PropTech in the short-term rental industry. The digital infrastructure behind Airbnb

Short-term rentals (STRs) have become a key topic in housing and urban studies, typically through accounts that focus on the role of platforms and portray Airbnb as the main driver of technological disruption and market transformation. This paper challenges that narrative by situating Airbnb within the broader history of digitalisation in the hospitality industry. Drawing on participant observation at three industry events and 18 semi-structured interviews with market actors, we trace the evolution of STR digitalisation from early online distribution systems to the integrated software ecosystems of today. Adopting an infrastructural perspective, the analysis conceptualises STR markets as organised through an interconnected assemblage of platforms, property management systems, channel managers, pricing algorithms, and analytics software, all of which are linked via APIs. This PropTech infrastructure operates as an obligatory passage point for professional market actors, shaping access to demand, enabling multi-channel distribution, and producing continuous streams of operational data. Control over this infrastructure becomes a source of market power by enabling the aggregation and repurposing of operational data for market analysis and asset valuation. This helps to extend financial logics into housing and intensify the touristification of places.