In this episode, we break down how Airbnb actually rewards quality listings — and why many professional operators lose bookings even in strong markets.

Thibault Masson dives into PriceLabs’ new Listing Optimizer, explaining how data + AI can uncover hidden issues in titles, photos, amenities, descriptions, and review sentiment — the stuff Airbnb’s algorithm really cares about.

If you manage multiple listings and dropping prices isn’t fixing performance, this episode will change how you think about visibility, trust, and conversion.

🎧 Listen now📬 Subscribe to the Vacation Rental Scale-Up podcast for weekly STR insights

#airbnb #pricelabs #rsubypricelabs #airbnbguide #propertymanagement #propertymanagementcompany #propertymanagers #shorttermrentals #vacationrentals #vacationrentalmanagement #thibaultmasson #listingoptimizer #viral #podcast

Register for fee workshop: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1317691874899/WN_T9XsB0s0TUSk2tQA4c50ww

If your Airbnb bookings are slowing down, your first instinct is probably to drop prices.

But what if pricing isn’t the real problem at all? 👀

Airbnb has been clear: listing quality now directly impacts visibility, trust, and conversion.Yet most teams still treat pricing and listing quality as two separate problems.

In this free live workshop on 27 Jan · 5pm CET / 11am EST,

Thibault Masson (Founder, Rental Scale-Up & Head of Product Marketing at PriceLabs) breaks down the hidden listing quality issues that quietly cost Airbnb managers bookings, even in strong markets.

This is a hands-on session with live Airbnb listing audits, not theory.

You’ll learn:

✨ Why listings lose visibility even when demand is there

📉 Why cutting prices often changes nothing

🧠 What “listing quality” actually means to Airbnb today

📸 How titles, photos, amenities, descriptions, and reviews impact trust

📊 What data from thousands of listings reveals about quality vs revenue

💰 How to fix revenue leaks without racing to the bottom on price

👉 Register for the free live workshop: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1317691874899/WN_T9XsB0s0TUSk2tQA4c50ww

🔍 Submit your Airbnb listing for a live audit during the session:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtrCnVCI0sHL5w26W2_Hapwt-S40sshJb3bG9kH2Hpt4OfsQ/viewform?usp=header

If you manage multiple listings and performance is getting harder to diagnose, this one’s for you.

#airbnb #airbnblife #airbnbookings #shorttermrentals #propertymanagement #propertymanagementcompany #vacationrentalmanagement #vacationrentals #rsubypricelabs #thibaultmasson #pricelabs #ListingOptimizer #listingquality #airbnbproperty

Is the "click-through" era of travel over? For twenty years, platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com have been the indispensable gatekeepers of the industry. But with the launch of the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Google is attempting to collapse the entire booking journey into the AI layer.

What You’ll Learn

In this episode, Uvika Wahi breaks down why the traditional "search and compare" model is facing an existential threat and what professional managers must do to survive the shift to Agentic Commerce:

• The Inspiration Gap: Why travelers are spending over 13 minutes in AI interfaces and how UCP finally allows them to "act" instead of just "browse".

• The Live Pipe: A look at how UCP connects AI agents directly to your backend for real-time pricing and availability, bypassing the need for a traditional website or OTA middleman.

• The Luxury Exception: Why 76% of high-end travelers still demand a human advisor, and how UCP acts as an efficiency tool rather than a replacement for hospitality.

• 2026 Strategy: The rise of "Machine-Readable Trust" and the new storefront requirements for Google Merchant Center.

Never miss a shift in the STR industry. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get professional news and insights for today and tomorrow delivered straight to your inbox.

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Vacation Rental Trends 2026 didn’t start in 2026.In this episode, Uvika Wahi of RSU by PriceLabs breaks down the most important vacation rental and trends shaping 2026, using guidance from what happened in 2025.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why luxury positioning is accelerating, and why more brands are chasing it

• How Asia’s growing travel demand is reshaping global travel flows

• Why sports and live events are becoming the backbone of travel calendars

• What’s driving shorter booking windows and growing last-minute demand

• How regulation is forcing professionalisation and consolidation

• Why generic listings are losing visibility

• How AI-driven personalisation is changing discovery and conversion

• And why pricing has become psychological, not just mathematical

Built for professional vacation rental managers who want clarity, not noise.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music📰 Read more at rentalscaleup.com📬 Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter

Across articles, podcasts, webinars, and industry conversations throughout the year, the same topics kept resurfacing. And when that happens, it usually means something structural is changing.

In this episode, we step back to connect the dots and break down the big themes that repeated all year — and why they matter as we head into 2026.

