Airbnb Hosts Want Guests to Come to Them Directly

This April, more than 600 landlords, real estate agents and small-property managers traveled to a swanky resort in San Diego to get advice from Jesse Vasquez. A former salesperson at a hospice-care company, Vasquez now manages more than a dozen properties, in addition to his side hustle coaching his peers. The key, as he laid out in a stream-of-consciousness presentation on success in real estate, is reducing dependence on short-term rental platforms by increasing your ability to find renters on your own. “We don’t have to be relying on Airbnb,” Vasquez told his audience. “Don’t allow these big companies to supply your clients. Build your own house on your own freakin’ land.”

Over the past 15 years or so, Airbnb Inc. has established a new market in short-term real estate rentals. The site, along with competitors such as Vrbo, made it easier for property owners to take on renters by helping travelers find alternatives to hotels and handling some of the transaction details. This was a boon for many property owners, who suddenly had a new source of income to help pay off their mortgages or fund renovations. Airbnb, the world’s biggest short-term rental platform, added more than a million active listings last year, while posting record profit. It has more than doubled its market value to $97 billion since its 2020 initial public offering.