Vacation Rental Scale-Up

Should you build your own custom AI workflows, or wait for your software vendors to roll out their updates?In this episode, Thibault Masson sits down with Mark Simpson to break down exactly how independent operators can leverage artificial intelligence to automate their operations and scale revenue. In this episode, we cover:Level 1 (The Foundations): How to use Custom Instructions and Custom GPTs so your AI understands your exact brand voice and business rules.Level 2 (Data Conversion): Using Google's Notebook LM to instantly turn raw sales transcripts into slide decks and client presentations.Level 3 (Rapid Creation): Building functional digital guidebooks and niche direct-booking websites in minutes using simple text prompts.Level 4 (The AI Chief of Staff): How to use API connectors to link your AI directly to tools like Slack, creating an "employee" that monitors your business 24/7 and handles maintenance dispatch.Level 5 (Autonomous Agents): The mechanics behind OpenClaw and how Mark built a fully autonomous AI sales team that generated $60,000 in revenue for him in just 90 days.Where to Start: Why auditing your digital tasks for 7 days is the crucial first step to identifying what you should hand off to an agent.📺 Watch the full strategic breakdown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2xhTmxJqkw📖 Read the step-by-step recap and analysis on our blog: https://www.rentalscaleup.com/ai-agents-for-property-managers-five-levels/ https://www.rentalscaleup.com/ai-in-vacation-rentals-build-or-wait/ 📩 Stay ahead of the market: Join over 10,000 professional operators who get the most important short-term rental news and algorithmic breakdowns delivered straight to their inbox every week. Subscribe to the RSU by PriceLabs newsletter for free here: https://rentalscaleup.com/newsletter#ShortTermRentals #PropertyManagement #AIAutomation #VacationRentalTech #PriceLabs

Airbnb’s new "risk-free" cancellation policy might guarantee your payout, but it could be silently draining your operational budget. 🛑💸In this episode of the RSU Podcast, Thibault Masson (Founder of RSU by PriceLabs) breaks down Airbnb's newly rolled out "Extended Cancellation Option"—a feature that allows guests to cancel up to 24 hours before check-in. While Airbnb absorbs the financial risk to protect your top-line revenue, the downstream scheduling and vendor chaos is left entirely on your shoulders.We unpack the real business impact, including:🧹 The Hidden Margin Bleed: If a guest cancels 24 hours before check-in, your payouts are safe—but your downstream operational costs are not. If your cleaning company or service providers require a 3-to-5-day notice for schedule changes, you are stuck footing the bill for unneeded turns.📅 The Calendar Trap: Cancelled dates immediately reopen on your calendar just hours before check-in. We discuss why you must rely on aggressive dynamic pricing rules to automatically capture last-minute rebookings before those dates sit empty.💰 The Financial Mechanics: How the policy actually works. Guests pay an upfront fee directly to Airbnb for flexibility, meaning Airbnb assumes the risk, not you.🏨 The Booking.com Parallel: How this mirrors Booking.com’s “Smart Flex” program—except Airbnb is actively charging the guest for the privilege.⚙️ Taking Back Control: This feature is automatically applied to listings with moderate, firm, or strict cancellation policies. Learn how to navigate your settings and opt out if the vendor friction is too high.If you keep this feature enabled, your operations team and your dynamic pricing software must be in perfect alignment. Tune in to ensure you aren't bleeding margin on last-minute cancellations! 🧠📉📺 Watch the video version: See the full visual breakdown and analysis on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/JVv-wr-HYtw📖 Want the written analysis? Read the full deep-dive article and operational checklist on our blog here: https://www.rentalscaleup.com/airbnb-extended-cancellation-option-what-hosts-and-property-managers-need-to-know/📩 Stay ahead of the market: Get the most important short-term rental news delivered straight to your inbox every week. Subscribe to the RSU by PriceLabs newsletter here: https://rentalscaleup.com/newsletterIf you found this episode valuable, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribe for weekly industry breakdowns!

