Your data is your ranking: what we learned at Holidu Partner Oktoberfest 2026

On 29 September, Holidu welcomed its partners in Munich for Holidu Partner Oktoberfest 2026, and NextPax was there. It was a full day of product updates, market data and partner insights, with one theme running through every session: how AI is changing the way vacation rentals are found, booked and experienced. Holidu took us through its AI roadmap from search to stay, Key Data shared the latest European market figures, and Awaze, Landfolk and Poplidays showed how they use AI to improve the guest experience. Here are our key takeaways from the day.

Hosted by Holidu, the room reflected the whole vacation rental value chain. Property managers and holiday brands such as Awaze, OYO Vacation Homes, VillaForYou, Landfolk, Poplidays, GuestReady, Travelnest and many others sat next to property management software providers, market data specialist Key Data, and NextPax as channel manager. It was a mix of supply, technology and distribution that rarely comes together in one place, and NextPax was proud to be part of it.

AI now touches every step of a booking

Holidu walked through six stations of the booking journey, and much of the progress comes from improving the data partners send:

• Smart Search: guests can describe their stay in plain language, such as "a hut with mountain view, near a lake, family friendly", and an AI agent turns it into filters. 87% of the words guests type map to filters that already exist.
• Themed collections: AI builds property profiles from listing data, bookings and reviews to match themes such as Farm Stay, which gained 11% more eligible inventory this way.
• Better titles: internal codes and IDs such as "Objekt-ID 119928" are replaced by guest-ready titles that say what the property is, where it is and what makes it special. More than 740,000 titles have been improved.
• Better photos: weak first images, such as floor plans, are moved back so the best photo leads.
• Post-booking chat: instead of a six-page PDF, guests get an AI assistant that answers check-in and key handover questions from the booking data.

One honest lesson stood out: only 7% of users use the natural-language search. Guests still mostly rely on filters, which makes structured data more important, not less.

Six selling points in the text, none in the filters

Holidu's clearest example was a real, anonymised listing. Its description mentioned a heated outdoor pool, a private sauna, a hot tub, a BBQ grill, nine free parking spaces and an EV charging station. Its amenity list contained none of them.

That matters because about half of all filtering guests use an amenity filter: 59% in the UK, 55% in Germany and 52% in the Netherlands. A guest filtering for a pool never saw this home. Holidu's AI can now read the description and add those features as filters, but the fix only exists where a channel builds it.

What guests filter for also depends on the destination. German guests heading to Spain filter most for a private pool and air conditioning, those heading to the Netherlands for parking and WiFi, and those heading to Denmark for WiFi and a sauna.

"Every improvement starts with something we see in our partners' data and ends with a booking we can count. Your feed stays your feed: our AI only adds a layer on top where it measurably wins more bookings for your homes."
— Enrique Planas, Director of Business Development, Holidu

The market: flat, later, shorter

Sally Henry, Vice President of Business Development at Key Data, added the market context. European occupancy is up 1% for 2026 year to date, average daily rates are flat at €178 and RevPAR is up 1%. The shape of demand is changing faster than its volume:

• Later: 26% of European stays are now booked within a week of arrival, up from 18% in 2023.
• Shorter: stays of six to eight nights fell from 39% to 27% of reservations in three years.
• Cheaper when late: stays booked 180+ days ahead earn €247.32 per night, against €120.00 for last-minute bookings.
• Split by channel: Booking.com and Airbnb take 82% of last-minute bookings, while direct takes 68.9% of bookings made 180+ days ahead.

Partners on AI and the guest experience

The partner perspective came from three property managers. John Adams (Awaze), Frank Putman (Landfolk) and Owen Lagadec Iriarte (Poplidays) shared an update on how to create an optimal guest experience with AI. Their message fitted the rest of the day: AI can make the guest journey faster and more personal, but it works best on top of accurate, complete property and booking data.

What suppliers should do now

1. Send amenities as structured data, not only in text. Include the details guests filter on: heated, private, seasonal, number of spaces.
2. Write guest-ready titles. Property type, unique name and what's special; no internal codes.
3. Lead with your best photo. Never a floor plan or a detail shot.
4. Check the amenities that matter for your destination. Parking and WiFi in the Netherlands, a pool and air conditioning in Spain.
5. Keep availability and rates live everywhere. With a quarter of stays booked within a week, every sync delay costs bookings.
6. Make stays flexible. Short-stay pricing, flexible minimum stays and bookable gap nights for the growing short-break market.

How NextPax helps

NextPax connects 650.000+ properties from 500 accommodation partners to 100+ distribution channels through one connection. Content, amenities, photos and policies are managed once and pushed to every channel, while rates, availability and bookings sync in real time.

"Holidu showed how much a channel can now do to repair supplier content, and it proves how much value sits in good data. Our goal is that suppliers don't depend on that repair: with one connection, complete and structured content reaches every channel from the start, and every booking opportunity stays open."
— Lennart Kok, VP of Distribution and Marketing, NextPax

Thanks to the Holidu team for another strong edition. On 30 September, all partners and the Holidu team celebrated another year of great partnership at the Ochsenbraterei at the Wiesn. We're already looking forward to the next one.

About NextPax:

NextPax is a global hospitality connectivity and distribution technology company empowering vacation rentals, hotels, resorts, city apartments, and holiday parks to streamline operations, improve guest experience, and optimize commercial performance. Through the NextPax platform and Supply API, accommodation providers and software partners can connect to 100+ global distribution channels, including Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, Trip.com and more, with fast and automated synchronisation of availability, rates, restrictions, reservations, content, promotions, messaging, reviews and more.

NextPax simplifies complex distribution processes by reducing manual work and enabling reliable, real-time connectivity across multiple booking platforms. With a strong focus on automation, scalability, and partner success, NextPax helps hospitality businesses increase visibility, boost bookings, and improve overall revenue performance across global markets.