Short-term rental (STR) owners, it’s time for some tough love. If your entire booking strategy hinges on an online travel agency such as Airbnb or Vrbo, you’re playing a risky game. The market has shifted, and the cold hard truth is that relying solely on (OTAs) can leave you high and dry. In 2025, driving your own demand isn’t just smart – it’s essential. Below, we break down exactly why, backed by data and expert insights, and how you can take back control of your rental business.
The STR landscape today is very different from the boom years of 2021. More listings and shifting travel trends mean you can’t just “list it and forget it” on Airbnb anymore. Consider this: at the height of the pandemic rental craze, new STR listings skyrocketed – supply grew 22.3% in a single year (2022), far outpacing demand businesswire.com. This flood of new rentals drove down performance across the board, leading to nearly two years of declining occupancy and revenue. It wasn’t until 2024 that the market finally hit a turning point and halted those declines businesswire.com. Even now, industry forecasts show average occupancy only rebounding to ~54.9% by 2025 businesswire.com. Translation: on average, almost half the nights in a given month go unbooked.
What does this mean for you? More competition and thinner margins. Demand is growing again (U.S. short-term rental demand grew about 6.8% year-over-year in 2024, with RevPAR up 3.7% airdna.co), but it’s barely keeping up with supply. The days of easy bookings from one platform are over. To fill your calendar and maximize revenue, you can’t lean lazily on an OTA and hope for the best. You need to actively generate demand for your property – or risk getting left behind.
OTAs like Airbnb and Vrbo can be fantastic channels, but putting all your eggs in their basket comes with serious risks. Let’s spell out some of the biggest dangers of over-relying on these platforms:
Algorithm Whims Can Sink You: Airbnb’s search algorithm is a black box that can change overnight. One tweak or a new policy rollout, and your listing’s visibility can plummet. In fact, Airbnb is now using AI to enforce its rules, and it’s doing so “often aggressively” hosthub.com. That means you could wake up to find your listing de-ranked or even suspended due to an algorithmic decision. If Airbnb decides to promote new listings or favor certain metrics, a formerly well-performing property can vanish from the first page. Do you really want your income at the mercy of an algorithm?
Policy Shifts That Favor Guests: Let’s face it – when push comes to shove, Airbnb tends to side with guests over hosts. Their policies often reflect this “guests first” approach. In disputes, “Airbnb usually sides with the guests,” and they are very strict with hosts on rule compliance hosthub.com. We’re seeing this play out with Airbnb’s new 2025 policies: the upcoming Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy has “caused a wave of confusion in the hosting world” as strict new rules roll out hosthub.com. These rules heavily restrict off-platform communication and enforce fee disclosures. If you accidentally violate a new guideline (easy to do when policies shift in Airbnb’s favor), you could incur penalties or get de-listed. Relying only on OTAs means one policy update could torpedo your entire business.
Loss of Direct Guest Relationships: When all your bookings come through OTAs, you sacrifice the direct relationship with your guests. The OTA sits between you and your customer at every stage. You often don’t get the guest’s real contact information, you can’t market to them before or after their stay, and you’re unable to build your own brand loyalty. Essentially, you’re renting out your property, but Airbnb is building the customer relationship. This is a long-term loss and you’re certainly not turning past guests into repeat direct bookers because you have no direct line to them.
Higher Fees & Lower Margins: OTA commissions and service fees take a big bite out of your profits. Between guest fees and host fees, 15-20% of the total booking value can disappear into the platform’s pocket. If you only use OTAs, you’re stuck with those charges on every booking. That means less revenue for you and higher prices for guests (which can deter some bookings altogether). You have zero flexibility to offer a discount to close a deal – because the guest is also paying OTA fees on top. In slower markets, those fees can be the difference between profit and loss.
Exposure to Market Slowdowns: If travel demand drops or a glut of new rentals hits your area, OTAs will not protect you – in fact, you’ll just be another listing fighting for scraps. We saw this recently when the market cooled: many hosts experienced a sharp dip in bookings and revenue when the COVID travel boom subsided and new competition flooded in. Those who diversified their channels or cultivated a direct booking audience weathered the storm much better. If you rely 100% on Airbnb/VRBO, you’re essentially unhedged against broader market slowdowns. You have no backup if Airbnb’s traffic in your region falls or if their algorithm decides others get the bookings. Depending solely on OTAs is like having a single client in a business – if that client leaves, you’re in trouble.
Bottom line: OTAs should be one piece of your strategy, not your entire strategy. As Sarah, an experienced STR advisor and co-founder of Market Movers, bluntly tells her clients: “If you’re living and dying by Airbnb alone, you’re one change away from disaster.” It might sound harsh, but it’s true. The good news is you can do something about it – by building and owning your own demand.
Shifting to drive your own demand might sound daunting, but the benefits are huge. Here’s what you gain when you invest in direct bookings and other marketing channels beyond OTAs:
Stability and Control: When you generate bookings through your own efforts – whether via a direct booking website, email list, or partnerships – you take control back. No single platform update can wipe out all your reservations. You set your marketing calendar, you control pricing and specials, and you’re not scrambling every time Airbnb changes something. This stability is empowering: your business becomes more predictable and resilient.
Greater Profitability: Direct bookings are more profitable bookings. Why? You’re not paying the % + cut to Airbnb or Vrbo. As AirDNA notes, encouraging direct bookings allows hosts to avoid platform fees airdna.co. That money goes straight to your bottom line or can be partially passed on as savings to the guest to make your pricing more competitive. Either way, you win. By owning the booking process, you can also set more of your own terms (security deposits, cancellation policies, etc.) that might save you money in the long run. Every direct reservation is a higher-margin reservation.
