Top Articles of 2025: Your Playbook for a Competitive Market

It has been a year of shifting landscapes. With more inventory and tighter margins, the old ways of doing things simply don’t yield the same results. That is why our top-performing content this year didn’t focus on hype. It focused on execution.

If you missed them the first time, here are the three strategies your peers relied on most to navigate a crowded market:

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Beyond Occupancy: Alternative Revenue Streams for Saturated Markets

Solid occupancy isn’t enough anymore.

Markets are saturated. Competition is fierce. And the days of simply listing a vacation rental property, sitting back, and watching bookings roll in are long gone. While occupancy is still a core metric, relying on it too heavily can leave your property management business vulnerable to seasonal swings, economic uncertainty, and a volatile demand environment.

Ancillary revenue to the rescue!

For property management companies looking to expand profitability without adding inventory or dramatically increasing workload, alternative revenue streams can be a game-changer. The good news? You’re probably already sitting on several untapped opportunities.

This post will show you how to convert those opportunities into revenue.

Why You Can’t Rely on Occupancy Alone

First, let’s state the obvious: you don’t control demand.

Even the best operators in the hottest destinations experience lulls—mid-week gaps, off-seasons, macroeconomic downturns. You can optimize your pricing, tweak your listing, and throw in the proverbial kitchen sink, but there are hard limits to what you can do with occupancy alone.

What you do control is your offering.

More specifically, you control the value you add to every stay, every owner relationship, and every operational process. Alternative revenue lives within your ability to deliver more value in ways that guests, owners, and partners don’t mind paying for.

Revenue Stream #1: Upsells and Add-Ons for Guests

Guests are willing to spend more if it enhances their experience. From early check-ins to curated local experiences, guests are increasingly open to paying for convenience, comfort, and personalization. The key is making those options easy and relevant.

Here are a few ideas:

• • Early check-in/late check-out fees – These are straightforward, high-margin offerings that work well in almost any market. Handled well, they can offer added flexibility to guests while netting more revenue for you. However, shop around first before implementing these fees, as they may not be common. And make sure your communication workflows bring stakeholders such as owners and housekeeping staff into the mix, especially if the fees are new to you.
  • Welcome packages – Think local wine, snacks, or themed kits for occasions like birthdays or anniversaries. For example, a trip to a store for such items might take an hour and cost $50, but guests in a pinch might be happy to pay $100 and save time in the process. Saving guests time is always a value-add.

• Travel insurance – Companies like Generali and Roam, both Track Certified Partners, make it easy to add an insurance option at check-out. Travelers appreciate the convenience of peace of mind such options offer, and minimal setup makes this a no-brainer for many shops.

• • Mid-stay cleanings – Often requested, rarely offered. Make it simple to add during booking or via pre-arrival communication. Families with kids or large groups might be especially inclined to take a mid-stay cleaning while they’re out and about. Just be sure to establish some ground rules about putting things away or keeping belongings together.
  • Gear rentals – Bikes, beach chairs, coolers, inner tubes, picnic supplies, and the like are really helpful for drive-to destinations or family travel. Offering and charging for these can be a nice additional revenue stream that quickly pays for itself. However, throwing such items in as a promo or a concession fosters goodwill and positive reviews, which can be seen as future ancillary income.

• Transportation – In some areas, such as beaches or ski resorts, getting around and parking only create headaches. Offering transportation add-ons like a shuttle service or rides to the top of popular bike trails can save them the hassle and land you a piece of the action.

• Local partnerships – Collaborate with tour providers, private chefs, or massage therapists and earn referral commissions or flat fees. Nabbing $15 from a $100 massage just for the referral may not seem like much, but it also doesn’t require much from you. As always, make sure the services offered are a natural fit for your brand.

Track’s Booking Engine makes it easy to add “concierge”-type services into the direct booking process, offering guests yet another incentive to book through you. Such add-ons can then be easily mapped to your ledger. Similar offerings can be worked into the OTA booking process, though the process can be more manual and dependent upon each OTA’s specific rules.

