Guide to vacation rental taxes

Five tips for making your vacation rental taxes easier

Vacation rental homeownership can be a joy. You can create lasting memories with family and friends, and you can turn your home into an income-generating investment when you offer it as a short-term rental. But for many second homeowners, figuring out vacation rental taxes can be an overwhelming and frustrating task.

Whether you manage your taxes yourself or you want to outsource them to your property management team, here’s a list of tips and resources to help you prepare for tax season.

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Source: Vacasa

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Where to buy a vacation rental

BEST PLACES TO BUY A VACATION HOME

Buying a vacation home can be one of the most financially rewarding and enjoyable investments you’ll ever make. Many of our vacation homeowners invest in multiple properties, building a portfolio of revenue-generating retreats in beautiful destinations around the world. 

We designed this report to help active buyers make an informed decision. Our findings are unique because of our unparalleled data and because we focused our analysis exclusively on true vacation rental destinations in order to deliver the most accurate results.

If you’re seriously considering investing in a vacation rental property, read on. These are the top vacation rental markets that you should be currently looking at if you want to get the biggest return on your investment.

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Source: Vacasa

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The Vacation Rental Industry

The vacation rental industry is always evolving. To learn more about our global industry, check out the information and articles below.

Small Business Facts: Spotlight on Women-Owned Employer Businesses

According to the Census Bureau’s latest Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (2016), there are 1,118,863 women-owned businesses with employees in the United States. Overall, 21 percent of employer businesses had majority female ownership, employing 9.4 million workers at a total annual payroll of $318 billion and amassing $1.5 trillion in total annual receipts. On average, a woman-owned firm had $1.3 million in annual sales and employed eight workers. Small businesses constitute the majority of these firms with 99.9 percent of female-owned employer businesses having fewer than 500 employees.

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Source: Small Business Administration

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Surveying the European Vacation Rental Market

The European property manager (PM) market is changing rapidly and creating a new landscape of opportunities, Transparent found in its groundbreaking survey of more than 500 European property managers. While industry analysis has treated the vacation rental market as a single entity, in fact urban managers have been the big recent beneficiaries, growing far faster than their leisure counterparts.

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Source: VRMA Arrival
Date: March 5, 2019

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LendingTree Reveals the Cities with the Highest Share of Vacation, Investment and Second Homes
  • There is a clear regional break. Cities with the most non-owner occupied properties were located in the South or the West, while those with the least are in Northeast and Midwest.
  • Southern cities may be attracting investors due to low prices and growing populations. Many residents in Southern cities may not be able to access home ownership due to lower median salaries, creating a ready pool of renters.
  • In the West, the opportunity for rapid price appreciation is likely attracting investors. But high prices also suppress homeownership, creating a pool of renters.
  • In the Northeast and Midwest, affordable homes mean the opportunity to be a homeowner is high and less appreciation attracts less investors.
  • The homeownership rate in the top 10 cities is an average 59 percent compared with just 67 percent in the bottom 10. Even Detroit, a city often cited as having a challenging housing market, has a homeownership rate above all the top 10 cities.

Source: LendingTree
Date: June 11, 2018

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Vacation Rental Companies: Segmentation and Spend on Software

  • Compared to the hotel industry, vacation rental companies need to spend proportionately more on software to manage their workforce, channel management, revenue management, payments, pricing, and the guest experience. 

Source: 2018 Hostfully Market Study

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5 Vacation Rental Trends for 2017

  • 2017 is likely to be one of our most polarizing years and one of its most pronounced trends will be vacation rental properties self-identifying into one of two buckets - professionally managers (PM) and rent by owner (RBO) - each with their own challenges.
    • Limited edition products vs. commodity goods
    • How testing guarantees your growth
    • Personality as the new luxury
    • Limited edition prototype
    • Less text, more visuals

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Source: Vacation Rental Marketing Blog (http://www.vacationrentalmarketingblog.com)

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Millennials Help Short Term Vacation Rentals Disrupt the Travel Industry

  • Millennials are predicted to spend $1.4 trillion on travel each year by 2020

Source: TurnKey Vacation Rentals Blog (http://blog.turnkeyvr.com)
Date: May 11, 2017

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Global Vacation Rental Market 2017-2021

  • Technavio's analysts forecast the global vacation rental market to grow at a CAGR of 7.07% during the period 2017-2021

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Source: Cision PR Newswire (http://www.prnewswire.com)
Date: Feb 22, 2017

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Vacation Rental Market Growth: Eye-Watering Projections

  • Holiday lets are now the fastest-growing sector of UK tourism
  • Transactional value of the European short-term rental market grew more than 220% between the first quarters of 2015 and 2016
  • An industry last year (2016) valued at $100 billion dollars is predicted to reach a worth of $167.9 billion by 2019
  • USA 26% year-on-year growth
  • UK 38% year-on-year growth

Source: Smarthosts Vacation Rental Forum (https://www.smarthosts.org)
Date: Feb 2017

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New Skift Research Report: The State of the Global Vacation Rental Market 2017

  • This report takes a holistic look at the vacation rental ecosystem, examining the property management groups, marketplaces, and technology that are changing the face of accommodations as we know it.
  • Three waves of consolidation in the vacation rental space: Marketplaces, Property Management and Management Tech.
  • Growth of professional management in urban short-term rentals.
  • The biggest trend driving growth in the "alternative accommodation" sector, is the growth of professional management in urban short-term rentals.

