How Three Destination Marketers Use Vacation Rental Data to Get Smarter About Tourism

Get to know the experts 

Alisha Valentine, Director of Research and Analytics, Discover Puerto Rico

Discover Puerto Rico is the primary travel and tourism organization for Puerto Rico and has been in operation since July of 2018. Alisha Valentine heads up the research and analytics department tasked with driving strategic decisions around short-term rentals and hotels. 

Heath Dillard, Directo of Insights, Charlotte Revional Visitors Authority

CRVA is the trusted leader of Charlotte’s visitor economy which elevates community prosperity through destination-defining infrastructure, impactful branding and job growth. Heath has been tracking short-term rentals’ impact on Charlotte tourism for more than three years. 

Camille Johnson, Executive Director, Visit Southern Utah

Visit Southern Utah is the primary travel organization serving Kanab County, a charming western town that lures adventure travelers from around the country. Camille manages everything from research and analytics to managing marketing spend and more.

Introduction 

Kellen Kruse, Head of Tourism Solutions and Partnerships, AirDNA

“Today you will hear from industry leaders at Discover Puerto Rico, Visit Southern Utah, and Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority about how tracking vacation rental data helps position them as the go-to sources of authority on tourism and their destinations.

The pandemic has brought many changes to our lives into tourism the last two years. And if there's one thing we've learned, it’s that data is the currency of travel. We've watched with encouragement, and sometimes dismay, at the changing patterns in how people travel, where they travel, and when they travel. 

Short-term rentals, or STRs, have been the center point for many of these changing patterns. So today, we're bringing to the table three innovative destination marketers who early on, well before the pandemic, saw that STRs were going to be the future of travel.

These three destination marketers will be diving into the implications of data and what these types of insights mean for destination marketers today, as well as what we can glean from the approach that they've taken to thinking differently about tourism.”

How many vacation rentals are in your city?

Alisha Valentine, Discover Puerto Rico

In 2019, vacation rentals were about 19% of our market, which is nothing to sneeze at, certainly. But since that time, we’ve seen it grow, and it’s now about 40% of our demand, and it becomes such a large part of the tourism economy.

We've actually asked Tourism Economics to start breaking out this segment, and for their 2021 estimates, though it's about 30% of demand, it ends up being more than 60% of our overnight visitors. This is kind of an indication of the kinds of units and larger units that we know, especially in 2021, consumers were looking for. But again, as the organization was initially started, we knew we had to find a solution to be able to track these kinds of units.

When do DMOs realize they need to track short-term rentals? 

Heath Dillard, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority

I noticed that from the time that we started to get the data from October of 2015 until the time I started to subscribe to the data, the number of units available had grown almost tenfold. 

So while even at that time, it was not a large share of our lodging landscape, it was an incredibly fast-growing piece of that puzzle. And it was one that I knew that we wanted to continue to pay attention to going forward.

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

We were noticing that there seemed to be more online than what we had business licenses for, or the transient room taxes being collected for. So we actually started to delve into that. And one of the county staff members did a lot of research. It was kind of like analog AirDNA, researching all the third-party sites, seeing what was being advertised versus the number of licenses in our tax collection. 

So when we started to realize how significant it was, we actually went to our state representative and showed him the TRT leakage that was occurring. And that was even just a fraction of the problem. There were all sorts of problems with not having business licenses, and not meeting health codes. 

So he actually took it to the legislation and they passed something in the fall of 2019 to where all third-party sources in the state of Utah had to collect and remit. And that saved our bacon during the pandemic, because a lot of people weren't staying in the hotels, they were more comfortable staying in the vacation rentals where they didn't have shared lobbies or hallways. So it really saved Kane County and our budget during the pandemic.

How do events really impact your city’s lodging supply?

Heath Dillard, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority

We started subscribing in January 2018. That prior August in 2017, Charlotte had hosted the PGA championship. And as I looked into that data, I also recognized that from July of 2017 to August of 2017, supply in the market jumped by 32%. And I noticed their phenomenon existed that it didn't just go back down to pre-PGA championship levels. It decreased a little, but it introduced this kind of atmosphere to local residents and property owners. 

