Nearly half of short-term rental operators expect AI agents to run parts of their businesses

Nearly half of short-term rental operators expect AI agents or fully automated workflows to be running parts of their businesses within the next year, according to new research from Hostaway.

A survey of more than 700 property managers and owners found 48% expect to be using AI agents or fully automated workflows within 12 months, up from 20% currently.

The findings point to a shift in how operators are using AI, from conversational tools that assist with individual tasks towards systems capable of taking responsibility for recurring operations.

AI adoption is already widespread across the sector, with 89% of respondents using the technology in some form.

However, most are still using relatively basic applications. Some 59% use conversational AI, while 20% have progressed to AI agents or more autonomous workflows.

Current adoption is concentrated on guest-facing activity, with 58% using AI for guest messaging and review responses and 50% using it for marketing and listing optimisation.

Use falls significantly further into the business. Only 14% are using AI for sales and owner acquisition, while 11% use it for hiring and team management.

Hostaway said this leaves considerable scope for AI to move beyond customer-facing applications and take on more operational responsibilities.

The research also highlights a potential obstacle to greater AI autonomy: fragmented data.

Only 16% of operators said their data is fully centralised across their technology stack, potentially limiting the information AI agents can access when carrying out tasks across different parts of a business.

Trust is another barrier. Some 35% of respondents identified confidence in AI accuracy as the biggest factor holding them back from increasing their use of the technology.

Almost a third (32%) still review everything produced by AI before acting on it.

Marcus Rader, CEO and co-founder of Hostaway, said the next stage of adoption would depend on giving AI sufficient context to operate independently.

"Most vacation rental operators are already using AI. The next challenge is giving it enough context to actually work on its own, so it takes tasks off people's plates instead of just assisting with them," he said.

Rader also said operators were looking for technology that could understand their businesses and execute tasks without requiring step-by-step instructions.

The findings suggest the short-term rental sector could be among the areas of travel where agentic AI moves rapidly from experimentation into day-to-day operations, but that the pace of adoption will depend on operators connecting their underlying data and becoming comfortable handing greater control to AI systems.