The growth of the short-let sector has given rise to an array of new property management services. While more traditional services such as housekeeping are the most common (52% of owners utilise it), technologically-enabled services such as key-code entry are now used by more than a third of owners. This figure is even higher in North America, where 66% of owners in the US and 55% of owners in Canada use key code entry for their properties, compared to just 16% in France and 6% in Italy.

As the sector has grown to compete more readily with the hotel sector, hotel-style booking policies are being more readily offered by owners too. Instant booking (immediate confirmation of booking and payment) is now offered for more than half of all holiday rental properties.

Flexibility on payment terms and cancellations are present but less readily offered, just 11% of owners allow 24-hour cancellation with full refund, for example. Some 44% of travellers deem this to be ‘very important’ or ‘essential’, however, suggesting that owners may need to be more accommodating.

Does employing these features pay?

Travellers are more demanding than ever before, and our survey shows that owners who employ such features have seen their bookings increase more than those who don’t. Some 31% of owners who offer instant booking have seen bookings increase over the last 12 months, compared to 24% among those who don’t offer such services.

Good reviews matter

A major advantage for renters using holiday rental platforms such as HomeAway is the inclusion of feedback and rating systems. Our survey shows that the presence of good reviews is extremely influential in the renter decision-making process. Overall, 69% of renters said that good reviews were very important or essential when choosing accommodation. This varied significantly by nationality, however (see chart), with Anglophone nations considering good reviews is especially important.

_{Read the articles within Report: Second Homes below.}