A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user to pay the owner for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial or business equipment are also leased. In essence, a lease agreement is a contract between two parties: the lessor and the lessee. The lessor is the legal owner of the asset, while the lessee obtains the right to use the asset in return for regular rental payments. The lessee also agrees to abide by various conditions regarding their use of the property or equipment. For example, a person leasing a car may agree to the condition that the car will only be used for personal use.
Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need for real estate to be cared for and monitored, with accountability for and attention to its useful life and condition. This is much akin to the role of management in any business.
A rental agreement is a contract of rental, usually written, between the owner of a property and a renter who desires to have temporary possession of the property; it is distinguished from a lease, which is more typically for a fixed term. As a minimum, the agreement identifies the parties, the property, the term of the rental, and the amount of rent for the term. The owner of the property may be referred to as the lessor and the renter as the lessee.
Per diem or daily allowance is a specific amount of money that an organization gives an individual, typically an employee, per day to cover living expenses when travelling on the employer's business.
A vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment, house, or professionally managed resort-condominium complex on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term vacation rental is mainly used in the US. Other terms used are self-catering rental, holiday home, holiday let, cottage holiday and gite.
Single-room occupancy (SRO) is a type of low-cost housing typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes, or single adults who like a minimalist lifestyle, who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a small desk. SRO units are rented out as permanent residence and/or primary residence to individuals, within a multi-tenant building where tenants share a kitchen, toilets or bathrooms. SRO units range from 7 to 13 square metres. In some instances, contemporary units may have a small refrigerator, microwave, or sink.
An apartment hotel or aparthotel is a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel-style booking system. It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can "check out" whenever they wish, subject to the applicable minimum length of stay imposed by the company.
Casa particular is a phrase meaning private accommodation or private homestays in Cuba, very similar to a bed and breakfast, although it can also take the form of a vacation rental. When the meaning is clear, the term is often shortened to simply casa. Today, many casas particulares are rented through online agencies, some specifically Cuban, and others that work worldwide.
A hotel tax or lodging tax is charged in most of the United States, to travelers when they rent accommodations in a hotel, inn, tourist home or house, motel, or other lodging, generally unless the stay is for a period of 30 days or more. In addition to sales tax, it is collected when payment is made for the accommodation, and it is then remitted by the lodging operator to the city or county. It can also be called hotel occupancy tax in places like New York City and Texas. Despite its name, it generally applies to the same range of accommodations.
Short-term rental (STR) describes furnished self-contained apartments or houses that are rented for short periods of time. They are usually seen as an alternative to hotels. "Short stay" rentals are an offshoot of the corporate housing market, and are also offered by private owners and investors via online platforms such as Airbnb.
HomeAway was a vacation rental marketplace. It operated through 50 websites in 23 languages through which it offered rentals of cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns, and farmhouses.
Airbnb, Inc. is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays and experiences in various countries and regions. It acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. It is the most well-known company for short-term housing rentals.
9flats is an online marketplace enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging. The company does not own any lodging; it is merely a broker and receives commissions from both guests and hosts in conjunction with every booking.
Wimdu, powered by HomeToGo, is an online marketplace for booking lodging, accessible by website and mobile app for iOS and Android. The company does not own any lodging; it is merely a broker and receives commissions from every booking. It is set up as a "clone" of similar websites. Wimdu searches and redirects users to the website that has the relationship with the lodging provider such as Expedia, Booking.com, HomeAway, Vrbo, Hotels.com, TripAdvisor, FlipKey, and Airbnb.
Overtourism is congestion or overcrowding from an excess of tourists, resulting in conflicts with locals. The World Tourism Organization defines overtourism as "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality of visitor experiences in a negative way". This definition shows how overtourism can be observed both among locals, who view tourism as a disruptive factor that increasingly burdens daily life, as well as visitors, who may regard high numbers of tourists as a nuisance.
Domio was an apartment-hotel rental service catering to group travelers. It is headquartered in New York City and has locations in several cities in the United States. The company leased parts of residential buildings, furnished the units, and then rented them to travelers.
Vrbo is an online marketplace for vacation rentals. It was originally known as Vacation Rentals by Owner and VRBO. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and is owned by Expedia Group.
Sonder Holdings Inc. manages short-term rentals, such as apartment hotels, in North America, Europe, and Dubai. It was founded in Montreal, Canada in 2014 and since 2016 has been based in San Francisco, California.
The Orinda shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on October 31, 2019, during a house party celebrating Halloween in Orinda, California, United States. Five people were killed and four others were injured. The house had been rented for one night through Airbnb, which enacted a policy banning short-term rentals for Halloween parties two days later. Although several people were arrested a few weeks after the shooting, they were released without being charged and police have been unable to identify the perpetrators.
Inside Airbnb is an investigatory/watchdog website launched by Murray Cox in 2016. It reports and visualizes scraped data on the property rental marketplace company Airbnb, focusing on highlighting illegal renting on the site and gentrification caused by landlords buying properties to rent on Airbnb.