Direct Guest Relationships & Loyalty: With direct bookings, you “own” the guest relationship. You get the guest’s contact info, you communicate with them personally, and you can deliver a more memorable, branded experience. This opens the door to repeat business and referrals. For example, you can add past guests to an email list or mailing list and send them special offers for future stays. Over time, you build a base of loyal guests who book with you (not just through whatever platform they found you on first). That kind of loyalty is incredibly valuable; it means lower marketing costs down the line and a steady stream of revenue from returning guests. You become more than just a faceless listing – you become a trusted brand for travelers.
Better Guest Experience (and Reviews): When guests book direct, you have more freedom to curate their experience. You’re not confined to OTA messaging systems or rules that sometimes hinder communication (ever tried sending a guest your personal recommendations only to have the platform censor your phone number or link?). With your own system, you can send richer, more helpful pre-stay emails, personalize the stay with guest preferences, and generally provide superior hospitality. Happier guests lead to better reviews everywhere – including on the OTA listings you maintain. It’s a virtuous cycle: a great direct experience can still translate into a 5-star review on Airbnb (if that’s where the guest found you originally), which boosts your OTA ranking too. But the key is, you delivered that experience on your terms.
Brand Building: Relying on Airbnb means Airbnb’s brand is front-and-center to guests. By driving direct demand, you develop your brand. Whether your rental is “Cozy Mountain Chalet” or “Urban Luxe Loft,” you want guests to remember your property name or company, not just “an Airbnb I stayed at.” Building a brand reputation for your STR leads to word-of-mouth referrals outside of OTA channels. People might start to seek you out directly because they heard about your place from a friend or saw your Instagram. That’s invaluable in the long run – it’s a snowball effect of demand that no OTA can provide you because it’s your brand equity.
In short, owning your demand = owning your business’s future. As AirDNA summarized, direct bookings put more money in your pocket and let you build direct guest relationships airdna.co – two things that every STR owner should covet. It’s not about abandoning OTAs; it’s about diversifying and making sure you, not some Silicon Valley algorithm, are in the driver’s seat of your rental’s success.
Knowing you need direct demand is one thing – actually building that engine is another. This is where leveraging expert help can save you time and costly trial-and-error. Sarah has made a career out of guiding STR owners through this transition. With her company Market Movers, she provides the hands-on expertise and tools to set you up for direct booking success.
What does that look like in practice? It means setting up the tech, marketing systems, and processes that bring guests straight to you. For example, Market Movers helps hosts create their own direct booking website (complete with a booking engine for credit card payments and calendar sync). If the thought of building a website makes you break out in a sweat, don’t worry – Sarah’s team handles it, ensuring it’s user-friendly and optimized to convert lookers into bookers. They also assist with configuring a channel manager and property management system (PMS) so that your availability and rates stay consistent across Airbnb/Vrbo and your own site – no double bookings, no manual updates.
But tech is only half the battle. Marketing is the other half, and this is where Sarah’s expertise really shines. Market Movers will devise a tailored marketing strategy for your STR. This can include setting up email automation to follow up with every guest post-stay (to encourage those direct rebookings and reviews), social media strategies to showcase your property, and even training on how to leverage Airbnb without becoming dependent on it (for instance, using Airbnb to get initial exposure but then wowing guests so they book direct next time). A key pillar of the strategy – one that many owners overlook – is influencer marketing. Sarah helps connect STR owners with travel influencers and local partners to promote your rental to new audiences, a modern word-of-mouth that can drive a surge of direct inquiries.
Think of Market Movers as your personal STR marketing department: they set up the infrastructure and teach you the playbook to consistently drive bookings on your own. The result? You wake up to reservation notifications from your own website or referral network, not just from Airbnb. You gain a sense of security knowing that even if Airbnb vanished tomorrow, your business would still stand. That’s the kind of stability and peace of mind that Sarah is determined to give fellow hosts.
Ready for the next step? To help STR owners make this leap, Sarah and the Market Movers team have put together a free eBook called “From Views to NO Vacancies.” Consider it your step-by-step guide to building a direct demand engine for your rental. This comprehensive guide breaks down the exact strategies top-performing hosts use to keep their calendars full without handholding from OTAs.
In the eBook, you’ll learn how to attract and convert guests directly. This includes everything from optimizing your listing for search engines (so travelers find your website when planning a trip) to crafting irresistible offers that get former guests coming back. One standout chapter is on using influencer marketing – a key pillar in modern STR marketing. You’ll see how partnering with the right influencer or local ambassador can expose your rental to thousands of potential guests, generating buzz and direct bookings without a dime spent on OTA commissions. The guide also covers building an email list of past inquiries and guests, using social media effectively, and creating a brand that people remember and seek out.
Don’t wait for Airbnb’s next algorithm change to find out you’re in trouble. Equip yourself now. Download your free copy of “From Views to NO Vacancies” and take the first step toward OTA independence. Sarah’s tough-love advice and proven strategies in the book will help you transform those fleeting “views” on your listing into solid bookings on your terms – and ultimately, to no vacancies at your STR.
Sources:
AirDNA, “12 Short-Term Rental Trends to Watch in 2025.” (Jamie Lane, Feb 10, 2025) – Key insights on market trends, demand vs. supply, and the push for direct bookings airdna.cobusinesswire.com.
Hosthub, “Big Airbnb policy changes coming May 10, 2025: What hosts need to know.” (Apr 17, 2025) – Overview of Airbnb’s new Off-Platform & Fee Transparency rules and their impact on hosts hosthub.comhosthub.com.