2025 is here, and many hosts are formulating strategies and developing new ideas to attract more guests and grow their short-term rental business. If you, too, are looking for valuable insights, our Annual Report is a must-read. See what 2024 can teach us, dive into key trends for 2025, and discover successful strategies you can implement this year.
Smoobu’s 2025 Annual Report
The Smoobu Annual Report: Actionable insights from top hosts and strategies for 2025 was created to provide data-driven insights to current and aspiring vacation rental hosts and managers.
This report highlights the practical strategies, features, and integrations most used by Smoobu’s top-performing hosts, empowering you to identify key initiatives for your business.
Who are Smoobu’s top hosts?
“Top hosts” means the owners or managers of short-term and vacation rentals who received the highest number of bookings per managed unit.
For our report, we anonymously surveyed a diverse group of Smoobu’s top 500 hosts, 100 of whom are based in the UK. This diverse sample of hosts manages 265 units, including homes, bed and breakfasts, apartments, and cottages, all across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Let’s look at some key insights that will surely benefit you.
Booking portals
Unsurprisingly, hosts with the highest occupancy rates promote their listings on the major booking portals. However, it is interesting to note that among Smoobu’s top 500 hosts, 97.6 percent have at least one active listing on Airbnb and/or Booking.com.
Download our report to learn what strategies our top hosts use to maintain a high ranking and average rating.
Most popular features
In 2024, which features did our top-performing hosts use besides our Channel Manager and PMS? Our report highlights three of them and explains why our hosts consider them invaluable. Learn how to personalize the guest experience, improve brand visibility, and increase commission-free bookings.
Key integrations
Smoobu’s top hosts use numerous integrations, with payment solutions and pricing tools among the most popular. We dive into the details of both and explain why they help remove friction for potential visitors and grow occupancy rates and revenue.
How to succeed in 2025
Here are some ideas and initiatives highlighted by our analysis that you should keep in mind for a successful 2025:
- Optimized listings: To perform well on booking sites, hosts must have inviting and always up-to-date ads. The list of services and equipment offered is also essential. Top UK hosts offer dedicated workspaces and amenities for families with children.
- Automated messaging: Save yourself time and effort by creating messaging templates that will be sent to guests when needed. This will help improve response rates (an essential consideration on Airbnb) and your relationship with your guests. Download our Smoobu app for iOS or Android to manage your communication with guests from anywhere.
- Cutting-edge offerings: Staying ahead of the curve and taking advantage of industry trends will help you stay competitive in the growing market.
The keywords for 2025 will undoubtedly be recommendations, technology, and personalization.
This is just a taste of the analysis we have conducted to help our hosts, who play a crucial role in the short-term rental industry, identify the strategies best suited to their needs.
Be sure to join our webinar discussing the report and offering some industry insider tips!
So, let’s see what we can learn from 2024 and put it into practice in 2025!