And within six months, we were consistently exceeding those PGA championship supply levels on the short-term rental. So it was like people put them up there to take advantage of a specific point in time, and many continued to operate going forward.

How to see the real impact of events on your destination

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

It's been interesting to watch the supply respond to the demand, and it's a completely artificial spike in our occupancy because that's during a time of year when our occupancy is pretty flat in our hotels in February. 

We're very seasonal. We're an outdoor destination in the middle of Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, and Lake Powell. So we put that event there for that artificial spike, and it's been fun to watch the AirDNA data respond to that if the supply increases to supplement the hotels during that event.

How to start conversations with Airbnb data

Alisha Valentine, Discover Puerto Rico

I actually just had an interview this morning with a local reporter who was interested in what's been happening in Puerto Rico. 2021 was our highest occupancy and highest ADR, but she's just looking at hotel data because she's getting the government's information, and they only track and report hotels. So my conversation with her is, if we're just looking at hotels, we’re missing 40% of the industry. It needs to be a bigger conversation. 

Before Discover Puerto Rico, it was a government-led effort, and they continue to track and remit reports on the hotel data. So Discover Puerto Rico came on and had to take on understanding that part of the market and make sure the industry and the local community really understood and understands what a big part of the market independent rentals have provided. 

The recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data came out, and we have the highest employment in the leisure and hospitality sector than we've ever had before. There are a handful of states that are rising to those pre-pandemic levels. Consumers wanted an outdoor product in Western states, but consumers really flocked to Puerto Rico. It was a domestic destination. It didn't require testing to come home. So seeing that record overnight visitation…and really that it was through independent rentals that we were able to make those changes. 

And we've got hoteliers that don't necessarily see the kinds of changes in their employment levels and have the conversations about how we can attract more employees to this industry when now the Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting the highest employment in the sector, much of it due to the independent rental industry and being able to have Puerto Ricans employed in the sector because of the availability of independent rentals.

The story your DMO is telling may be based on incomplete data

Heath Dillard, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority

I remember at the end of 2020, working with a DMO, and she was looking at her hotel data and preparing to speak to her own board and saying, gosh, just look how far down our hotel revenue is. And I said, well, when you add on top the AirDNA data and the short-term rental data lodging in your particular area, it did not change at all from 2019 to 2020. It was flat. And it took having the short-term rental data to have that really full picture. 

Otherwise, the story that you're telling is based on incomplete data. The story was that nobody was staying in the interstate type of hotel product in that area, but they were flocking to the lakes and staying in four- and five-bedroom lake homes at $500 to $600 a night on average, and that more than made up for the decrease in hotel revenue that we saw in that particular area of our market throughout most of 2020. 

So I look back and just think how incomplete of a picture I really had compared to what we can see today.

The most important metrics your DMO should track

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

Sure, initially, it was about your occupancy and ADR for us. Some of the communities in Kane County, a hundred percent of their inventory is short-term rentals. And so we were really operating on a blind spot there. And so those were the ones that we were really looking to, but the thing that ended up being the biggest shock was supply. 

Again, we were like, wow, there are way more short-term rentals in the county than we ever imagined. So that was definitely an a-ha moment for us to start to really understand what a player they really were in our lodging here in Kane County.

How DMOs use Airbnb data to empower local communities

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

We're really starting to become a little bit more aware of our community. Yes, we're all about bringing visitors here, but we don't want to diminish our local quality of life and lose that in the process of bringing visitors to our area. And so, it's been really helpful to share the metrics that we're getting with our elected officials and policymakers so that we're protecting the fabric of our communities. 

During the pandemic, I think a lot of our locals were feeling like we were experiencing over-tourism. It felt a little more invasive. And as great as vacation rentals are, there's got to be some balance to that because absolutely once upon a time, your visitors were staying in hotels on the main roads and not in your neighborhoods, but now with vacation rentals, they're staying next door to you and across the street from you. 

And so there's a lot of discussions to be had for communities on how to best manage that and allow people to have the freedom to do what they want with their property, but also protect the fabric of your community.