We cover:
• How regulation is structurally reshaping supply in key markets• Why fees aren’t disappearing — just changing how guests decide• What Airbnb’s moves into hotels, services, and experiences really signal• Why platform rules are tightening (and why that’s not random)• What the Vacasa story tells us about where the competitive landscape is heading

This isn’t about predictions or panic.
It’s about understanding direction, so fewer things catch you off guard next year.

If you’re planning for 2026, this episode helps you see the industry as a system, not as isolated news events.

Subscribe the podcast, if you found it helpful!

World Cup 2026 demand is already showing up in the data ⚽📈 — but not evenly.Some host cities are seeing early booking spikes, others are moving slowly, and regulation + supply constraints are shaping outcomes just as much as football. In this episode, we break down what’s actually happening across key World Cup markets — and what STR managers should watch (and adjust) now.

Listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music

If your 2026 planning is already underway, this episode gives you a final data check before you lock in your strategy.

In the final RevLabs × Rental Scale-Up webinar of the year, Thibault Masson (Founder, Rental Scale-Up) sits down with Richie Khandelwal (Co-Founder, PriceLabs) to break down what the data is actually showing across the US, UK, France, Spain, and Italy — and what large property managers (100+ listings) should rethink now, not later.

They unpack why booking windows are shortening (and why reacting too early hurts revenue), how last-minute demand has structurally changed, why major 2026 events are already shaping demand, how large operators deliberately trade occupancy for stronger RevPAR, why supply isn’t exploding but professional competition is intensifying, and how listing quality directly impacts ADR and pricing power at scale.

💡Explore Listing Optimizer: https://hello.pricelabs.co/listing-optimizer/?utm_source=rsu&utm_medium=rsu+webinar&utm_id=rsu

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music

📺 Watch the full video on YouTube

If this was useful, follow/subscribe and leave a quick review — it helps more property managers find the show.

In today’s episode, we dig into a question more and more property managers are asking: Do you pivot to mid-term rentals—or expand into new markets?

Regulations are tightening, demand is shifting, and guest expectations keep rising. To help break it down, we look at how Your Airhost grew in one of the toughest markets in the UK by mixing short-term, mid-term, and corporate stays, and why this flexible model helped them scale while others got stuck.

You’ll hear how they approached:

• Navigating restrictive rules like London’s 90-day cap

• Expanding into nearby cities without losing operational control

• Building a model that attracts long-term, more stable owner relationships

• When mid-term rentals make financial sense—and when they don’t

If you’re managing 50+ properties and thinking about your next strategic move, this episode gives you the frameworks—and the real-world examples- to guide your decisions.

🔔 Subscribe to the Vacation Rental Scale-Up Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube to catch more in-depth founder conversations like this.

AI is rewriting how guests discover short-term rentals — and Lake.com is building for that future. In this episode, we sit down with David Ciccarelli, Co-Founder & CEO of Lake.com, to explore how a niche OTA for lakefront stays is betting big on:

✨ AI-driven discovery

✨ Structured content built for LLMs

✨ Conversational search and trip planning

✨ A demand profile perfectly suited for professional PMs

If you want a glimpse into the next wave of STR distribution — where visibility comes from structured data and guest intent, not filters — this conversation is for you.

📖 Prefer reading? Check out the full article: https://www.rentalscaleup.com/lake-com-is-betting-big-on-ai-discovery-what-property-managers-can-learn/

🔔 Subscribe to the Vacation Rental Scale-Up Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

Airbnb’s 2025 updates weren’t random; they were signals.

Signals about how the platform will operate in 2026… and what professional hosts will need to do to stay visible, profitable, and prepared. 💡

In this episode, Thibault Masson and Uvika Wahi from Rental Scale-Up by PriceLabs break down the full picture:

– the new cancellation rules

– payout term changes

– the shift to host-only fees

– the return of Experiences

– the launch of Services

– the relaunch of Hotels

– and Airbnb’s expanding AI-powered ranking system

More importantly, we explain what each shift actually means for property managers in 2026, and how to build your strategy around it. 🎯

If you manage listings on Airbnb, this is the clearest, most complete look at Airbnb’s direction heading into 2026. 🤝🏻

RSU delivers no-fluff, actionable short-term rental insights for professional operators. We help you navigate OTA strategy, industry changes, and the trends shaping the future of hosting.

📩 Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter:

https://www.rentalscaleup.com/newsletter/

🎧 Listen & subscribe on:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

If this episode helped clarify Airbnb’s direction, please follow the podcast, leave a review, and share your questions with us — we read every message. 🙏🏻