Your dynamic pricing strategy might be flawless—but bad listing photos, inflexible cleaning fees, and over-promised owner estimates are silently destroying your short-term rental revenue. 🛑💸 In this episode of RSU by PriceLabs, Thibault Masson sits down with Bryant Loy (Director of Revenue Management at Brett/Robinson) and Becca Madigan (Manager of U.S. Solutions at PriceLabs) to uncover the hidden revenue leaks in your short-term rental business. We discuss why revenue management is no longer a solo function—it’s a team sport. Learn how your marketing, operations, and owner relations teams all play a critical role in your bottom line from experts managing over 1,800 properties. In this episode, we cover:🎯 Marketing & Distribution: Why poorly optimized listings (like blurry photos or unappealing descriptions) force you to lower your nightly rates to get booked. 🧹 Operational Impact & Fees: How to set seasonal cleaning fees and discount gap-night cleans by 40-50% to stay competitive in the off-season without losing your margin. 🤝 Owner Relations: The true cost of owner churn and how utilizing accurate, data-driven revenue forecasting builds trust and protects your portfolio. 📊 The "Total Revenue" Mindset: Why tracking just the top-line gross rental revenue isn't enough anymore, and how to track fee revenue. 🤖 AI vs. Human Expertise: Why blindly trusting AI optimization tools to build your listings without a human review is a dangerous operational mistake. Whether you manage 50 or 1,500 properties, you'll walk away with actionable strategies to align your teams and increase your overall profitability. 📈 📺 Want to see the data dashboards we discussed? Watch the full visual breakdown of this episode and see Becca's screen share on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJrKlJ6QCZU📖 Prefer to read? Get the complete written summary and download the accompanying SOP checklist on our blog: https://www.rentalscaleup.com/vacation-rental-revenue-management-leaks/ Never miss an update. Subscribe to the RSU by PriceLabs newsletter to get the latest STR data, trends, and revenue strategies delivered straight to your inbox: https://rentalscaleup.com/newsletter If you found this webinar, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review!

If Airbnb guarantees the lowest price on hotels, how will your short-term rentals compete? 🛑📉On May 20th, Brian Chesky is dropping the Summer 2026 Release, and the platform's priorities are shifting. To hedge against strict city regulations, Airbnb is aggressively pushing boutique hotel supply—and they might back it up with a low-price guarantee that puts standard STR listings at a massive disadvantage.In this episode of RSU by PriceLabs, Thibault analyzes earnings calls, legal updates, and 236 recent job postings to predict the 4 massive changes coming to the ecosystem:🏨 1. The Hotel Push: Why a hotel price guarantee is coming, and how it forces hosts to rethink pricing.🎒 2. In-Home Services: Native upselling for gear rentals, luggage storage, and groceries.🤖 3. The AI Takeover: Auto-generated listings that will raise the baseline for search competition.🤝 4. The "Member" Shift: Why Airbnb wants to be a weekly lifestyle app, not just a travel booking engine.Plus: We reveal the 2 highly anticipated features that are not launching this summer. ❌📺 Want to see the actual data and job postings we analyzed? Head to our Youtube channel.📖 Prefer to read the summary? Get the complete written analysis on our blog.✉️ Never miss an update. Subscribe to the RSU by PriceLabs newsletter to get the latest STR data, trends, and revenue strategies delivered straight to your inbox. If you found this breakdown helpful, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review! 🔔💎

Airbnb’s Summer Release 2026 is almost here. What could Airbnb announce — and what should hosts and property managers be watching?In this episode, Thibault Masson, industry analyst, founder of RSU by PriceLabs, and Head of Product Marketing at PriceLabs, shares 7 predictions for Airbnb’s upcoming release.From AI-powered search and host listing tools to guest services, marketplace integrations, loyalty-style discounts, premium stays, and Airbnb’s possible move toward local lifestyle experiences, this episode looks at where Airbnb may be heading next.These are predictions, not confirmed announcements, but they raise important questions for short-term rental operators: Will Airbnb make hosting easier, or more competitive? Will guest services create new revenue opportunities, or take control away from property managers? And could new visibility tools put more pressure on host margins?⁠⁠Read the full article⁠⁠⁠RSU by PriceLabs publishes weekly news and analysis for professional short-term rental managers. Subscribe to our free newsletter for insights straight to your inbox 📩 ⁠⁠⁠Free weekly newsletter⁠⁠The Vacation Rental Scale-Up Podcast is powered by ⁠PriceLabs⁠ — the revenue management platform for short-term rental professionals.