Revenue Stream #2: Owner-Facing Services

Your property owners aren’t just looking for bookings — they’re looking for peace of mind, ROI, and operational excellence. Value-adds that make their lives easier or their investments perform better are usually safe to suggest as long as you enjoy open lines of communication and can make a strong business case for the changes you want to suggest.

Potential add-ons include:

• Smart home monitoring – Sell hardware installation and monitoring packages to help owners stay compliant, secure, or energy-efficient. This can bring peace of mind not only to owners, but safety- or energy-minded guests.
• Maintenance plans – Flat-rate monthly packages that include preventative maintenance checks or HVAC filter replacements. Owners who don’t live nearby might jump at the opportunity to coordinate maintenance directly through you and the providers you trust versus doing it on their own, even if the former is more expensive.
• Design consultations – Help owners refresh tired interiors and charge a consulting fee or commission on furnishings. Here again, it pays to have done your research. Showing that home furnishings are tired or misaligned with guest expectations makes the business case more compelling.
• Tax and financial reporting services – Partner with accounting firms or offer templates/tools for tax season readiness. Alternatively, you could offer some resources to help owners with this as an added value. This can be especially helpful for new owners who have yet to wrap their heads around trust accounting.

These services not only generate revenue but also deepen your relationship with owners, which improves retention and reduces churn..

Revenue Stream #3: Branded Experiences and Merchandise

This is a little niche and not for everyone, but one way to create more brand affinity, make some extra revenue, and get some free advertising out of the bargain is to sell stuff.

If you have a cool logo, solid branding across channels, and a good reputation with guests, branded beach towels, mugs, shirts, or even locally sourced souvenirs bearing your name might offer a nice little piece of side revenue, especially if you can price things below equivalent products at local shops. Plus, having something that says “Beachside Bungalows” in addition to “Destin, FL” might provide that extra bit of uniqueness that entices some guests.

If you operate in a lifestyle-driven market (e.g. wellness retreats, ski destinations, or culinary hot spots), guests may be looking for a more immersive, memorable experience and to commemorate it later. Meet them where they are with curated merchandise or experience bundles.

Don’t Just Add — Integrate

Adding alternative revenue streams isn’t just about bolting on new services. It’s about integrating them in a way that feels natural, valuable, and cohesive. That second part is key — not just for guests, but for you to feel good about the strategy.

That means:

• Building offerings into your website and booking workflows
• Training your staff to talk about them confidently
• Using automation tools to present upsells at the right moments
• Reviewing performance and optimizing based on guest and owner behavior

You don’t need to launch everything at once. Start with one or two revenue streams that feel like a natural extension of what you already do well and build from there. The goal is to create more value and earn more in the process. If it feels like nickel-and-diming, either don’t do it or establish a short trial period to see how guests respond before writing it off.

Parting Shot: More Value, Less Dependence

The most resilient property managers are those who diversify—not just their portfolio, but their revenue. Based on how the post-pandemic vacation rental space has unfolded, there are pretty strong arguments for not putting all your eggs in one basket. Diversifying your revenue streams to the extent you can offer a buffer against inevitable disruptions and downturns.

By shifting your mindset beyond occupancy, you open the door to healthier margins, revenue stability, and a more resilient business model. A saturated market calls for a creative approach to how you do business.

You’ve just heard about some of the more common alternative revenue streams used by short-term rental companies like yours. But by no means is it a comprehensive list. There are many other ways to shore up your income and insulate your business against the caprices of this industry. Leverage your strengths and the unique features of your market, then weigh those against your typical guest. As long as the value proposition is compelling, there’s a good chance you can boost revenue without too much extra work or turning off guests.

 

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3 Winning Strategies for STRs To Compete with the Big Dogs

At a Glance

• Big operators are both a threat and an opportunity to smaller PMCs.
• Size doesn’t matter if you remain agile and adaptive — a critical advantage in a fast-moving market.
• Building unique experiences can unlock new revenue streams and grow your customer base.
• Your customer list is a key resource for driving more direct business.

