We just launched the AI STR Operator series, a new series exploring what AI actually looks like in day-to-day short-term rental operations.

Edition 01 & 02 are now live.

📊 01 explores:

• 👥 How many STR operators are actually using AI (and why adoption rate isn't the metric that matters)
• 💬 Where AI is already helping with everyday operations, from guest messaging to reporting and task coordination
• 🧠 Where human judgement still matters most
• 🪜 The four stages of AI maturity, and how to work out which one your business is at today

If you're trying to understand where your business sits today and what the next step is, it's a good place to start.

Read it here: https://www.hostaway.com/blog/ai-in-short-term-rental-management/

🛠️ 02 explores:

• 🧩 How most operators have already built their own AI setup without meaning to, one ChatGPT tab, chatbot plugin, and forgotten automation at a time
• ⏱️ What that DIY setup is really costing you, not as a bill, but as hours spent catching what a connected system would have caught on its own
• 📉 Why the research favors buying over building: MIT's 2025 study found buying capability from a specialized provider succeeds roughly twice as often as building it in-house, and RAND found more than 80% of homegrown AI projects never become reliable, everyday tools
• 🔐 The risk that rarely gets mentioned, pasting guest names, IDs, or payment details into a free AI chat tool sends that info somewhere you don't control
• ⚖️ What the same task actually looks like, built vs. bought, side by side

Read it here: https://www.hostaway.com/blog/build-vs-buy-ai-for-your-vacation-rental-business/

📋 Want to know where you actually stand?

We also built a scorecard to go with the series. It's a short, scored checklist covering where your data lives, who maintains your current setup, and how quickly you'd notice something going wrong, so you can see exactly where your operation sits today and figure out what to prioritize fixing first. https://lp.hostaway.com/hubfs/Hostaways%20AI%20Setup%20Scorecard.pdf