The short-term rental industry is on the verge of a new stage in its adoption of artificial intelligence. According to a study by Hostaway, 48% of respondents believe they will use AI agents or fully automated processes within a year, compared to 20% currently.
This evolution is a gradual shift from assistance tools to systems capable of handling recurring operations. AI is already widely present in the sector, with 89% of respondents using it in some form.
Current Usage
Most respondents still rely on relatively simple applications, with 59% using conversational AI and 20% using AI agents or more autonomous workflows. Current usage is mainly focused on activities directly related to travelers.
For example, 58% of operators use AI to draft messages to clients and respond to reviews, while half also use it for marketing and optimizing ads. However, adoption remains limited in more strategic or internal functions.
Only 14% of respondents use AI for sales and owner acquisition, and 11% for recruitment or team management. Hostaway believes these figures show that AI agents still have significant room for growth in daily operations.
Challenges to Automation
The main obstacle to automation is the fragmentation of data, with only 16% of operators having fully centralized information within their technological environment. This dispersion can limit an AI agent’s ability to access necessary data to execute a task involving multiple tools or services.
Trust is another significant barrier, with 35% of respondents citing the reliability of AI-produced results as the main factor preventing them from increasing their use of the technology. Nearly a third of respondents, 32%, still systematically verify everything generated by AI before taking action.
Hostaway’s CEO and co-founder, Marcus Rader, believes the next phase of adoption depends on the amount of context provided to tools: “Most short-term rental operators already use AI. The next challenge is to give it enough context to really work on its own and take tasks away from their teams, rather than just assisting them.”
The speed of this transition will depend on operators’ ability to connect their data and accept transferring more responsibilities to automated systems. As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it is likely to play an increasingly important role in the short-term rental industry.