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For years, vacation rentals had some obvious advantages over traditional hotels: more space, more privacy, full kitchens, outdoor areas, and room for families and groups to stay together.
Those advantages still matter. But as vacation rentals have become a mainstream lodging choice, travelers are expecting more.
New 2026 research from Vrbo and Expedia Group suggests that guests aren’t simply looking for the biggest house, the longest amenity list, or the lowest nightly rate. Increasingly, they are looking for something less flashy but potentially more valuable:
Confidence that the property and experience will deliver what was promised.
And according to the research, travelers are willing to pay more for it.
Expedia Group’s 2026 Built to Stay Report surveyed more than 1,700 travelers across seven global markets who had stayed in a vacation rental during the previous year.
One of the most notable findings was that 86% of travelers said they would pay more for a vacation rental with a higher-quality listing.
Trust matters, too. 81% said they would pay more for stronger trust signals, such as positive and verified guest reviews.
For vacation rental owners, that’s an important distinction.
Competing for bookings doesn’t always have to mean having the lowest price or continually adding expensive amenities. There can also be value in making a property feel like a safer, more dependable choice.
That confidence is built through many of the fundamentals of professional vacation rental management: cleanliness, accurate listings, recent positive reviews, reliable amenities, responsive communication, and consistent execution.
A beautiful pool, hot tub, game room, or Hill Country view can certainly help a property stand out.
But those features don’t matter much if a guest arrives to find that the hot tub isn’t working, the home isn’t as clean as expected, or the property looks substantially different from the listing.
Today’s travelers increasingly expect the fundamentals to simply work.
That includes:
These aren’t necessarily the features that make the best hero photo on Airbnb or Vrbo. But together they create something extremely valuable: trust.
For owners, this means investments in operations can be just as important as investments in amenities.
Cleanliness has always been important in vacation rentals, but it is easy to think of it primarily as a housekeeping issue.
We believe it should be viewed more broadly.
Cleanliness influences reviews. Reviews influence trust. And trust can influence whether a traveler chooses one property over another.
That makes cleaning quality, inspections, and attention to detail part of the property’s overall performance strategy.
A professional cleaning is only one piece of that process. Someone also needs to notice the small things: a missed bathroom detail, an outdoor area that wasn’t reset properly, supplies running low, a light bulb that’s out, or something left behind by the previous guest.
The objective isn’t perfection. Vacation rentals are real homes, and issues will occasionally occur.
The objective is to identify as many problems as possible before the guest does.
That’s one reason Hearth & Haven places so much emphasis on post-cleaning, pre-arrival property inspections. A problem discovered during an inspection isn’t necessarily a failure. Catching it and resolving it before check-in is exactly what a strong operating system is supposed to do.
Trust starts well before a guest arrives.
Travelers are making decisions based on photographs, descriptions, amenities, reviews, policies, and pricing. If any of those elements create uncertainty—or don’t accurately represent the home—the property can lose a booking before the guest ever reaches checkout.
Photos are particularly important.
Expedia Group recommends using professional, accurate listing photography and says its data has shown that new Vrbo properties with at least 25 photos can see stronger conversion than listings with fewer photos.
But quantity alone isn’t the goal.
A strong vacation rental listing should give travelers a realistic understanding of the property. That means showing both the home’s strongest features and the spaces guests need to understand before booking.
As properties change, listings need to change with them.
Furniture gets replaced. Amenities are added or removed. Outdoor areas evolve. Technology changes. Occasionally, something guests repeatedly mention reveals that the listing itself needs clarification.
Keeping a listing accurate shouldn’t be a one-time onboarding task. It should be an ongoing part of managing the property.
A strong historical rating is valuable, but travelers also want evidence that a property is delivering a good experience today.
Recent reviews provide that reassurance.
A home with consistently positive, current guest feedback signals that the property is actively maintained and that recent travelers received the experience being advertised.
This makes review performance about more than protecting an Airbnb or Vrbo star rating.
Reviews become part of the property’s marketing.
And the best review strategy begins long before asking a guest to leave one. It starts with delivering a stay worth reviewing positively.
The research also highlights just how quickly guest expectations around communication have evolved.