Using vacation rental data to boost off-peak travel for your DMO

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

So May 15th through October 15th, we're full, and that's the top supply. But we've actually really tried to be strategic about our marketing campaigns. We used to say we were trying to flatten the curve before everybody had PTSD with that term. 

So we're spreading out our visitation and making it more of a year-round destination, and then the implications that does have on our community; once again, we're trying to create more year-round jobs for that family stability in the community. 

So we've been a lot more strategic about our marketing campaigns and then measuring those metrics through this data.

Vacation rental data provides answers to questions your DMO wasn’t even asking

Heath Dillard, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority

Once we got the data, it became a little more sophisticated. It was, well, how does it look in different areas of the market? How can we create submarkets that look like our hotel submarkets, and do we see short-term rentals like we do hotel stays? Or do people who are coming into our market stay and behave differently across our market than do those hotel visitors?

I think as you get the data and you get comfortable with it, sometimes you find answers to questions that you weren't looking for. And that's really the beauty of having it. You start to uncover insights that you weren't necessarily asking for. Then it allows you to take that insight and change your own strategy, whether it's marketing like Camille just talked about or even finding new ways to measure economic impact post-event. 

Before we had AirDNA data, we strictly looked at hotel performance, and now it's another element that we can fold in to have a more robust performance on the back end of a major event that we bring to town.

What future Airbnb data can do for your destination

Alisha Valentine, Discover Puerto Rico

Kellen: Alisha, I think I know your answer to this one, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on your top metrics as well.

Alisha: Well, the answer is always yes. Similar to Heath, it changes over time. March of 2020, I'm emailing you, “Kellen, help, what is going on?” And being able to really understand parity between the market. We want to understand, in the rental market, all that we know about the hotel market. 

We had forward-looking data from another vendor in the hotel market. And I came to you saying, “We need future-looking data in the rental market.” And you said, “We have a new product for that.” And really being able to have parity and treat the rental market with as much importance as it has come to take in our destination. So that future-looking data really has become vitally important, especially during the pandemic. And we've continued to report that out side-by-side with the hotel data.

Use vacation rental data to inform your community’s key stakeholders

Are short-term rentals really always in competition with hotels? Listen to Charlotte’s Heath Dillard explain why he doesn’t think so. 

Heath Dillard, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority

Hopefully, you get a sense of the level of importance that we put short-term rentals on. I mentioned early on that it was only 1% and 2% of demand and revenue in our market, but we saw it as a growing sector, and we wanted to make sure it was included in here as it continued to grow.

And even today, where maybe it's only 7% or 8% of demand, but 10% or 11% of revenue, it continues to be an important factor. And I have a couple of stats I wanted to share. 

From 2019 to 2020, when our hotel market was really crashing, I think it was down 50-60% in terms of revenue. This particular chart, if you look, if I would've had 2020 data instead of our 2021 data, you would've seen the demand had only dropped on the short-term rental side by 3.6%. And that revenues were actually up 3.2%. 

And so it was a very different story for short-term rentals than it was at our hotels. And so you can see the way we segment them, right? Because a lot of our partners, as you can imagine, are hotels. And so, to try to combat some of this idea that short-term rentals are always in competition with hotels, we say, well, that's not necessarily always true. 

You've got studio and one-bedroom apartments and condos and things like that. But you also have two-, three-, four-, and five-bedroom properties. And you can see, even in this, that when we look at calendar year 2021 compared to calendar year 2020, revenue coming from those larger properties was really the driving force behind short-term rental growth. Your average partner may not have that takeaway. 

So the other thing that we do in addition to giving them these slides is that we try to do key takeaways, right? So what are the things that you as a partner should take away from this entire 15- or 16-page report on a monthly basis? And we try to do it within seven minutes so that you as an industry partner can be smarter about what's happened over the last month, but also what's coming down the pike. And you can position your business, right? 

Cause largely we're talking to small businesses. So you can position your business to take advantage of where the tourism industry is headed for our destination specifically.