The consolidation and corporatization of the STR business have been underway for a while now. The thrilling, demand-driven gains of the COVID years saw an explosion of inventory, led in large part by corporations such as Vacasa, which manages more than 44,000 properties nationwide. The post-COVID market downturn that resulted as demand returned to historical levels was felt by many STR operators. Although things have largely stabilized, market uncertainty remains.

If you’re not one of the “big dogs,” it can feel like you’re swimming against a powerful tide. How do you grow inventory when so many properties are being Hoovered up? How can you stand apart in an increasingly crowded market? How do you protect yourself and even grow in such conditions?

1. Stay Agile and Adaptive

It’s practically a cliche at this point. Two fighters face off, one of whom is much smaller than the other. The little fella’s coach says, “Yeah, he’s big, but he’s slow. Keep moving and don’t be where his fist is.” Or something like that.

Cliche or not, smaller generally equals more agile. That’s not to say big companies aren’t—they certainly can be—but it’s usually easier to roll with market changes and experiment when you have 50 properties versus 500.

A good example is catering to remote workers and digital nomads. Say you convinced a couple of owners to add nice desks and faster WiFi, promoted those properties to remote workers, and saw an uptick in occupancy. That’s something you could quickly replicate across your portfolio. By the time a big corporate shop got around to it, you might have enjoyed six months of cashing in on that trend.

Optimization, especially in your tech stack, can happen much faster at a smaller scale. The more units you manage, the more complex everything is, from auditing your current operations, to shopping for new vendors, to implementation. It’s never too soon to evaluate your tech stack and find new ways to improve your operations and guest experience.

Finally, experimenting with new revenue streams, such as fees or package deals, also is easier and faster when you’re smaller. You likely have fewer owners to communicate changes to and have less exposure if the experiment backfires.

2. Focus On Unique Guest Experiences

The commoditization, or same-ification, if you will, of the STR industry isn’t inherently good or bad. It just is. The more popular and easily available a thing becomes, the more closely it cleaves to a standard. And yes, consistency is important. For a brand, it can create loyalty. For a guest, it builds trust.

But it also offers an opportunity to set yourself apart. By nature, STRs have the flexibility to create completely unique guest experiences. The larger they are, the more challenging this becomes.

The process of creating and selling unique experiences is called experience marketing. Here are some tips on creating unique experiences that elevate your brand and delight guests:

Know thy guest

Chances are, you have some concrete data on what kind of traveler seems to prefer which property (or property type). That kind of information is solid gold when it comes to building a unique experience.

• Build a guest persona. When you picture someone staying at a particular property, what do they look like? How do they spend their time? What do they hope for when they arrive? Knowing whether a “typical” guest is a 25-year-old digital nomad or a 55-year-old semi-retiree helps narrow down the experiences you’ll offer.
• Map persona to local activities. Say your typical guests skews young and adventurous, and you have a lot of rafting companies in the area. That gives you a more focused starting point for building experiences.
• Look for amenity alignment. If younger groups are your sweet spot, and those groups often go rafting, then maybe a bigger house with a hot tub makes for an easy, “Cold River, Hot Tub” kind of experience. Be creative and don’t be afraid to try new things.

Connect the dots

Great experiences link the elements of the overall experience so they reinforce each other and your brand. Once you know your target guest, this becomes easier to do.

Generally speaking, the elements of an STR experience are:

• Marketing the experience
• Pre-stay communications
• In-stay property elements
• In-stay connected elements
• Post-stay communications

Sticking with the young adventurer example, you decide to build your “Cold River, Hot Tub” experience. Working with a local guide, you create some extra perks exclusive to your guests, like a special group rate, door-to-door transportation, a boat to themselves, and a gourmet lunch on the river. Having built the experience, you market it accordingly.

The goal of your pre-stay communications is to get your guests excited about their stay. Photos from the river and the property help paint a picture of a long, thrilling day that ends with a long soak in the hot tub and a movie on the big screen. You might consider keeping something a surprise until then, like a complimentary bottle of champagne or free sunscreen.

