IWD spotlight: Investment inequality in the STR industry

Worldwide: Ahead of International Women’s Day 2025 Lisa Roads, short-term rental business growth strategist and consultant at The Holiday Property Coach, discusses female funding opportunities compared to male counterparts. The article was informed by the results of a survey detailing the experiences or plans of women in the Women in Short-Term Rentals Community, including whether they had sought investment in the past or what they think could hold them back from considering seeking investment.

Operating a short-term rental business [STR] in 2025 is tough, and scaling a business in 2025 hinges on securing market share with a strong brand growth strategy and financial investment in your tech, people and marketing.

Yet, for many women-led businesses in the STR sector, access to funding remains a significant challenge, which impacts the speed at which they can scale and ultimately increase the market visibility and value of their businesses.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and gender equality, we must address the gender investment gap and how it impacts female founders globally in the STR industry.

The gender investment gap: A barrier to growth

Despite there being an estimated 60 per cent of the total workforce in hospitality being women and an increasing number of women leading successful STR business brands, they continue to face systemic gender barriers when seeking investment.

A recent report from the British Business Bank found that all-female teams receive less than two per cent of total venture capital funding in the UK and that female entrepreneurs receive less funding than their male counterparts, not due to a lack of capability but because of ingrained biases in the investment landscape.

In a recent survey of the Women in Short-Term Rentals Community, 83 per cent confirmed that they felt that a lack of investment was slowing down the growth of their STR business, and only 16 per cent had successfully achieved any form of funding or investment, leaving the majority to fund business growth either through re-invested profits or personal director loans.

The lack of funding prevents women from scaling their STR businesses at the same pace as male-led companies achieving investment, which has the knock-on effect of lower buyer interest, lower market value, and an uneven market playing field.

Why women in STR struggle to secure investment

For many women in STR, the challenges in accessing investment stem from:

Lack of awareness and resources: Many female founders are unsure where to begin when it comes to seeking funding, where to look for it or what an investor would be looking for as an attractive investment opportunity.

Confidence in pitching: Imposter syndrome is prevalent among women and if you have watched Dragons’ Den, you will appreciate that pitching to investors is not for the faint-hearted. It can be daunting, particularly for women who may feel less confident in articulating their business growth potential in an industry that has traditionally been male-dominated.

Bias in investment panel decisions: My own experience supporting female founders during investment pitches has been that women received more risk-averse questioning compared to men, making it harder to secure funding.

Sadly, there is still a perception among male investors that women-led STR businesses are less ambitious and less scalable despite data showing that women-led businesses often deliver higher returns on investment.

How can we bridge the gap?

To bridge the gender investment gap and empower more women in STR, several key steps must be taken:

• Education and resources: Industry events and women-centric workshops play a role in providing women with access to sector education, which should include clear, actionable information on funding opportunities, investment readiness, and pitch development.
• Mentorship and networking: As a coach in the STR space with experience of the investment landscape, my mission is to support and elevate women in STR to successfully scale and exit, and that means helping them to get their business investment ready, it was the reason for starting the Women in Short-Term Rentals Community. The community is leveraging women empowering women, networking and connection.
• Investor awareness and diversity: Encouraging investment houses to recognise the wider potential of female-led STR businesses.  Highlighting how women bring different skill sets and approaches to hospitality. Women typically focus on building strong business foundations, relationships, and brand loyalty, which protects property retention, which is critical for scaling sustainably. It is refreshing to see some female business angels and investment fund managers creating investment opportunities for female founders, but many of these still focus on IP tech-led businesses.

Nothing will change unless we collectively drive the change.  Our sector is experiencing turbulence and change, and women in STR bring a valuable contribution to our sector.  Together, we can work towards greater support, resources, and funding opportunities for women-led STR businesses.

Lisa Roads is a STR business growth strategist and consultant at The Holiday Property Coach, who aims to champion women with ambitious visions to build profitable and scalable short-term rental businesses.