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Source: Luke Bujarski, Skift (https://skift.com)
Date: Feb 14, 2017

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U.S. Citizen International Outbound Travel Up Eight Percent in 2016

  • U.S. travel to overseas markets totaled 35.1 million, up seven percent for the year.

Source: International Trade Administration (https://travel.trade.gov/tinews/archive/tinews2017/20171026.asp) 

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Vacation Rental Market

  • Revenue in the vacation rentals segment amounts to US$10,620m in 2017
  • User penetration is at 6.2% in 2017 and is expected to hit 7.4% in 2021
  • The average revenue per user (ARPU) currently amounts to US$659.01

Source: statista- The Statistics Portal (https://www.statista.com)

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Why the Vacation Rental Industry Is Blowing Up Right Now

  • First four months of 2016 alone, vacation rentals startups attracted nearly $100 million in venture capital funding, concentrated in the US and Europe
  • Consolidation as well as convergence are two key trends

Source: LeisureLink + Skift (https://skift.com)
Date: May 25, 2017

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National Survey Shines Light on America’s Emerging Peer-to-Peer Culture

  • 1 in 4 report engaging short-term rental platforms (23%), up 277% from 6%
  • 9 of 10 previous ridesharing passengers and short-term rental guests rate peer-to-peer services as valuable or extremely valuable (both 89%)
  • Becoming a guest reverses opinions on short-term rental: 26% of non-users would be less inclined to visit a city if short-term rentals were banned, a number that increases by a 127% to 59% for previous guests

Source: Short Term Rental Advocacy Center (http://stradvocacy.org)
Date: Dec 3, 2015

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The Changing Face of Travel

  • The beach is best for most travelers, with 74% of respondents preferring to spend their vacations on the coast
  • 83% simply prefer to be near water—whether the ocean or a lake
  • 51% and 35% prefer mountainous and city vacations, respectively
  • Millennials have expensive tastes—12% plan to stay in a villa/estate in the next year vs. only 6% of Boomers and 9% of Gen Xers
  • 71% of travelers with children said access to cook their own meals was a major reason they chose a vacation rental
  • Travelers will end up spending the most if they book a short-term rental in a city that's considered a seasonal getaway.

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Source: Tripping Industry Trends (https://www.tripping.com)

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HomeAway Trend Report

  • Key findings on millennials’ vacation yearnings and the primacy of privacy
  • Uncovers surprise up-and-coming destinations
  • Research show Americans will head for the hills for vacation in 2017, driving longer distances to spend more time at increasingly private accommodations.

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Source: HomeAway Research (https://www.homeaway.com)

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Vacation Rentals Provide Valuable Income Source for Owners this Summer, HomeAway Survey Shows

  • 2015 in the US, the average purchase price was $192,000 and 61% of buyers used a mortgage to finance
  • Vacation rental income comprises about a quarter (24 percent) of the average owner’s income
  • 29 percent of properties for the survey’s last two years are owned by more than one person
  • The average age when owners began renting their home is 49.5 years old, 6.5 years younger than last year’s respondents

Source: HomeAway Press Releases (https://www.homeaway.com)
Date: June 29, 2016

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HomeAway: The Vacation Equation

  • Those who traveled with a mixed (friends and family) group remembered their trips at least 20% better
  • Mountain vacations top the list for most memorable vacations—they’re up to 12% more memorable than other destinations

Source: HomeAway (https://www.homeaway.com)

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Consumer Trends

  • Phocuswright's research on consumer technology, social media, booking tendencies, brand loyalty and all other traveler decisions will help you stay abreast of consumer trends.

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Source: Phocuswright Research Topics (http://www.phocuswright.com)

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Phocuswright releases study on private residence rentals and the “New Gen” Renter

  • Examines the attitudes, aspirations, expectations and behaviors of renters and non-renters alike
  • This report provides critical insights into how, when and why travelers do and do not choose rentals vs. hotels
  • What influences their decisions, where they shop and book, and what renters want

Source: VRM Intel (http://www.vrmintel.com)
Date: Jul 11, 2014

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Online Travel Agencies

  • 53% of all travel being booked online

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Source: Henry B. Tippie School of Management (https://www.biz.uiowa.edu)
Date: Feb 10, 2016

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Why Do Consumers Prefer Booking with Online Travel Agencies?

  • The 2014 Traveler’s Road to Decision, 50% of corporate tourists prefer to book through a travel agency with approximately 33% of leisure tourists opting for the same.
  • 50% of people aged between 35 and 44 prefer to reserve through OTAs
  • The two main tactics that OTAs have adopted to achieve their success over hotels are:
    • Winning New Customers
    • Maintaining active clients, or those who were once active

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Source: Tnooz (https://www.tnooz.com)
Date: Dec 10, 2014

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