Short-term rental (STR) leaders have been talking about the need to increase direct bookings for nearly a decade, but nobody's cracked the code.
Instead, property managers are trapped in an unsustainable cycle. For many companies, booking platform fees now consume 10-15% of total revenue. And despite paying more each year, visibility and booking advantages continue to diminish. Remarketing to past guests or website visitors offers some relief, but reaching net-new guests remains an enormous challenge for STR marketers.
But, this story isn’t unprecedented. Third-party aggregators achieved the same stranglehold in automotive, until the industry found a way to break free.
Fifteen years ago, aggregators like Autotrader and Cars.com evolved from auto dealers’ helpful partners into expensive necessities. Premium placement became table stakes, and after IPOs, fees escalated. (Sound familiar?)
Through data-driven performance marketing and direct customer acquisition, many auto dealers broke free. They dramatically improved sales while reducing marketing costs by reaching in-market buyers on their own terms, instead of depending on aggregators.
Now vacation rental managers can follow the same playbook, giving you the biggest opportunity to improve revenue since dynamic pricing.
Here’s how it works.
In the 1990s, buying a car meant scouring newspaper classified ads or driving from lot to lot, hoping to find the right vehicle at the right price. Auto dealers relied on expensive print advertising with limited reach, delayed inventory updates, and zero targeting capabilities.
Then Autotrader and Cars.com arrived. Now consumers could search thousands of vehicles from their computers, while dealers could showcase their entire inventory to a massive, engaged audience. Dealers could pay for premium listings that delivered real visibility advantages, and early adopters saw immediate results.
The value proposition was mutual and compelling: more inventory attracted more buyers, creating a virtuous cycle that benefited both sides of the marketplace.
Fast-forward to the late 2000s, and vacation rentals followed an identical playbook.
Before modern platforms, booking a vacation rental was fragmented and cumbersome. Guests relied on print ads, phone calls, and basic listing sites with no reviews or instant booking capabilities.
Enter Airbnb. They revolutionized the experience with comprehensive search, reviews, professional photography, and instant online booking. Existing platforms like Vrbo and Homeaway quickly evolved to keep pace, and property owners gained global reach they could never achieve independently.
The vacation rental ecosystem thrived as more unique properties attracted more travelers, benefiting both hosts and platforms.
Both industries experienced the same golden age: platforms solved real problems, created genuine value, and focused on growing both sides of the marketplace rather than extracting maximum revenue from suppliers.
But honeymoons don't last forever.
When the auto aggregator platforms went public, shareholder pressure shifted their priorities. Instead of growing the marketplace, they focused on the fastest path to increasing profits: extracting maximum revenue from existing participants.
Auto dealers saw helpful partnerships become mandatory expenses, and early competitive advantages disappeared as premium features became industry requirements. Dealers found themselves captive to an escalating cost cycle, paying more each year while losing control of their customer data and market insights.
The vacation rental industry is now walking the same path.
Over the last several years, the "Big Three" OTAs (Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia/VRBO) consolidated 71% of market control, up from 53% in 2019.
Superhost status and featured listings, once meaningful advantages, have become baseline expectations. Algorithmic visibility depends entirely on platform preferences, so hosts find themselves competing against each other while OTAs capture increasing value from every transaction.
Innovation came from an unlikely source: a century-old media company.
Advance Local had evolved from local newspapers to digital platforms, and realized they possessed something most technology companies lacked: deep relationships with automotive manufacturers and access to comprehensive market data. Through their media properties and advertising partnerships, Advance Local could track vehicle inventory, sales patterns, and market demand across the entire automotive ecosystem.
They recognized an opportunity hidden in plain sight. While dealers struggled with aggregator dependency, Advance Local possessed insights into which vehicles were selling, where demand was strongest, and how inventory moved across different markets and timeframes.
Rather than selling this data to aggregators, Advance Local built an independent solution.
They built technology to identify exactly which cars needed marketing attention, then automatically created targeted, VIN-specific ad campaigns to reach buyers actively shopping for those exact vehicles.
Instead of dealers paying aggregators for broad exposure, they could partner with Advance Local to invest in precision marketing that connected their inventory directly with qualified buyers.
The approach fundamentally changed dealer economics. General Motors dealers achieved 43% increases in inventory turn rates and reduced days supply by 11 days. Individual dealers saw 4x improvements in sales velocity and 200% increases in website traffic. Dealers reclaimed control of their customer relationships and marketing spend.
And now, Advance Local is bringing its proven technology to another industry held captive by third-party aggregators.
STR property managers today depend on OTAs for guest access and market visibility: the same trap automotive dealers escaped. With the BookingsCloud platform, Advance Local is introducing the same game-changing ad tech to vacation rental managers.
Just as automotive moved from generic dealership marketing to VIN-level targeting for individual vehicles, BookingsCloud enables property-level campaigns on platforms like Meta, targeting new prospective guests already searching for specific accommodations and sending those high-intent users directly to your website.
To optimize ad spend, BookingsCloud’s Opportunity Score system identifies which of your properties need marketing investment most (the vacation rental equivalent of knowing which cars need promotion).
For example, BookingsCloud can identify a traveler searching for four-bedroom houses in Panama City Beach, and show them a Facebook ad with your four-bedroom houses in Panama City Beach. Specifically, the homes with lower occupancy rates and higher average daily rates, maximizing your ad dollars and your revenue potential.
Plus, it’s easy. BookingsCloud uses real-time data, listing details, and photos to automatically choose, build, and launch the most effective campaigns on your behalf. This takes the guesswork and time-consuming legwork out of managing paid advertising.
Over the last decade, seismic shifts in STR marketing, like high-resolution photography and dynamic pricing, have driven double-digit improvements in revenue. Now, the BookingsCloud approach to data-driven, highly targeted advertising is the next transformative opportunity for the vacation rental industry.
Already, forward-thinking managers are experiencing the same breakthroughs that transformed automotive. We’ve seen companies using BookingsCloud's performance marketing achieve 8-18x ROI while driving 60% of total website traffic: outcomes that mirror automotive's transformation period. They're building and owning guest relationships, while competitors remain trapped in OTA algorithms.
The data advantage exists. The marketing model works. The escape route is open for vacation rentals.
Ready to see how this approach can transform your direct booking strategy? Schedule a demo to discover how BookingsCloud applies proven performance marketing to vacation rentals.
BookingsCloud: Aug 27, 2025 9:15:00 AM
Short-term rental (STR) leaders have been talking about the need to increase direct bookings for nearly a decade, but nobody's cracked the code. ...
BookingsCloud: Jul 23, 2025 11:41:24 AM
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