Hostaway’s new STR AI Benchmark Report finds that 20% of short-term rental operators run AI agents or automated workflows. Hostaway classifies another 68% as using AI without that level of automation, while 12% say they don’t use it at all.
The survey covered 714 operators in 62 countries, where half of the respondents managed 2 to 14 properties. Among operators who have not automated, 60% still use AI at least once a day. The distinction is whether it handles recurring work without someone starting each task.
Scale Shapes Adoption
Only 5% of single-property hosts reported using AI with automation, compared with 41% of those managing at least 50 properties. Years in business showed a smaller difference: 13% of first-year operators automated, versus 19% to 24% in each older group.
Automated operators were also more likely to report saving at least 11 hours a week, 35% versus 7% of everyone else. These are self-reported results, and the savings comparison does not isolate the effect of automation from portfolio size.
AI Well Beyond the Inbox
Guest replies were the most common AI use in both groups: 85% of automated operators used AI for them, compared with 52% of those not yet automated. The gap widened for pricing and revenue decisions (66% vs. 36%), and for reports and data analysis, at 56% versus 23%.
Those figures count any AI use for a task, even occasional use. They don’t mean an agent sends every reply or changes prices without approval. Automated operators were also more likely to say their tools flag trends before they notice them (20% vs. 8%), and that AI helps them make decisions faster, (61% vs. 42%).
Trust and Oversight
Operators who haven’t automated were more likely to want to review everything before AI acts (37% vs. 14%). Among automated operators, 74% were comfortable letting AI handle small tasks unsupervised, compared with 41% of everyone else. The survey compares different operators; it does not track how an individual operator’s trust changes over time.
In separate product-use data, Hospitable reported that the share of AI-drafted guest replies sent without edits rose from 49% to nearly 60% in the first half of 2025. Hostaway’s AI CoHost can suggest changes and draft messages, but still requires an operator’s approval before an action executes.
Where AI Still Falls Short
Fear that AI would send a guest the wrong message was the most common reason operators gave for holding back, cited by 35%. Respondents most often said AI trips up on complex or unusual situations (25%), reading guest tone (24%) and accuracy (23%). Those figures describe what operators reported as their main problems, not measured error rates.
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