How one DMO pushes visitation outside of the major metro area

Many DMOs use vacation rentals as a kind of canary in the coal mine—an initial indicator that shows where tourists are traveling in regions with no hotel product. This data helps them determine which up-and-coming regions have high demand and are best-fit for travel and tourism. 

Alisha Valentine, Discover Puerto Rico

So one of the stated goals, when Discover Puerto Rico was created as a DMO, was to push visitation outside of the San Juan metro area. There's just not a lot of hotel product outside of the metro area, and in STR segmentation, it's really San Juan and everyone else. 

So really being able to utilize the short-term rental data to understand where throughout the island these products were located and how demand has changed. I think this visual is pretty telling in the increase in booked nights across our tourism regions. This is really where there is product potential for Puerto Rico. 

San Juan, as an urban destination with the most units, will continue to see growth both in supply and demand, but in terms of options for new product development outside of lodging, the interior of the island, other coastal communities … so really being able to use the rental market to build product, that's really how Puerto Rico will be able to grow in the future.

One strategy your DMO can use to encourage sustainable tourism

Getting tourists to your destination is one thing—but doing it sustainably is another. Listen to how one Utah DMO actually used vacation rental data to kickstart a campaign around sustainable visitation and how travelers should behave when they arrive. 

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

One of the interesting journeys that we've been on is in looking at the information of the number of supply and then the number of business licenses that we have. And then I love that your data shows how many are owner-occupied, owner on-site? That was really, really helpful information because I think people thought that there was a much higher percentage of owners on-site or that they were locally owned, and that just didn't bear out. 

And that's created a little bit of an issue because normally when you do have an owner on-site or a touchpoint with an owner, there's an opportunity for that visitor education that hasn't been occurring. And so our office has had to do a lot more with that visitor education of how to behave in the outdoors. We actually have a production company in town right now doing how-to Canna and how-to outdoors. And so, because of this phenomenon it bears out that we actually are having to market more on visitor behavior than just getting people here. We're having to address that. And so, the information that we've received from AirDNA has been hugely helpful in painting that picture and then addressing it.

Does your DMO promote hotel product or short-term rental product?

Alisha Valentine, Discover Puerto Rico

I will address the question in terms of marketing of rentals versus hotels. Certainly, again, just Puerto Rico is not a membership-based organization. We're in the business of visitor attraction, and visitors are attracted to product. So that is what our marketing is focused on. And specifically in Puerto Rico, building campaigns that are centered around our cultural product, our food, our music, and of course, beaches are always going to be part of that message. 

And so it is getting the product in front of the consumer. And as I mentioned, oftentimes, that product is available in places where there aren’t necessarily hotel products. So consumers interested in that kind of product would be seeking out a rental property. So we're not necessarily promoting hotels or promoting rentals; we're promoting product. And it's a matter of where that product is and rental availability in those places where there’s not hotel product.

How to use vacation rental data to create powerful marketing campaigns

If you’re wondering how DMOs use vacation rental data to actually power their marketing campaigns—here’s a great example. 

Camille Johnson, Visit Southern Utah

So that was hugely helpful, the STR data. So we have, like I said, a bunch of several small communities, and one of them that is like 100% STR, we were actually able to do a micro campaign to target that area. And it's called the east of Zion campaign, and we're marketing the quieter side of the park, the experiential lodging, and the unique small communities along that corridor. And so we would've probably never done that if we didn't have access to that data to see really what was going on and how we could better serve that area with their lodging supply.

Key Takeaways 

For these three destination marketers, vacation rental data has drastically improved their organization’s understanding of key trends in travel and tourism. Because they’ve leveraged AirDNA data, they’ve been able to launch targeted campaigns, track success, spot future demand, and much more. 

AirDNA gives destination marketing organizations a complete understanding of their local lodging and tourism industry by turning Airbnb and Vrbo data into actionable analytics. Through a combination of interactive dashboards, market trend reports, and future-looking data, AirDNA helps destinations gauge supply and demand, target travelers, and accelerate the economic impact of tourism.

Over 500 destinations around the world rely on AirDNA for the data to set them apart and the insights to keep them ahead.

Are you looking to become the go-to voice of authority on short-term rentals in your destination? Reach out to learn more.