Urban Living Insight events bring urban innovators at the cutting edge of contemporary hospitality, real estate and living together.  

Join your hosts, George Sell, Eloise Hanson, Piers Brown, and Paul Stevens at six uniquely curated half day URBAN LIVING INSIGHTS events for urban innovators at the cutting edge of contemporary hospitality, real estate and living.

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About the events

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STRz Urban Living Insights and the 2023 Shortyz Awards – April 2023

Venue tbc

Paul Stevens, editor, ShortTermRentalz, and Simon Lehmann, co-founder and CEO, AJL Atelier, co-hosted the inaugural, uniquely curated URBAN LIVING INSIGHTS event focused on the growth and investment into urban and holiday rentals.

Background

Over the last three years, the short-term rental industry has transformed dramatically with the growth of new entrants backed by venture capital.

The pandemic merely accelerated existing macro-trends: desire for more space; longer stays; leisure and revenge travel; remote work, resulting in strong performance and an increasingly attractive, younger consumer demographic vs hotels.

VC financing has moved to the public capital markets

In the last 12 months, we have witnessed over $4.5 billion USD of investment flows in SPAC and non-SPAC / IPO transactions including Airbnb, Sonder, Vacasa, Evolve, AvantStay, HomeToGo and more (source: ShortTermRentalz.com).

Further investment, mergers and acquisitions are happening on a weekly basis, as companies scramble to scale with the support of both large and small investors like Blackstone, Midven, Thayer Ventures, KKR, Goldman Sachs, Vitruvian Partners, Livingbridge, Piper, Finch Capital, WestCap, Destination Capital, Lakestar, Henley Ventures to capitalise on growth opportunities driven by business model innovations, guest experience, technological improvements and more.

Join us as we explore the opportunities and challenges for investors, owners, operators / property managers, entrepreneurs and service providers in this dynamic and ever changing marketplace.

Agenda

8.30 – 09.05 Tea, coffee and pastries: Reach out to somebody you don’t know and learn something new

9.05 – 09.25 Welcome + sponsor introduction: What makes short term rentals today’s most exciting hospitality and real-estate asset class.

9.25 – 10.00 INVESTMENT TRENDS: VALUATIONS, MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS – WHO, WHAT WHERE, NEXT

• Valentina Shegoyan, managing partner | REACH UK, Second Century Ventures
• Yasha Estraikh, associate partner, Piper Private Equity
• Forward Partners [tbc] 

10:00 – 10.30 NEW INVESTMENT MODELS: FLEX RENTALS AND BTR: Hear from industry leaders on the intersection of the vacation rental and BTR sectors.

Speakers:

• Cindy Diffenderfer, co-founder and CEO, Orion Haus Homes & Hotels 
• Ben Yexley, head of BTR, flatfair 
• Qassim Ali, co-founder and MD, CoStays
• Julia Lane Napolski, principal, Parlay Vous

10.30 – 11.00 WHAT’S NEXT FOR DATA, TECH AND AI? ENABLING SMART SHORT-TERM RENTAL DECISIONS FOR ENHANCED PROFITABILITY: A look at innovative property, channel management and distribution solutions to maximise efficiency, productivity and demand. what’s next?

• Fausto Vieira da Silva, strategic accounts and RM partnerships, PriceLabs
• James Cassidy, senior director, partner success vacation rentals, Vrbo
• George Baird, account manager, AirDNA 
• Mike Liverton, chairman, Jetstream Hospitality Solutions

11.00 – 11.30 Tea, coffee and light bites: Time to network and connect.

SPONSORED BY PRICELABS & FLYWIRE 

In partnership with AJL Atelier

Ticket information to follow [£149 in 2022]