mind that many properties are managed by medium-size hosts who are real people (not corporations) with lots of experience. This could be the sweet spot for many travelers who are looking for high-quality service without sacrificing the human touch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a broad trend of professionalization, but that doesn\u2019t always mean [a property is] being run by larger companies,\u201d Lane says. \u201cThere are lots of medium-size organizations that are using tools to make their operations much more professional.\u201d Finally, don\u2019t confuse \u201cSuperhosts,\u201d an official Airbnb designation for hosts with consistently high reviews, for hosts with several properties.\u00a0Superhosts\u00a0can own a single property or several hundred, and are usually some of the most reliable hosts on the platform.<\/p>\n

More From NerdWallet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam Kemmis writes for NerdWallet. Email: skemmis@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @samsambutdif.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a way for homeowners to earn extra income by renting out their spare bedrooms has become a multibillion-dollar, industry-disrupting giant. The majority of travelers now rent entire residences rather than stay with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-48096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\nAirbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-14T10:42:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-14T10:42:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1692009731_social.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1279\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-14T10:42:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-14T10:42:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\"},\"wordCount\":861,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\",\"name\":\"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-14T10:42:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-14T10:42:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience | iFintechWorld","description":"This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience | iFintechWorld","og_description":"This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-08-14T10:42:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-14T10:42:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1279,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1692009731_social.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience","datePublished":"2023-08-14T10:42:10+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-14T10:42:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096"},"wordCount":861,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096","name":"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-08-14T10:42:10+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-14T10:42:12+00:00","description":"This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet.\u00a0 Airbnb has changed a lot since its humble couch-surfing beginnings in 2007. What started as a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=48096#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Airbnb mega-hosts: How large management companies can affect your travel experience"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48098,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48096\/revisions\/48098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}