Vacation Station
Alamo City travelers double the demand for local vacation rentals, says report

Airbnb guests are flocking to San Antonio in bigger numbers than Air Force recruits flock to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for basic training.
A new report from Guesty, a provider of software for management of short-term rentals, says the number of summertime bookings for vacation rentals in San Antonio is up 133 percent compared with the same period last year (June 1-August 31).
San Antonio ranked fourth for the uptick in summertime rental bookings in major U.S. cities, preceded by Philadelphia (294 percent), Chicago (283 percent), and Phoenix (223 percent), Guesty says.
Dallas (82 percent), Austin, (71 percent), and Houston (45 percent) also are experiencing a rise this summer in the number of travelers seeking vacation rentals compared with last summer.
Rental reservations in 2021 will generally cost 30 percent more in the U.S. compared with last year and 28 percent more compared with 2019, Guesty says.
“The increase in pricing is no surprise, considering pent-up demand [for] travel and the widespread lifting of restrictions,” the software company says.
A survey earlier this year by professional services firm Deloitte found 40 percent of Americans were planning to take a vacation between Memorial Day and the end of September. Thirty-four percent of those travelers indicated they were heading to the beach, while 27 percent were plotting big-city stays.
A majority of summer travelers (85 percent) in the Deloitte survey said they would stay in a hotel, compared with 23 percent who were opting for a private rental. More than one-fourth (28 percent) of rental travelers stayed at a private rental for the first time during the pandemic or plan to this summer.
“The pent-up demand for travel, coupled with the flexibility of remote working options, will drive more Americans to hotels and private rentals this summer as an escape from the everyday,” says Ramya Murali, a principal in Deloitte’s consulting practice.