Shows / STR Unpacked
STR Unpacked
STR Unpacked is a short-term rental industry podcast that reviews the key news stories of the week alongside an invited sector expert, providing commentary, insight and practical interpretation of how current developments are shaping the market.
Episodes
- STR Unpacked
The Budget
Yesterday's Budget names our sector exactly once, in a VAT note, as "short-term rental accommodation". The phrase "short-term let" appears nowhere in it. It…
- STR Unpacked
5,000 Euro And 3 Months
Ireland's short-term letting Bill is public, and registration is not the administrative step it has been sold as. The text of the Short-term Letting and…
- STR Unpacked
The Clock Starts Sunday
The Netherlands has set a clock running on every Dutch short-let registration number, and it stops on 1 May 2027. On Monday 19 October a royal decree fixed the…
- STR Unpacked
It Is Not Whether, It Is When
Airbnb announced two new community policies on Tuesday. For reservations booked on or after Friday 20 November, the host rental agreement comes off the…
- STR Unpacked
Liable For Uncollected Money
Poland promulgated a law on Monday that turns a short-let operator into a tax remitter. Not a collector. A remitter. The distinction is worth money. The Act of…
- STR Unpacked
17% Only Sometimes
Turkey is about to cap what the booking platforms can take out of a stay. The cap that was adopted is not the cap that was tabled. The bill as tabled in August…
- STR Unpacked
Serbia's 50% Jump
Belgrade's overnight guest tax rose 50% today. Before you reprice anything in Serbia, work out which limb of the law your stock sits in, because only one of…
- STR Unpacked
Pull The Listings, Start Counting
If you run a Welsh holiday let and you take the listings down for the winter, a 30 day clock starts. Deregistration sounds like something you do on the way out…
- STR Unpacked
407 Votes To 24
Poland's lower house passed the hotel services act amendment on Thursday, 407 votes to 24. The provision being reported lets a building vote short lets out…
- STR Unpacked
Two Fines, One Risk
Bavaria's short-let law carries two fines, and both of them need your council to have passed a by-law. Munich and Nuremberg have passed the one that carries…
- STR Unpacked
In Force This Morning
I am at the Vacation Rental World Summit in Lyon, and Spain changed the rules overnight. Its lower house threw out the 10% VAT charge on short lets on Friday 2…
- STR Unpacked
Ireland Moved The Number
If you are working to a 14-day rule for short-term lets in Ireland, that number was repealed 7 months ago. Since 1 March 2026 the planning definition has been…
- STR Unpacked
Snap Election!
Spain has called a general election, and the short-let VAT charge went down 3 days before it. On Friday 2 October the lower house threw out both of the…
- STR Unpacked
Spain Votes Today
Spain's statistics office published 2 surveys this morning and the demand line is the strongest in months. Non-resident tourists whose main accommodation in…
- STR Unpacked
Your Text Flow Just Broke
Booking.com stopped sending guest phone numbers to connectivity providers on Monday 28 September. If you run units through a channel manager or a property…
- STR Unpacked
62 Days To Reprice
Spain ended the VAT exemption on short-term rentals this morning. Royal decree-law 26/2026 was signed on Tuesday 29 September and published in the official…
- STR Unpacked
The Duty With No Door
Munich has had a short-term rental registration duty since 1 August, with a 50,000 euro fine attached, and no way to register. Both come from the city's own…
- STR Unpacked
Slovenia's 31 October Problem
Koper's council sits tomorrow on a 270-day short-let cap, the most Slovenia's new law allows. It is still a cut, and Koper's own papers say so. Slovenia's…
- STR Unpacked
File It Anyway
Spain's hotels took 166.90 euros a night per occupied room in August, up 7.3%. Revenue per available room reached 133.10 euros, up 7.0%. Nights rose 1.4%. The…
- STR Unpacked
234 To 1500
Poland charges a tourist fee in 234 of its municipalities. The law its lower house passed on Friday opens that to about 1,500. Today a town qualifies only if…
- STR Unpacked
Unbegrenzt Möglich
In 2025 Vienna approved 132 conversions. From January it is closing that door. First, a correction to 14 July. I said Vienna was enforcing its 90-day cap in…
- STR Unpacked
37 Days