In-stay communication is all about checking in, requesting any feedback for the tour operator, and making sure everything is as expected. It also reminds the group of the next tour or check-out time.

In-stay connected elements include information about other property amenities, such as a large-capacity dryer or a great place nearby to watch the sunset. These can be sent via email or text, or they can be part of an on-premises booklet or digital guide.

Post-stay communication again requests feedback and maybe even includes a link to photos from the river. You’ll also want to thank them for their stay and find out what other adventures interest them next time.

The idea here is to ensure that all phases of the stay either align with, or at least aren’t incongruous with, the overall experience. They should feel unique on their own but linked to the experience you set out to create.

In the process of building out unique experiences, you’ll also forge or deepen relationships with other local operators — relationships the big dogs rarely enjoy.

3. Leverage Your List for More Direct Business

The more competition you face from large companies, the more important your direct channel becomes. Assuming you’ve been quietly accumulating email subscribers over the years, this is where those leads can really start to pay off.

Direct bookings offer better margins for you while guests pay the same as or less than the OTAs. However, it can be tricky to get them there, especially if they have a go-to channel like Booking.com or Airbnb. You have the best shot at a direct booking when you proactively reach out to your list with promotions, announcements of new properties, amenities, or incentives.

Cultivate and Curate

Your customer list is yours. No one can buy it off of you or sell it to you. These are people who know you and your brand, and (hopefully) feel good about you already. That makes them prime candidates for promotional offers or retargeting.

If you don’t do it already, consider a regular cadence of emails to past guests. Over time, this will help them get accustomed to hearing from you. Plus, each successfully delivered email improves the chances of them seeing the next one. In a world where 20% is a pretty good open rate, that makes about 1 in 5 emails will actually get read. Email marketing, like any marketing, is ultimately a numbers game. The key is to send regular emails but not so frequently that it feels like spam. Two to four emails per month is about right.

Your emails should always include something of value, be it a blog post highlighting the best local trails or an exclusive offer. That way, even if your guest only opens one at random, they’ll be glad they did.

But before you do anything else, audit/secret-shop your direct booking chain from start to finish.

• Look through your CRM to determine how clean your list is. Warning signs include a high rate of spam reporting, hard bounces, and unsubscribes.
• Make sure your website is clean, fast, and conversion-optimized. Run some tests with different emails (know the Gmail trick?) to make sure your booking engine passes everything through to your CRM and PMS like you want it to.
• Look at the booking confirmation email and any that automatically follow, on both desktop and mobile. Are they still in-brand? Is the information current, especially to contact you?
• Simulate a check-out and look at those automated communications as well.

Once you’re confident that your chain is strong, it’s time to look more closely at your list and segment or group them so you can reach out in a targeted way. Here are just a few ways to do it:

• Guests who have stayed with you more than once
• Guests who book the same property again and again
• Group by age (if you have that data)
• Average booking value
• Guests who have written especially positive (or negative) reviews

Now it’s time for the fun part — building out your offers or valuable content. Here are some ideas for offers that entice past guests and drive more direct business:

• Limited-time deals, especially during shoulder season
• Event-related promos or packages, such as an upcoming music festival
• Exclusive discounts for lapsed guests, e.g. “We miss you!”
• Offers that encourage longer stays, such as booking 5 nights and getting the 6th night free
• Exclusive discounts from local vendors or tour operators
• Highlights of new amenities, especially for a specific property they’ve booked in the past, or portfolio-wide features like smart locks
• Stories like how to beat the crowds, best-kept secrets, or a comprehensive event calendar

In Summary

It’s tough out there, and it’s not getting any easier. Consolidation and the entry of aggressive, deep-pocketed PMCs have definitely made it harder for smaller operators to grow their share of the market.

But bigger is generally slower, more risk-averse, and less creative by nature. Being more nimble lets you throw stuff against the wall to see what sticks. Rolling with the punches and moving quickly offers one notable advantage.

