New A&E show details income potential of vacation rentals
Stacie Fredrich recently bought her first home in Breckenridge, a mansion where her extended family could gather.
The home stretched the single, 30-something’s budget. But, with expected income from renting to visiting vacationers, the always traveling consultant for a pharmaceutical company plans to own the property for generations. And her purchase was documented in a new A&E Network series called “Vacation Rental Potential,” a partnership between short-term rental titan Homeaway and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.
“Being a part of the show really helped me realize the potential income I could get from the home,” Fredrich said. “I mean, I could have bought a condo or a one-, two-bedroom, but I was looking for a space that could accommodate my family — something I could enjoy as well as guests, something unique in the mountains that could draw guests who will help me offset the costs of ownership.”
The TV series, which premiered Saturday (Fredrich’s episode airs Dec. 16), spans 10 U.S. mountain, urban and beach destinations, following buyers as they explore the financial benefits of renting out a vacation home. Those buyers have access to Homeaway rental data and are advised by veteran short-term rental property owners and renovation experts as they choose a home they can both use and rent. The show also serves as a commercial for short-term rentals, hopefully spurring travelers to consider lodging beyond hotels and resorts.
“There are still a lot of people who don’t really know how unique it is to use a vacation home when they travel, and this should encourage travelers to think about that,” said Ninis Samuel, vice president of marketing for Austin, Texas-based Homeaway, the parent of VRBO and acquired by Expedia in 2015 for $3.9 billion. “We hope it also shows people how attainable it is to be a vacation-home owner.”
With the rise of Homeaway and Airbnb, vacation rentals have soared, with the short-term rental market in the U.S. expected to reach $36.6 billion in 2018, according to a recent report by research
firm Phocuswright. Shortterm rentals are growing at nearly twice the rate of the traditional tourism lodging market, climbing 11 percent in 2016.
In Colorado, the explosive short-term rental market continues to stir record income for property owners and tax revenue for municipalities. Airbnb recently reported that 121,000 ski season visitors booked Airbnb homes in 2016-17 in Avon, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Crested Butte, Dillon, Frisco, Keystone, Steamboat Springs, Telluride and Vail. About 2,800 homeowners harvested $32 million from those visitors, a doubling of the previous season.
Homeaway says the number of listings for short-term rentals in Colorado’s ski towns has grown anywhere from 74 percent to 261 percent in the last four years.
The surging short-term rental market in Colorado has befuddled communities grappling with regulations that would both tax the rentals like hotels while limiting impacts on neighborhoods and affordable housing. Across the state, tourism-dependent communities — big and small, from Denver to Georgetown — are struggling to balance the sudden growth in short-term rentals with preserving neighborhoods and maintaining low-cost housing. In the high country, those vacation rentals often are cited as a main reason behind a steadily worsening housing crisis.
A voice that is often missing in those lamentations from municipal leaders and housing advocates is that of property owners who rent their homes to travelers.
The new series will help elevate the perspective of those owners, said Samuel.
“What you are going to find in the show is that these are real, personal stories and it’s not people who are doing it just for the business,” he said. “They are locals, couples looking to retire and other potential owners who are looking to use their home while making extra income when they are not using it. This is a behind-the-curtain glimpse.”