Emir Dukic is the CEO of Rabbu, a frontier flexible rental asset management company that helps real estate investors see the potential for short-term rental income. With proprietary technology, Rabbu automates all aspects of asset management and helps property managers supercharge their operations, eradicate contact and manage their assets across major rental platforms. For more information, visit Rabbu.com.

As the strongest niche market to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the short-term rental (STR) industry continues its upward expansion. In 2018, the STR industry hit almost $170 billion. By the end of Q4 2021, STRs offered 30% more in annual ROI than their long-term lease counterparts.

No longer just a family option, business travelers are now showing market-changing affinity for STRs in their return to meetings and conferences activity. For corporate professionals and teams looking for incentive housing for small groups, STRs are a smarter alternative to traditional stays, offering a safeguard against hotel closures spurred by COVID outbreaks, and creating a contained, shared space for a culture-building stay.

As the meetings and conferences industry hazards a full return, short-term rental bookings will be the COVID-era change that’s here to stay.

The State of Meetings and Conferences

While most cross-integrated sectors implemented recovery strategies for the year, the business events and meetings industry experienced surprising growth. The combined scarcity of events and demand from professionals have kept the prospect of in-person events, meetings and conferences far from obsolete.

The corporate world continues to deliver information from a distance with virtual hybrid meetings and conferences, but in-person gatherings offer essential value in building and rebuilding company culture. In this next phase of recovery, that in-person interface will prove necessary for organic development, team building, and the strengthening of intra-office morale.

STRs: A Better Way to Stay

STRs have seen robust growth under the banner of a risk-free travel experience. Health concerns associated with COVID forced travelers to reconsider hotel options. That ongoing concern will expand into 2022, privileging STRs further over their traditional-stay counterparts.

STRs offer a local immersive experience that hotels, by their design, prevent visitors from realizing. With larger homes, smaller business teams can work and live together as a unit in a setting conducive to team building, brainstorming and the sharing of a meaningful experience. For event planners, the infrastructure needed for alternative forms of accommodation was already built and waiting for this market development. Working in tandem with the new preference for immersive stays, meetings and conferences organizers can streamline demand for STR accommodations, making it easy for their attendees to choose from a range of options. Corporate planners that are able to extend the STR offering will have an upper-hand in extending and improving the in-person experience of meetings and conferences, triggering quick, robust recovery and innovative growth across the sector.

 The Future of STRs

The boom of the STR market has paved the way for new and established investors to realize significant returns at low risks within their post-pandemic portfolios — anyone with an address has the opportunity to consider the lucrative path of hosting short-term guests.

As a conduit for intrastate travel, STRs have offered win-win results at the local and rural levels. Neighborhood businesses on the brink of collapse have enjoyed renewed growth thanks to STR market expansion. Now, travelers are understanding that STRs are more than just a place to spend a couple of days. Choice properties are turning into mini-module incubators where internal company innovation is hatched.

Hosts were initially blindsided with STR demand coupled with a lack of available properties due to restrictions caused by mandatory lockdowns. Short-term tenants couldn’t leave, and incoming tenants weren’t allowed to enter. It was this dilemma that created a new job position — the modern-day property manager. And now with bleeding edge technology that has proven reliable, property owners can control assets and client service demands remotely.

Remote property management equips STR hosts with unique abilities to cater to professional clientele. Working in tandem with meetings and conferences professionals, hosts in the surrounding area can optimize their STR offerings for their incoming business guests. By offering work-from-home amenities, high internet speeds, remote access control and hands-free security checks, hosts can begin to extend all the comforts of an in-hotel stay, with the added benefit of a more local and personal experience. Corporate planners can work with local hosts to similarly streamline the booking experience, listing their properties on the event’s webpage, or making it easy for guests to get in touch with the owners of popular properties.

 The Role of STRs in Corporate Rural Expansion

Seeking a balance between safe remote operations and the necessary collaborative element of an office, many companies and business leaders sought office space in rural or secondary markets. Allowing employees a space with more favorable living conditions, simpler commutes and generally more space, the rural expansion of the corporate world has been a landmark development during the pandemic.

As the expansion continues, the availability of short-term stays in those rural areas will support and spur similar rural development. Market spaces that were once deemed less accessible are now the ‘perfect getaway’ for safe conferences and meetings activity. Investors and hosts in those areas are already seeing higher-than-average returns on homes with lower purchase prices but high traveler demand. And as an asset solution, STR companies and host conglomerates have continued to improve their property management and stay offerings, optimizing for guest efficiency and quality assurance. Some hosts and host companies are offering grocery delivery and on-demand cleaning services. These revenue streams and stay options have emerged in markets that didn’t exist two years ago, making it easier for planners to follow the trend toward secondary markets and take advantage of beautiful, underused spaces for meetings.

The Mutual Evolution of Meetings & STRs

A golden opportunity exists for corporate planners to facilitate the STR experience for business teams searching for safe and engaging accommodations that will offer a rewarding team experience. Alternative accommodation space providers, along with corporate planners and business events professionals, can partner to create win-win relationships in rural areas that offer the peace of mind around health and safety that metropolitan hubs still struggle to guarantee.

The pandemic, having proved the importance of mutually beneficial business practices within communities small and large, will be remembered as a key watershed industry period in which event planning sustainability entered new realms.

Corporate planners have a new focus on circular economy initiatives, and the idea of supporting nearby vendors and fostering positive economic outcomes on a local scale remains a focus in 2022. STRs have become the perfect path to local collaboration, allowing business travel to have the greatest impact on the immediate local economy in which the meetings and conferences are taking place.

As the in-person component of these experiences comes back online, the economic impact will only be amplified. Virtual conference experiences have worked, and will continue to be an option, but the incentives of the in-person experience are already causing a rebound in business travel. As the rollout of the vaccine continues to make in-person meetings safer, the rise of STRs around corporate and conference events will be a win-win for hosts and planners alike.

The meetings and corporate events planning sector is primed to be an STR spotlight. Corporate sectors have yet to realize the existing channels and pathways waiting to be seized. Of the many developments that have come from the pandemic, the symbiosis of the corporate world with the short-term stay strategy could be one of the most influential factors in the market going forward, for planners, investors, hosts and business owners alike.  C&IT