Being smaller potentially makes it easier to build unique guest experiences that the big dogs don’t have the luxury of testing out. Plus, just having a big presence in your market doesn’t mean they know it as well as you do. Be creative, add value where you can, and carve out a niche as someone who really knows what their guests want.

OTAs are a fact of life, and there’s only so much you can do to optimize your presence on those channels. From there, your best bet is to grow your direct business by consistently putting valuable offers in front of your best customers.

 

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The Data-Driven PMC: Using Analytics to Beat Market Saturation

Short-term rental operators have never had more tools at their disposal—or more competition.

In a maturing market, the old rules often don’t apply. When bookings are rolling in and your inventory is growing, it’s easy to rely on past experience, gut instinct, and established processes. But now that inventory is outpacing demand in many destinations, the landscape shifts. You’re no longer just competing on price or location—you’re competing on execution, and more specifically, on data-driven decision making.

This is where the most successful property management companies (PMCs) are pulling ahead. Not by guessing better, but by knowing more. Not just collecting data, but using it to make smarter, faster, and more confident moves. Best of all, the data you need might already be at your fingertips.

Here’s what it really means to be a data-driven PMC in a saturated market—and how to use that mindset to stay ahead.

What does it mean to be data-driven?

To be clear, being “data-driven” doesn’t mean obsessing over spreadsheets or dashboards. It’s about using objective, real-time information to guide decisions that were once based on gut feelings or instincts. Data can help illuminate what’s working (or not) faster than your competitors. With the help of tools that weren’t available five years ago, it’s like seeing around corners.

In practical terms, a data-driven PMC:

• Uses centralized reporting tools to monitor KPIs across departments
• Tracks booking trends, conversion rates, and guest behavior across channels
• Benchmarks performance against past years, internal goals, and competitive sets
• Implements dynamic pricing backed by real-time market insights
• Ties marketing spend to actual revenue outcomes versus clicks or impressions
• Monitors owner profitability and satisfaction to reduce churn

It’s not about more data, or even data in general. The point is gaining better visibility into the metrics that matter most.

Shift from reactive to proactive

Saturated markets favor operators who move quickly and strategically. That’s hard to do if you’re only looking at past performance. To compete, you need tools and habits that turn data into actionable information.

For example:

• Your direct bookings are down this month. Is it due to rate parity issues, underperforming listings, or a lack of follow-up with returning guests?
• Your newest property isn’t generating reviews. Is it an onboarding issue, a guest satisfaction issue, or a problem with your post-stay communication?
• Your cost to acquire an OTA guest is going up. Are you investing enough in retargeting or email remarketing to bring them back next time?

In a proactive model, these aren’t end-of-quarter surprises. They’re early signals. And the faster you catch and address them, the better your competitive position becomes.

Focus on portfolio-level ROI, not just top-line revenue

It’s tempting to chase growth for its own sake—more listings, more channels, more exposure. But as the STR space crowds, the smarter move is often to optimize what you already have.

The road to optimization runs through data.

You might find, for instance, that:

• A third of your units generate 70% of your gross revenue
• Some properties are chronically underperforming due to owner restrictions
• A few top-performing properties lack review momentum, limiting OTA visibility
• Your upsells or fees are inconsistently applied, leaving money on the table—OR they’re too high or penalizing, scaring guests away

Data-driven PMCs use analytics to spot these gaps, then fix them. That’s how you increase revenue without increasing overhead or cutting corners on service.

And remember, analytics doesn’t stop at revenue. You should also be asking:

• Are your internal operations efficient?
• Are service tickets closed on time?
• Is your housekeeping labor cost in line with occupancy?
• Are your owners using the portal? Are they happy with it? With you?

Efficiency, satisfaction, and scalability are all measurable—and all crucial to thriving in a crowded market.

Use data to segment, personalize, and differentiate

Not every guest wants the same experience. Not every owner values the same service. And not every property should employ the same marketing strategy. That’s why you have to segment, and how do you segment smartly? You guessed it—by digging into the data.

