Back from the Short Stay Summit — and Still Thinking About It

This year's Short Stay Summit was organised by the UK Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA) under the theme Tourism Reimagined: A People-Led, Future-Focused Industry. It was a one-day conference, but a full one — keynote sessions, panel discussions, an exhibition floor packed with technology vendors, and more conversations in the corridors than you could ever plan for.

The scale was significant. Over 1,300 delegates from across the world, including executives from Airbnb, Expedia, and Booking.com, alongside property managers, hosts, and technology providers of every size. The exhibition hall featured major players — Guesty, Hostaway, PriceLabs, eviivo, and many others — all sharing product updates and new launches.

PriceLabs announced its Revenue Accelerator, a full platform upgrade moving beyond dynamic pricing into a complete revenue growth tool. Hostaway launched Booking Website Pro, an AI-driven website solution to help operators build stronger direct booking brands. The innovation on display reflected how fast this industry is moving.

There was also a notable leadership transition: STAA's outgoing CEO Andy Fenner announced his successor at the summit, marking a meaningful moment for the UK industry body. A torch being passed.

One new addition this year that stood out: the Learning Lab, where on the hour, every hour, industry experts ran hands-on education sessions and peer problem-solving workshops. Practical, no-fluff, immediately actionable. More of that, please.

You can go to a lot of events in this industry and come back with a stack of business cards and not much else. This one was different.

What stayed with me the most, after hours of conversations at the booth and in between sessions, was this: even operators who have been in the industry for years are still actively looking to improve. Still investing in their business. Still curious about what is coming next. I do not take that for granted.

This is an industry made of hustlers. Professionals who work hard, adapt fast, and care deeply about what they have built. Think about everything that has shifted in just the last few years — OTA dynamics, shifting guest expectations, AI and automation entering operations, regulations tightening across major cities in Europe and beyond, direct booking strategies becoming table stakes rather than a bonus. And yet, they are still here. Still at events like this one, asking the right questions and being honest about where they want to get better.

One of the broader themes running through the day was regulation. Across the UK and Europe, local authorities are introducing stricter rules to manage the impact of short-term rentals on housing markets. At the Summit, this was not framed as a threat — it was framed as part of the industry's maturation. The operators who are thriving are not the ones resisting compliance. They are the ones building professional, accountable businesses that can operate under scrutiny and still deliver excellent guest experiences. That shift in mindset was palpable in the room.

This was my first time attending the Short Stay Summit representing Aeve AI, alongside Dragos Diac, the founder. We were at booth 70, and the conversations we had were exactly the kind that make these trips worthwhile — real, specific, and without fluff.

Operators were not just asking "what does your tool do." They were asking "how does it handle this specific scenario," "what does the handover to a human look like," "how does accuracy hold up across languages." The questions were sharp. That tells you something important: the market is maturing fast. Operators have been burned by overpromised AI tools before, and they come to these conversations better informed than ever.

AI in guest communication is no longer a novelty conversation. It is a serious operational discussion. The operators who are exploring it are doing so because they have real pain — response times, team overload, late-night messages, missed upsell windows. The ones who have already implemented something are the ones sharing data. That is the stage we are at now.

Being at the booth with Dragos was a reminder of why building something genuinely useful matters more than ever. The bar is rising. And that is a good thing.

Something I keep coming back to, a few days later, is the quality of the operators I spoke with.

There is a narrative in the tech world that STR operators are slow to adopt, resistant to change, allergic to software. My experience on Wednesday was the exact opposite. The operators at the Short Stay Summit were engaged, well-read, and asking sophisticated questions. They know their numbers. They have an opinion on their PMS. They have tried two or three pricing tools and know the difference.

What they are looking for is not more noise. They are looking for clarity — tools and partners who can cut through the complexity and actually move the needle on their business. That is the opportunity. And it is a large one.

A huge thank you to Dragos for the opportunity to be there side by side, having those conversations. It is one thing to believe in a product from the outside. It is another to stand in a room full of operators and watch them light up when something resonates. That meant a lot.

And it was so good to see so many familiar faces. Hugging friends you have met along the way — people you have worked with, learned from, argued with, competed with — that is what makes this journey feel like something worth doing. The STR industry is a small world, and events like this remind you why that is a strength, not a limitation.

The Short Stay Summit will be back. So will I.