The headline last week was a tax raid on holiday cottages. The document underneath says something narrower, and it does not say when. On 2 September Markus…
- STR Unpacked
All Of It Was Rate
European short-term rental revenue rose again in August, and all of it came from rate. AirDNA's European review, published 15 September: RevPAR up 4.3% to…
- STR Unpacked
£1,400 A Property
Wales opens its visitor accommodation register next month. Joining it is free. Ignoring it costs £1,400 per property. From October 2026, anyone who takes…
- STR Unpacked
Ten Days
n Mallorca the criminal risk has stopped being about letting without a licence. It is now about what you do in the 10 days after the notice arrives. On Tuesday…
- STR Unpacked
You Already Pay To Rank
Paying to rank is not new. It is arriving at the one big channel that never sold it. On 1 September, Expedia Group launched Vrbo Sponsored Listings globally…
- STR Unpacked
Ice Hockey To Y Combinator - Sit down with Jan from Trellis
Jan Sahagun turned down the chance to start Trellis. He was in a job he believed in, he needed the stability, and he said no. So his co-founder applied to Y…
- STR Unpacked
Uncapped
England's tourist tax will not be capped. Neither will the number of nights it applies to. The government published its response to the visitor levy…
- STR Unpacked
Enforce Or Don't Restrict
Three things happened in European short-term rentals this week, and one of them has been badly under reported. The Affordable Housing Act, published Wednesday…
- STR Unpacked
No Grandfathering
Brussels published the Affordable Housing Act yesterday. The most important line in it is not about caps. Article 3(1): short-term rental restrictions taken on…
- STR Unpacked
Greece Will Pay You To Quit
Greece is paying owners to leave the short-term rental market. As the law stands today, that offer expires on 31 December. Most of this week's coverage led…
- STR Unpacked
Get In Before The Door Shuts
Tomorrow, Brussels hands every city in Europe a legal instruction manual for capping short-term rentals. The European Commission presents its Affordable…
- STR Unpacked
March 2027. England Finally Has A Date
England's short-let register has a date. By March. Lisa Nandy told the Commons on Thursday the national scheme will be "up and running in full by March", which…
- STR Unpacked
12.5% Fewer Listings. 12% More Guests.
Spain has 12.5% fewer short-term rentals than a year ago. In July, 12% more tourists stayed in them. Three official releases landed on Tuesday and they all…
- STR Unpacked
Airbnb Just Hired Booking's Homes Guy
Airbnb just hired the executive who ran Booking.com's hotels and homes business. And gave him Airbnb Hotels. Pepijn Rijvers started on Tuesday as Chief…
- STR Unpacked
Exempt Doesn't Mean Excluded
France's e-invoicing reform went live on 1 September. If you assumed VAT exemption kept you out of it, it does not. → Every business established in France that…
- STR Unpacked
Airbnb Cut The Fee To 6%. Direct Isn't Free Either.
Airbnb will cut your fee from 15.5% to 6% if you bring the guest yourself. Most of the coverage is treating that as a win for hosts. Run the numbers before you…
- STR Unpacked
Four Rules In Five Days
Greece's new spatial plan for tourism has been in force since 7 August. This week the sector worked out what it actually does. For short-term rentals, it names…
- STR Unpacked
£1,400 A Property To Ignore
Registration is free. Not registering costs £1,400 a property. The Welsh Revenue Authority has published its updated guidance on the visitor accommodation…
- STR Unpacked
Prove It Or It's Tourist
If you let a home in the Canaries for a month or less, the law now assumes it is a tourist rental until you prove otherwise. Ley 7/2026 was published in the…
- STR Unpacked
Page One Now Costs $5 A Night
Vrbo will now sell you the top of its search page for $5 a night. You only pay when the guest books. Expedia published the full partner guide on 6 August…
- STR Unpacked
Your Renewal, Not The Designation
Highland Council says a control area will not affect existing short-term lets. Its own report says something more precise than that, and the difference is…
- STR Unpacked
Nobody Discounted
Spain's hotels sold no extra rooms this July. They still made 6.6% more money. That was the pattern all week across Europe. INE published July this morning…
- STR Unpacked
One In Eight. Gone.
