ATLANTA — It's shaping up to be a busy summer for the short-term rental market, particularly for urban cores that have taken the longest to recover since the pandemic.
Among 20 major markets tracked by AirDNA LLC, an analytics company that tracks short-term rental data, all but two are seeing an uptick in demand from summer 2021, according to reporting from 11Alive's news partner The Atlanta Business Chronicle. Meanwhile, each of those 20 markets is seeing average daily rate, or ADR, increases on an annual basis.
Summer months, as tracked by AirDNA, cover short-term rental booking data in June, July and August, as of June 6, on major platforms like Airbnb Inc. and Vrbo, owned by The Expedia Group.
Miami and New Orleans are the only two markets among the 20 analyzed seeing a slight decrease in demand from last summer, at 2.1% and 1%, respectively. But those are two markets that have, over the course of the pandemic, seen better-than-average rebound since 2020, owing to looser pandemic government restrictions throughout the Southeast during the pandemic and their status as leisure destinations.
In Georgia, Atlanta makes the Top 20 list and is anticipating 198,681 short-term rental bookings this summer.
Major gateway markets that have disproportionately struggled, meanwhile, are poised to see the biggest rebound this summer.
Jamie Lane, vice president of research at AirDNA, said large U.S. cities were still down 40% to 50% last year from pre-pandemic levels. More ground is being made up this summer, with New York seeing 73.9% uptick in demand; Washington, D.C., seeing a 71.5% surge; and Philadelphia at 67.6%.
The rebound being seen in urban centers doesn't mean weak demand for smaller cities or resort destinations, which dominated the short-term rental and hotel markets in 2021. Las Vegas' ADR this summer, among short-term rentals, crested $300, annual growth of 4.6%. ADR this summer in Nashville, Tennessee, meanwhile, is $387.06 among short-term rentals tracked by AirDNA, or growth of 20.5% year over year.
It's not all rosy news for short-term rentals, though. Municipalities across the U.S., like Atlanta, have passed legislation intended to crack down on short-term rentals, with the property type under the microscope for allegedly driving up property costs, concerns over noise and other disturbances, and quality-of-life issues. That's been occurring since before the pandemic.
To read the full report and see data for other major cities, visit this story.
