AMERICA HAS TWO LODGING ECONOMIES.
Its destination infrastructure was built for one.
Hotels and resorts are counted, benchmarked, represented, marketed, and built into the machinery of destination management.
Short-term rentals have become a permanent pillar of the visitor economy.
But the systems around them haven’t caught up.
That space between the two is The Lodging Gap.
We gathered the data. We asked both sides. Then we connected the dots.
THE LODGING GAP REPORT
Volume One · 2026
The State of America’s Two Lodging Economies
A new industry research synthesis from Destination Innovate and Hosts & Home Teams, combining current lodging research and market data, fieldwork inside destinations, and original sentiment research from DMO leaders and STR operators across 13 states.
Together, the evidence reveals a structural disconnect across four dimensions:
DATA · FUNDING · POLICY · ALIGNMENT
THE GAP ISN'T THEORETICAL.
1.77M
U.S. STR listings projected in 2026
85%
of DMO leaders surveyed describe their STR posture as reactive, fragmented, or outside their control
1 IN 7
DMOs surveyed report a clear STR alignment strategy
43%
of operators surveyed describe STRs as politically controversial but economically important
And then we found something more interesting.
Both sides are asking for essentially the same things.
DMO leaders and STR operators were surveyed separately.
Their answers converged around three missing pieces:
Shared data.
A communication channel.
An organized relationship.
Nobody is asking for the other side to lose.
There simply hasn’t been a room in which to ask each other.
41 pages. Two lodging economies. One gap hiding in plain sight.
Inside Volume One:
- The size and shape of America’s second lodging economy
- The four dimensions of the Lodging Gap
- What’s happening in data, funding, policy, and alignment
- What DMO leaders and STR operators told us
- The five-part Alignment Agenda
- The Destination Alignment Maturity Model
- A 12-question assessment to see where your destination stands
You’ll also receive occasional research and updates from Destination Innovate and Hosts & Home Teams. Unsubscribe anytime.
VOLUME ONE IS THE BASELINE.
mailto: innovate@destinationinnovate.comThe Lodging Gap isn’t static, and neither is this res
otearch.
The Hosts & Home Teams Alignment Sentiment Study remains open as we continue gathering perspectives from destination leaders and STR operators across the country.
Future volumes will track what changes, what doesn’t, and whether America’s two lodging economies are getting any closer to becoming one.
The lodging economy changed.
Now the destination ecosystem has to catch up.
RESEARCH & SOURCES
The Lodging Gap Report: Volume One synthesizes current lodging and tourism research, government data, industry reporting, Destination Innovate fieldwork, and findings from the ongoing Hosts & Home Teams Alignment Sentiment Study.
Research and data sources include Phocuswright, AirDNA, Key Data, Lighthouse, Simpleview, PwC, Hotel & Leisure Advisors, Hospitality Net, government and legislative sources, academic research, and industry reporting, alongside original sentiment research from destination organization leaders and short-term rental operators across 13 states.
Topics examined include short-term rental market growth, hotel and STR performance, lodging supply and demand, destination funding and lodging taxes, STR regulation and housing impacts, destination management, host engagement, and DMO–STR alignment.
FOR PRESS INQUIRIES:
innovate@destinationinnovate.com or text 602-834-4993