Spain has lost one in eight of its short-term rentals. The rest of Europe just put its prices up. 📉📈 AirDNA's European review for July (published 14 August) is…
- STR Unpacked
1x EBITDA
A booking platform just told the market what your management business is worth. 🇩🇪 HomeToGo reported H1 2026 this morning. The headline figures are good: ➡️…
- STR Unpacked
Rates Up. Occupancy Down. RevPAR Up Anyway.
European nightly rates rose 8.2% in July. Occupancy fell. RevPAR still went up 7.7%. 📈 New AirDNA figures reported this week show a rate-led market, not a…
- STR Unpacked
Poland Missed The Deadline. Then Deleted The Clause.
Poland missed the EU short-term rental deadline in May. It still has no implementing law. And the bill meant to fix that has split the government. 🇵🇱 On 14…
- STR Unpacked
The Eclipse Paid Out
Two minutes of darkness. €347 million. 🌒 On Wednesday the first total solar eclipse on mainland Europe since 1999 crossed northern Spain — and it's Friday, so…
- STR Unpacked
Mayors Next Year. Everyone By 2028.
England's tourist tax just stopped being a big-city story. 🇬🇧 The Cabinet Office's Rewiring the State paper (31 July) contains one line that changes the map…
- STR Unpacked
Bookings +75%. Rates +6%. Same Week, Same Country.
Spain goes dark this evening. In A Coruña, totality lasts 76 seconds. 🌑 The demand was never in doubt. The pricing was. SiteMinder compared 10–12 August…
- STR Unpacked
8.6 Million Euros, One Tax Nobody Collected
An 8.6 million euro fine, built out of a 750 euro minimum. On 31 July, France's Constitutional Council said the maths holds. 🇫🇷 The case: the communauté de…
- STR Unpacked
The Turn Happened In Spring
UK rates hit a record June peak. Supply hit a record June peak. And occupancy is still the pressure point. 📊 Two UK datasets landed this month. Both worth your…
- STR Unpacked
Three Calls, One Message: Demand Is Accelerating
Three earnings calls. Three raised outlooks. One message: demand is accelerating. 📈 This week the three biggest travel platforms all reported Q2 — and it was a…
- STR Unpacked
182 Days. The Number That Decides If You're A Business.
182 days. If you run a holiday let in Wales, that number has probably cost you money. 🏴 Last Friday the Welsh Government opened a 12-week consultation on…
- STR Unpacked
Short Lets Were Booking's Fastest Growth. Now They're Its Slowest.
Booking Holdings beat expectations last night. The number operators should care about was underneath. 📉 Q2 2026: ➡️ Room nights: 325 million, up 5% ➡️ Revenue…
- STR Unpacked
49% Said No. It Passed Anyway.
Highland Council's Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh committee voted yesterday to recommend joining a new Highland Rural Short Term Let Control Area. The…
- STR Unpacked
The Sun Goes Dark. Rates Go Up 289%.
Nine days until the sun disappears over Spain — and STRs are the big winner. 🌑 The first total solar eclipse on mainland Europe since 1999 hits on 12 August…
- STR Unpacked
Copenhagen +246%. Czechia +18%. Spain Still Number One
Everyone's writing about the "coolcation" this week. The data is more specific than the headlines. 🌡️ → Mabrian and Data Appeal: demand rising for southern…
- STR Unpacked
Brussels Is Building Cities A Legal Shield
Cities are about to get a legal shield for short-let restrictions. 🇪🇺 Bloomberg reported yesterday that the European Commission is preparing a common EU method…
- STR Unpacked
Twenty-One Per Cent, Postponed
Spain's 21 per cent VAT on tourist lets was supposed to be approved yesterday. It wasn't. The housing decree was scheduled for Tuesday's cabinet meeting, the…