Revenue management isn't broken — the model around it is.For years, dynamic pricing was the answer. But when your owner relations team is stuck in email, your BD team is pitching with outdated numbers, and your finance team finds out about a shortfall too late — pricing alone was never going to be enough.In this episode of the Vacation Rental Scale-Up Podcast, industry analysy Thibault Masson of RSU by PriceLabs breaks down why revenue is now a whole-company problem, what AI is doing to reshape how both experts and non-revenue teams work, and where the industry is heading next.In this episode:— Why pricing alone doesn't solve the revenue problem— The real picture of what a revenue manager is dealing with— How every team in your company touches revenue— Two major shifts reshaping revenue management right now— What AI can and still can't replace in your workflow— Where to learn more about tools built for the whole teamRead the full articleExplore the Revenue Accelerator📩 Free weekly newsletter — short-term rental news and insights, straight to your inboxThe Vacation Rental Scale-Up Podcast is powered by PriceLabs — the revenue management platform for short-term rental professionals.

May 20, 2026, is circled on every European property manager's calendar. It's the official deadline for EU Regulation 2024/1028—the law that forces booking platforms to verify registration numbers and share monthly activity data with local governments.But will Airbnb and Booking.com actually delete your listings overnight?In this episode, Thibault Masson breaks down the "Honest Map" of European short-term rental enforcement. We move past the panic-inducing headlines to explain how this machine-to-machine data sharing will actually work, why this is completely different from DAC7 tax reporting, and why your real deadline depends entirely on the country you operate in.Whether you manage 50 units or 5000, this episode is your operational blueprint for surviving the biggest regulatory shift in European short-term rental history.In this episode, we cover:The Enforcement Reality: Why the May 20 deadline is a myth for some, and why Spain and Italy are already actively enforcing rules (including a €64M fine against Airbnb).The Platform Mandate: How OTAs are being forced to act as regulatory enforcers, and the 10-day countdown they face to remove non-compliant listings.Activity Data vs. Tax Data: The critical difference between the new housing data SDEP portals and your existing DAC7 tax reporting.The "Honest Map": A country-by-country breakdown of registration portals, featuring updates on France, Germany, and the Netherlands.The Property Manager Playbook: The exact steps professional managers must take today—including updating owner contracts—to protect their revenue and avoid automated delistings.Mentioned in this episode:👉 Read our Compliance Audit Guide👉 The "Honest Map" of EU EnforcementSubscribe to the Vacation Rental Scale-Up Podcast for weekly insights, expert interviews, and the latest regulatory updates in the global short-term rental industry.Get access to the RSU weekly newsletter to receive key industry news straight to your inbox every week, for free.We are powered by PriceLabs.

AI is becoming the new front door to travel discovery.In this episode, Thibault Masson (Founder of Rental Scale-Up / RSU by PriceLabs) is joined by David Ciccarelli (Co-Founder & CEO of Lake.com) and Uvika Wahi (RSU by PriceLabs) to explore how AI-powered search is changing the way guests find, compare, and book vacation rentals.We break down what’s actually happening across:– Google AI Mode– ChatGPT (Chat vs. Agent Mode)– Perplexity Travel– AI-powered browsing tools– OTA AI integrationsGuests are no longer typing short keywords. They’re describing full scenarios. They’re asking AI to compare listings. They’re extracting cancellation policies automatically. In some cases, AI agents are even navigating booking flows on their behalf.This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation focused on awareness and measurement. In the next session, we’ll dive into how to influence AI visibility and optimize for this new discovery layer.If you manage short-term rentals, operate a direct booking website, or lead marketing for a property management company, this episode will help you understand where guest behavior is heading — and how to prepare.