More than half of surveyed travelers expect a host to respond within an hour when something goes wrong during their stay.
That’s significant because response time is one of the elements of the guest experience that a professional manager can directly influence.
Not every issue can be resolved in an hour. A broken appliance may require a technician. An internet outage may involve the service provider. A maintenance problem may require a part that isn’t immediately available.
But a guest shouldn’t have to wonder whether anyone is paying attention.
Quick acknowledgment, clear communication about next steps, and continued follow-through can make a major difference in how a guest experiences an unexpected problem.
Quality doesn’t eliminate the importance of price.
In fact, 66% of travelers in Expedia Group’s research said they would walk away from a booking when the total price isn’t clearly displayed upfront.
That’s an important reminder for owners and managers.
Travelers have more ability than ever to compare properties side by side. Unexpected fees, confusing charges, or a large difference between the advertised rate and final checkout price can quickly create friction.
The objective shouldn’t necessarily be to make every property inexpensive. A high-quality vacation rental can—and should—command an appropriate rate for the experience it provides.
The objective is to make the value proposition clear and avoid unnecessary surprises.
Another interesting finding from the research is that promotions remain highly influential.
Expedia Group reports that 91% of surveyed travelers said promotions influence their vacation-rental booking decisions.
That doesn’t mean every property should constantly be discounted.
Promotions can be used strategically to influence when travelers book, capture demand during softer periods, encourage longer booking windows, or help a property stand out among comparable options.
But a discount won’t solve a fundamental quality problem.
A property with inaccurate photos, inconsistent cleanliness, poor reviews, or unreliable amenities doesn’t suddenly become a strong product because the nightly rate is 10% lower.
Pricing and promotions work best when the underlying guest experience is already strong.
One of the more interesting aspects of the research is that guest concerns can vary depending on the type of destination.
For example, the research found that lake travelers can be particularly concerned about cancellations and restrictive house rules, while countryside travelers can be more sensitive to cleaning fees.
That’s especially relevant here in the Texas Hill Country.
A traveler booking a Canyon Lake getaway may evaluate a property differently from someone planning a weekend in Wimberley or a wedding trip to Dripping Springs.
The fundamentals—cleanliness, accuracy, reliability, communication, and trust—remain important across markets. But understanding the specific reasons guests visit an area can help determine what a listing should emphasize and what concerns it should address.
That’s why vacation rental marketing shouldn’t be completely one-size-fits-all.
Owners understandably spend a lot of time thinking about amenities.
Should we add a hot tub?
Would a firepit help?
Should we create a game room?
Would new outdoor furniture improve bookings?
Those can all be worthwhile investments. Amenities absolutely influence how a property competes.
But the latest traveler research is a useful reminder that owners should also ask another set of questions:
Is the home consistently clean?
Do the amenities we already advertise reliably work?
Are our photos current and accurate?
Are recent guests leaving strong reviews?
Are problems being caught before check-in?
Can guests quickly reach someone when they need help?
Does the experience actually match what we’re promising online?
Sometimes improving those fundamentals may produce more value than simply adding another feature to the amenity list.
The vacation rental industry has matured.
Travelers still want memorable homes, beautiful destinations, privacy, space, and unique experiences. But they increasingly expect those experiences to come with professional reliability.
For Texas Hill Country vacation rental owners, that creates both a challenge and an opportunity.
The challenge is that guest expectations are higher.
The opportunity is that owners who consistently deliver a clean, accurately represented, well-maintained, professionally managed property may not have to compete on price alone.
Vrbo’s latest research points toward an encouraging conclusion:
Quality and trust aren’t simply defensive measures designed to avoid bad reviews. They can be part of the property’s growth strategy.
The spectacular view may get a traveler to click on the listing.
The pool or hot tub may get them excited about the trip.
But confidence that the home will be clean, the amenities will work, the listing will be accurate, and someone will be there if they need help may increasingly be what gets them to book.
Research referenced in this article comes from Expedia Group’s 2026 Built to Stay Report, based on a survey of more than 1,700 vacation rental travelers across seven global markets.
Wondering what your home could make as a vacation rental? Whether you’re a homeowner exploring short-term rental income, an investor analyzing returns, or a real estate agent advising clients, our expert team is here to help.
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