Webinar
Trends and challenges of the vacation rental industry 2026

In this webinar we dug into where a sector that's changing faster than ever is really heading. Because in 2026 the challenge for vacation rental hosts and property managers in Europe isn't just filling bookings, it's understanding what's actually happening with regulation, automation, AI and market expectations, topics that are on everyone's mind but rarely get an honest conversation.

That's why we sat down with Ivan Givelet, STR Consultant, to react live to the data from our annual industry study, with 331 operators surveyed. No boring slides and with live polls, we went through the year's biggest debates: regulation, which 61.9% of the sector flags as their number-one challenge while 14.8% say it doesn't affect them; the ceiling of automation, since only one in four operators (26.6%) have fully implemented it and we break down what that group does that the rest still don't; expectations for 2026, with 45.9% expecting flat stability or decline and 3% considering closing units; and the role of AI in guest communication, where 21.1% plan to invest this year.