In this episode, we break down the 10 biggest takeaways from Airbnb's Q4 2025 earnings call and what they really mean for professional short-term rental managers.From the likely end of the 3% split fee model… to rising cancellation rates under “Book Now, Pay Later”…to 500,000+ low-quality listings being removed…to Guest Favorites now driving nearly half of all bookings…Airbnb is clearly optimizing for one thing: reducing guest hesitation and increasing platform-wide conversions.But what does that mean at the property level?Are hosts absorbing more uncertainty?And how should managers adapt in 2026?We also unpack Airbnb’s global growth trends, hotel expansion, event-driven supply spikes, and the company’s long-term AI strategy.If you manage short-term rentals, this episode will help you understand where the platform is heading — and how to stay ahead of it.⭐ Follow the podcast for more breakdowns like this

In this episode, we break down how Airbnb actually rewards quality listings — and why many professional operators lose bookings even in strong markets.Thibault Masson dives into PriceLabs’ new Listing Optimizer, explaining how data + AI can uncover hidden issues in titles, photos, amenities, descriptions, and review sentiment — the stuff Airbnb’s algorithm really cares about.If you manage multiple listings and dropping prices isn’t fixing performance, this episode will change how you think about visibility, trust, and conversion.🎧 Listen now📬 Subscribe to the Vacation Rental Scale-Up podcast for weekly STR insights#airbnb #pricelabs #rsubypricelabs #airbnbguide #propertymanagement #propertymanagementcompany #propertymanagers #shorttermrentals #vacationrentals #vacationrentalmanagement #thibaultmasson #listingoptimizer #viral #podcast

Is the "click-through" era of travel over? For twenty years, platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com have been the indispensable gatekeepers of the industry. But with the launch of the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Google is attempting to collapse the entire booking journey into the AI layer.What You’ll LearnIn this episode, Uvika Wahi breaks down why the traditional "search and compare" model is facing an existential threat and what professional managers must do to survive the shift to Agentic Commerce:The Inspiration Gap: Why travelers are spending over 13 minutes in AI interfaces and how UCP finally allows them to "act" instead of just "browse".The Live Pipe: A look at how UCP connects AI agents directly to your backend for real-time pricing and availability, bypassing the need for a traditional website or OTA middleman.The Luxury Exception: Why 76% of high-end travelers still demand a human advisor, and how UCP acts as an efficiency tool rather than a replacement for hospitality.2026 Strategy: The rise of "Machine-Readable Trust" and the new storefront requirements for Google Merchant Center.Never miss a shift in the STR industry. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to get professional news and insights for today and tomorrow delivered straight to your inbox.[Connect with RSU by PriceLabs]Full ArticleYouTube

Across articles, podcasts, webinars, and industry conversations throughout the year, the same topics kept resurfacing. And when that happens, it usually means something structural is changing.In this episode, we step back to connect the dots and break down the big themes that repeated all year — and why they matter as we head into 2026.We cover:• How regulation is structurally reshaping supply in key markets• Why fees aren’t disappearing — just changing how guests decide• What Airbnb’s moves into hotels, services, and experiences really signal• Why platform rules are tightening (and why that’s not random)• What the Vacasa story tells us about where the competitive landscape is headingThis isn’t about predictions or panic.It’s about understanding direction, so fewer things catch you off guard next year.If you’re planning for 2026, this episode helps you see the industry as a system, not as isolated news events.Subscribe the podcast, if you found it helpful!

If your 2026 planning is already underway, this episode gives you a final data check before you lock in your strategy.In the final RevLabs × Rental Scale-Up webinar of the year, Thibault Masson (Founder, Rental Scale-Up) sits down with Richie Khandelwal (Co-Founder, PriceLabs) to break down what the data is actually showing across the US, UK, France, Spain, and Italy — and what large property managers (100+ listings) should rethink now, not later.They unpack why booking windows are shortening (and why reacting too early hurts revenue), how last-minute demand has structurally changed, why major 2026 events are already shaping demand, how large operators deliberately trade occupancy for stronger RevPAR, why supply isn’t exploding but professional competition is intensifying, and how listing quality directly impacts ADR and pricing power at scale.💡Explore Listing Optimizer: https://hello.pricelabs.co/listing-optimizer/?utm_source=rsu&utm_medium=rsu+webinar&utm_id=rsu🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music📺 Watch the full video on YouTubeIf this was useful, follow/subscribe and leave a quick review — it helps more property managers find the show.