Skyrocketing demand for short-term rentals over the past four years created a gold rush of investors who purchased properties and set up new listings.
Some hosts and managers have scaled up, scooping up multiple dwellings to create mini-hospitality empires.
Analytics site AirDNA tallied the locations across the US that are dominated by these "professional hosts," a designation it gives to any host ID on Airbnb and Vrbo with more than 20 listings.
In the 15 US towns and cities AirDNA identified, more than 50% of the total short-term-rental listings across booking sites were managed by large-portfolio hosts.
Many of the locations with professional hosts are regional vacation hubs, including the seaside Oregon towns of Lincoln City and Newport and the New Mexico ski-resort destination of Ruidoso.
In popular ski destination Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for example, over 60% of the town's total short-term rental inventory is controlled by professional hosts.
Some of these places have cracked down on short-term rentals. In 2022, Steamboat Springs slapped a 9% tax on short-term-rental owners over concerns that there was a dwindling stock of affordable housing for local workers. In 2023, the town created red zones where new short-term-rental permits were banned, according to local radio outlet KUNC.
The Steamboat Springs restrictions elicited mixed reactions: Some homeowners in the new red zones said they would lose significant income if they couldn't rent out their properties, according to KUNC.
Others were more celebratory, the outlet reported.
"It's been really lovely," Steamboat Springs resident Torey Wodnik told KUNC about living in the new red zones. "We have a handful of brand new full-time, year-round neighbors who are a part of our neighborhood, part of our community, living here, working here."
New short-term rental hosts should know the locations with a large professionalized inventory, like Steamboat Springs, because it comes with both warnings and opportunities, said AirDNA economist Jamie Lane.
On the one hand, being the David against a Goliath means you will likely have to compete in multiple ways with hosts who are well-oiled machines, including finding cleaners, who may prefer the consistent work from the large-volume operators, Lane told BI. Professional hosts may also have the upper hand in offering discounts and adjusting daily rates to capture more guests.
"You're not going to out-revenue manage some of these companies," Lane said.
On the flip side, however, guest services and communication can make a small operator stand out from the pack.
Here are the 15 cities with the largest shares of Airbnb hosts that are professional companies.