Revenue management is experiencing a major shift, driven by unpredictable pacing, growing pressure to prove performance, and the need for detailed segmentation across diverse portfolios. DARM 2025 underscored how quickly expectations are changing and how crucial it is for property managers to evolve their strategies to stay ahead.

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Here are five major trends that surfaced and how solutions like Beyond are evolving to meet them.

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1. Shorter Booking Windows Demand Earlier Demand Signals

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The most recurring theme at DARM was that desired booking windows continue to shrink, and pacing is becoming more erratic. Historical trends no longer behave predictably, which leaves property managers trying to read demand signals that are arriving later and with less clarity. 

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Traditional pacing alone isn’t enough anymore. Teams will need visibility into pre-booking behaviors such as search volume, stay-length trends, demand shifts, and feeder market activity, so they can act before performance drops. Beyond’s Search Powered Insights and Search Powered Pricing highlight emerging demand patterns earlier, helping property managers proactively adjust rates and strategies rather than reacting after the fact.

When demand trends move at a rapid pace, pricing and strategy must too.

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2. Direct Bookings Pay More But Aren’t Easy to Capture

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DARM revealed that while OTAs still drive the majority of reservations, direct bookings deliver far higher quality revenue. Direct guests stay longer (5.4 nights vs. 4 on OTAs), book earlier (76-day lead time), and generate higher ADRs (average daily rates), giving property managers stronger predictability, better yield, and more control. But capturing that value isn’t easy. Direct bookings require alignment across pricing, marketing, brand visibility, and distribution decisions. It’s not simply a website project, it’s a cross-functional revenue strategy.

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Growing direct demand requires data-driven activation, brand visibility, and loyalty-driven marketing strategy. Property managers must know where demand is building, which listings resonate with direct guests, and where OTA reliance is costing you. This requires unified insights across revenue, marketing, and channel strategy.

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Beyond reveals which channels are driving the strongest demand in a market and where OTA reliance is too high. Signal builds on that foundation with a flexible, modern direct booking platform designed to convert. Signal brings together custom branding, SEO optimization, fast page performance, intuitive search, guest-friendly features, and built-in analytics to help property managers attract, engage, and convert more direct traffic.

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3. Owner Expectations Are Rising

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Owners no longer settle for raw data or static reports, they expect clear explanations, proactive communication, and a compelling story about how their properties are performing. In a market with unpredictable pacing and shifting guest behavior, owners want to understand why performance changes, not just what changed.

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For property managers, this means transforming complex signals into simple, trustworthy narratives that help owners feel informed, confident, and aligned with the strategy. Without that context, even strong results can feel uncertain, and uncertainty is a major driver of owner churn.

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This is where Beyond’s approach to insights goes further. Owner Insights gives property managers a clean, intuitive way to present performance, pacing, and revenue trends in a format owners can actually understand. But the real leap forward comes with Neyoba, Beyond’s AI assistant, which turns data into digestible explanations. Neyoba helps property managers summarize performance, highlight what drove changes, and translate metrics into plain language, making it easier to communicate with owners confidently and proactively.

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Owner Insights and Neyoba combined, give property managers the clarity and communication tools owners expect today. Instead of overwhelming owners with dashboards, property managers can offer contextual, personalized, easy-to-understand insights that build trust and strengthen long-term relationships.

4. Segmentation is Becoming Non-Negotiable

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As guest behavior becomes more varied and market dynamics fluctuate, property managers need more granular strategies across their portfolios. Segmentation by property type, amenity mix, risk profile, booking behavior, and seasonal patterns is no longer a “nice to have,” it's operationally essential. The challenge is scale. Property managers know they should segment, but doing so manually is complex and time-intensive, especially for growing portfolios.

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Beyond helps eliminate that friction. With clustering logic, competitive benchmarking, and detailed market comparatives through Comp Sets, Beyond makes it easier to understand how similar listings perform and where strategy should diverge. This helps property managers tailor pricing, minimums, stay rules, and promotions to match the true behavior of each segment, maximizing performance without the hassle.

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Segmentation isn’t just a best practice anymore, it’s a requirement for maintaining competitive edge in the increasingly sophisticated short-term rental landscape.

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5. AI Is Advancing But Context Remains Key

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AI and automation were front and center at DARM, but so were concerns about transparency. Property managers want efficiency, not decision-making in a black box. Property manager emphasized that while AI can surface insights faster, they still need to understand the “why” behind recommendations to make informed decisions, especially when communicating with owners.

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This is where Beyond’s approach to AI stands out. Rather than replace human judgment, Beyond’s AI improves it. Neyoba supports property managers by turning complex data into simple explanations, identifying patterns, and summarizing performance shifts in clear, contextual language. It’s built to reduce noise, save hours of manual analysis, and give property managers the confidence to act.

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AI has enormous potential in revenue management, but only when paired with transparency and human oversight. Property managers want intelligent support not automated decision-making without context. Beyond’s blend of machine learning and human logic ensures AI empowers property managers  rather than overwhelming them.

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The Significance of Community in Revenue Management

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DARM 2025 made one thing clear, revenue management is shifting into a more strategic, insight-driven, and communication-focused era. Property managers are being challenged to act earlier, segment smarter, communicate more clearly, and leverage technology without losing the human understanding that owners expect.

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Events like DARM remind us how important it is to stay connected to the challenges and realities property managers face every day. Our team had the opportunity to listen, learn, and spend real time with our customers. Those conversations continue to shape how we build, refine, and innovate at Beyond.

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We’re grateful for everyone who stopped by to share feedback, ask questions, or simply say hello. Your insights drive our roadmap, inspire our product evolution, and reinforce why building alongside this community matters so much.

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Here’s to what’s ahead and to navigating the future of revenue management together.

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