Australia Tops Global Short-Term Rental Growth

The news we’ve all been waiting for! Australia’s short-term rental bookings have started accelerating with a substantial uptick in September. In fact, according to our friends at Guesty short-term rental bookings grew faster in Australia than in any other country in the world.

Double-digit September

From our own data at Hometime, we have observed a 19% booking increase in the month of September compared to August and have been increasing ever since. Eased restrictions have boosted customer confidence and started resembling local travel demand that we’ve observed in other countries.

Last minute bookings are now more common. From our portfolio, we saw that 33% of bookings made in September had 5-day lead times or less. This upward trajectory of bookings made along with last minute booking behavior may suggest that potential guests are looking for these experiences. We've seen guests making their bookings closer to their dates of stay when they’re more certain that their plans would push through.

Global Trends

In the month of September alone, Guesty saw a 5% increase in reservation volume across the globe compared to the previous month, a spike we also witnessed with our own bookings. The company also shared that 15% of reservations for short-term rental channels were made on the same day, while more than 40% of reservations were made within 7 days of the reservation itself and an additional 30% within a 30-day window of the reservation, confirming what we have also observed.

Additionally, Christmas reservations are usually booked during this time compared to last year. Even though holiday reservations are still down by 40%, the length of stay increased by 17% compared to last year and the average length per trip now sits at 6 days.

Australia leading the growth

The Guesty platform is used in over 80 countries including Australia, New Zealand and the APAC region and they are seeing the most activity in Europe, North America and Australia. Guesty also noted that Australia leads this rise in reservation volume and saw up to 25% increase when compared month on month from August to September. They also revealed that during the same period, Australia’s nightly rates increased by 22%.

This is the perfect time to invest in Australia and New Zealand property and take advantage of the short-term rental market. At Hometime, we specialise in short-term rental management making it easier for you to increase your return on investment. Properties in our portfolio have seen an increase in earnings by up to 30% by leveraging our partnership with Airbnb, platform specialists and Hosting Partners in our regions.