2026 STR Predictions: What Smart Hosts Need to Prepare for Now
The Boostly Podcast
Mark Simpson
5.0 • 302 Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the Boostly Podcast, I’m joined by voices from across the industry to break down what’s coming next and what hosts and property managers need to prepare for now.
Drawing on insights from operators, tech leaders, consultants, and founders, we cover the biggest shifts already happening beneath the surface, including:
• AI moving from hype to table stakes
• Direct bookings becoming a survival strategy, not a nice-to-have
• Automation reshaping guest communication, marketing, and operations
• Rising guest expectations and the return of high-touch experiences
• Consolidation across software and management companies
• Regulation, tourist taxes, and what they could mean for supply
• Longer stays, digital nomads, and stronger shoulder seasons
• Why revenue management and marketing are finally merging
I also share my own prediction for 2026 and why I believe this is the year the industry fully crosses into a new operating model.
If you’re a host or property manager who wants to stay profitable, future-proof your business, and reduce reliance on OTAs like Airbnb and Booking.com, this episode will help you see what’s coming before it hits.
Listen now and decide which side of the change you want to be on.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Boosley podcast and as we do every year, I like to come up with |
| 0:06.0 | 2006 predictions for the year ahead. And it's not just my predictions. I wanted to reach out to |
| 0:11.7 | those in the Slack community channel and asked anybody who would like to lend their predictions. |
| 0:17.4 | And we've got seven amazing humans that have done so. So for those of you that are tuning in for the first time, my name is Mark Simpson, founder |
| 0:24.6 | of Boosley and this podcast. And of the last 10 years, we have worked with over 2,000 hosts |
| 0:30.2 | and management companies all around the world. And they have driven over $1 billion in bookings, |
| 0:37.4 | which is insane. |
| 0:38.3 | And we like to give host of tools, the tactics, to training and confidence to go ahead and grow their business, |
| 0:43.4 | relying on Airbnbbbooking.com and Verbo. |
| 0:46.7 | And like I said, in this episode of the Boosley podcast, we want to look ahead to 2006 and where we will be in 12 months time. My prediction is a super simple one |
| 0:57.6 | is I think 2026 is going to be the year of the robots. I feel what we are going to see, |
| 1:03.8 | whether it be driverless cars, whether it is actual robots that are going to be in your homes |
| 1:09.0 | or in your business, I feel this is the year |
| 1:11.6 | that we are going to see it happen. Whether it is the Neo, whatever Tesla I've got caught |
| 1:16.8 | cooking up, or what any of these other companies are doing around the world, it is going to |
| 1:21.2 | ramp up in 2006. How is that going to impact us and the hospitality businesses? Well, I feel like for number one, |
| 1:29.7 | having robots in and around any operation style of business, whether it is laundry, etc. |
| 1:35.1 | It is only going to be a good thing. It's going to help empower your members, your team, |
| 1:39.3 | do twice as much work. And obviously, the beauty of robots is that they never get tired, |
| 1:43.8 | they never complain, they never get tired, they never complain, |
| 1:44.6 | they never get ill, they never have to finish early. So it is going to impact us, whether it's |
| 1:50.2 | going to be an instant thing. I do believe that the first round of these robots are going to be |
... |
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