Corporate hosts: The rise of professional management in the short-term rental industry

This paper explores the rise of short-term rental (STR) management companies and reveals the transition from a sharing economy activity to the consolidation of a professional industry hinging on what we call 'corporate hosts'. By relying on interviews with companies operating in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal, we found: first, that a phenomenon of market concentration occurred in which individual hosts have outsourced the management of their properties to corporate hosts; second, that through the use of digital technology and vertical integration, corporate hosts are able to enhance the profitability of large portfolios of STRs; and, third, that corporate hosts imitate practices from the hotel industry, leading to the formation of a hybrid product in which the lines between hotels and STRs have blurred. We argue that corporate hosts constitute a new layer of intermediation that challenges the way we understand the STR industry and the overall functioning of this market.

Automated summary

This study reveals that the rise of short-term rental management companies has led to individual hosts outsourcing property management to corporate hosts, who enhance profitability through digital technology and vertical integration, and imitate practices from the hotel industry, blurring the lines between hotels and short-term rentals.