Segmentation is where personalization begins, and analytics makes it possible.

You might create different guest journeys for:

• Families booking homes with bunk beds and pools
• Couples booking last-minute romantic getaways
• Remote workers seeking long-stay discounts and stable, fast Wi-Fi
• Returning guests who only book direct

With the right data, you can automate emails, offers, and even on-site recommendations that feel surprisingly personal even at scale.

That personalization extends to owners, too. You might find that long-time clients need different touch points than newly acquired ones. Or that owners in certain locations need more frequent updates due to HOA or regulatory pressure. Data can help you meet them where they are.

TrackPMS users, for instance, often lean on dynamic triggers to personalize both guest and owner communication based on channel, booking history, or even season. This is how hospitality stays personal even while your team focuses on efficiency.

Close the loop between marketing and performance

Marketing used to be something of a black hole. You spent the money, ran the campaign, and hoped for the best. And then there’s the truism of knowing that 50% of your marketing is working but not which 50%.

Now, with the right tech in place, you can track the entire journey from awareness to revenue and trace it back to its source. Which ads bring in high-spending guests? Which subject lines convert? Which properties get clicks but not bookings?

One important note here is that marketing data is a numbers game. Seemingly minuscule differences in key metrics such as conversion rates can make a huge difference. It’s a bit like compounding interest. In other words, don’t discount something that only seems to work a tiny bit better.

With platforms like TrackPMS and TrackDMS working together, you can attribute marketing outcomes with far more precision. That means you can stop wasting budget on channels that don’t convert and double down on those that do. Track’s longtime integration with KeyData Dashboard puts more information than ever at your fingertips.

It also means more informed owner conversations. You can show them what you’re doing, what it’s generating, and how you’re optimizing their individual property. That builds trust in both you and your processes. Ultimately, trust is what keeps your top-performing owners around.

Don’t forget about internal ops

While much of this blog has focused on revenue, there’s a quieter story that matters just as much: how well your team performs.

Data-driven operators can use analytics to:

• Identify training needs (e.g., certain team members close fewer tickets or have higher error rates)
• Forecast hiring needs based on historical booking patterns and lead times
• Track operational costs by property or department
• Monitor response times across communication channels

This data isn’t flashy, but rather, foundational. If your team is firing on all cylinders, guests feel it, owners notice it, and your reputation will flourish.

Build your own benchmarks

One of the trickier parts of being data-driven is knowing what “good” looks like. Industry benchmarks are useful, but only up to a point. Every market, company, and property is a little different.

That’s why smart PMCs don’t just look outward. They build internal benchmarks and compare themselves to, well, themselves.

• What was your guest review score this time last year?
• What’s your average revenue per property during shoulder season?
• How many maintenance tickets were created and closed last month?

By establishing internal baselines, you can measure improvement in ways that actually matter to your business. And when you do compare against the industry, you’ll know whether you’re ahead of the curve or falling behind. The more historical data you have, the easier this is.

Don’t let analysis become paralysis

Being data-driven doesn’t mean waiting for perfect information. You’re not a data scientist, right? Not everything needs a custom dashboard. And you definitely don’t need to drown in KPIs that don’t move the needle.

The key is to pick a few metrics that matter most to your goals. Review them consistently. Let them inform your strategy without dictating it. And make adjustments as you learn.

If you’re using Track, you already have access to hundreds of reports, automation tools, and integrations that can power this kind of visibility. And if you’re not yet using Track, we’d love to show you what’s possible.

Final thought: You can’t fake consistency

In the end, the difference between a good PMC and a great one isn’t found in a single metric or dashboard. It’s a product of consistent performance, communication, and experience.

Data is your best ally in building that consistency. It shows you where to improve, how to focus, and what to change when things don’t go as planned. And in a crowded field of vacation rental operators all chasing the same bookings, that kind of clarity becomes a serious competitive edge.

The best operators don’t guess. They’re measuring. They’re learning. And they’re adapting faster than the rest. That’s how to become a data-driven PMC and beat market saturation.