Traditional vacation rentals could be making a comeback.
Outside the STR industry, the narrative has largely portrayed ‘Airbnbs’ as nuisances in neighborhoods—venues that attract partying youths like moths to a flame, or take business away from ‘legitimate’ hospitality. And within the industry, groupthink persists — the belief that no operator could successfully scale an STR brand. It’s too complex, and the nuances don’t work for national expansion, let alone international growth.
Just like Arnie, vacation rentals are back
But that now looks like it’s about to change. For those of you who have been in STR for a while, the Casago and Vacasa ‘David and Goliath’ epic might be one of the biggest industry narratives you can remember. Back in the day, Vacasa was the disruptor brand, aggressively branding itself as a ‘proptech’ firm with hospitality as a secondary service.
But as we’ve seen repeatedly, that tech-first approach hasn’t worked, at least not at scale and not for traditional vacation rentals. However, Casago’s people-first strategy could finally pave the way for a nationally successful vacation rental brand, building a positive reputation for rentals – one franchise at a time.
The shaky global economy might also be bringing vacation rentals back into fashion. As we all know, when things get tough financially, vacations don’t stop. Tourism just tends to be more condensed to local and domestic markets. And this is typically when and where rentals truly shine.
Creating an infrastructure out of nature
My first camping experience was at age six when Dad took the family camping across Washington State with borrowed tents. At 13, we cycled to Normandy to watch stages of the Tour de France. One summer in between, we pitched tents on Wales’s Gower Peninsula. All three trips are good memories and were about ‘getting away from it all’.
Now, thanks to an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, Japan-based startup A Cabin Company is enabling similar escapes – but much closer to home. The company is developing boutique-level mobile cabin accommodations on sites near Japanese cities, providing time-poor locals with a convenient escape from the daily grind without extensive travel.
A Cabin Company’s business model involves renting plots from residents on the outskirts of Japanese cities, developing the sites to be boutique-level mobile cabins, and providing “nature-based stays”. One interesting thing about this is that the cabins are built on trailers, so they’re legally classified as vehicles, unlike real estate. This avoids the lengthy and costly process of permits, land acquisition, and construction associated with traditional hospitality development. It also means they are ready to start operations and generate revenue within three months of construction.
The other interesting thing is that the company is positioning itself as a vehicle for the sharing economy. You rent us the land; we provide the hospitality and we both make gains. We are seeing more and more growth in outdoor hospitality, and this start-up plans to expand its “nature-as-infrastructure” model globally.
Abode Index: The state of hotel tech investment 2025
In 2025, the hospitality industry finds itself at yet another crossroads. Economic pressure, rising costs, labor shortages, and evolving guest expectations are forcing hotels to rethink how they operate — and technology is leading that evolution.
You need more than surface-level commentary to understand where the industry is headed. That’s why we are publishing the Abode Index: The State of Hotel Tech Investment 2025 — a one-of-a-kind report that maps out the funding trends, standout start-ups, and investor priorities shaping the next era of hotel technology.
The full report is packed with insights you won’t find anywhere else: deep-dive funding data, interviews with founders who’ve raised millions, and a breakdown of 30 companies driving innovation across the sector. The report will be released next week. If you’d like a copy inboxed to you, just reply to this email.
Search is changing: why strategic PR is essential in the age of LLMs.
LLMs are quietly rewriting the rules for brand visibility, and earned media is doing more of the heavy lifting than most realize, driving approximately 61% of large language model search results.
This means that when users query LLMs about brand reputation or specific topics, a substantial amount of the information used to generate responses comes from media coverage and expert opinions rather than company websites or social media.
If you’ve already invested in your brand reputation and earned media, you win. If you haven’t, then this webinar I am co-hosting on Thursday is a must for you to attend. It’s tailored to tech brands but will be helpful for operators, too. We will keep it to a digestible 30 minutes, and if you register and can’t attend, we’ll send the recording.
Creating more than just places to live and stay
Last week, Robert Birch, COO of Gravity Co, joined Kristian and me on the Pillow Talk Sessions podcast for a conversation about expanding from co-living roots to build-to-rent and hospitality. Robert shares Gravity’s mission is to create more than just places to live — they’re building opportunities for connection and growth.
Next week, we’re headed to Malaga for Vitur, where we will be interviewing leaders across the Spanish flexible rental sector for the Pillow Talk Perspectives video series.
