A report from News 4 Jax in Florida. "The short-term rental market has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Short-term rentals are a big driver of tourism in St. Augustine, where a large number of homes have been converted to short-term rentals. The 'for rent' signs are becoming 'for sale' signs as more and more short-term rental owners are looking to sell their rental homes because no one is staying in them right now. 'These vacation rentals are not being occupied, and the owners, they’re hurting for money,' said short-term rental owner David Breezing. 'I live upstairs and I have two vacation rentals downstairs, and it is about half of my income. That is gone.'"

From Fox News. "Rental owners nationwide are dealing with the impact of the coronavirus while their properties sit empty. Jenn Cook has two rental properties in Florida that were booked into the summer season before the pandemic began. Cook’s income from her rental properties has drastically declined and she doesn’t know when things will get better. 'We usually make about $12,000 a month between the two vacation rentals that we have. We’ve lost March, we’ve lost April…and we don’t know how bad it’s going to be,' Cook said."

"Thousands of rental owners are in similar situations. Rich Munroe, a rental owner in Georgia said it feels like they are living in the unknown. Munroe owns 16 rental properties in Georgia and the majority of them are sitting empty. 'Ninety percent of our bookings were canceled and as of right now we still have about 60 percent that are empty,' Munroe said. 'Many of our hosts have mortgages to pay or rent to pay on their spaces and have invested a lot of money.'"

The Uptown Messenger in Louisiana. "New Orleans has seen an explosion in short-term rentals in recent years. In fact, an estimated 8,500 units were in operation until restrictions were passed in 2019. As COVID-19 continues to shake the real estate world, Airbnb units seem to have found a new home in the long-term rental category. In March 2020 we saw a 246% percent increase in furnished rentals."

"In addition to working with Satsuma Realtors, Jenny owns Carriage House Concierge, a concierge property management agency. Q: You manage a number of number of short-term and long-term furnished rentals. How has that market been impacted so far? A: There are more furnished rentals on the market than we have ever seen in Orleans Parish. As of right now, we have 348 furnished rentals listed on the MLS. In January, we had 170 active furnished rentals. We’re seeing 2-3 times more inventory in New Orleans than we’ve had over the past 5 years."

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Short-term rental services Airbnb and Vrbo are seeing business evaporate in Canada as travel has all but stopped and several provinces have restricted the use of their services due to the pandemic. The country’s major Airbnb markets took a big hit, with revenue in Toronto and Vancouver sinking nearly 70 per cent over the past three months, and declining 42 per cent in Montreal, according to AirDNA. New bookings in the three cities were down between 55 per cent and 67 per cent from late February to late March."

"Industry watchers say the decline could lead some property owners to put their short-term units on the long-term rental market – which could cause rents in major cities to ease – or put them up for sale. 'We are seeing people who were Airbnb investors deciding to just ditch it and go onto something else,' said broker Carl Langschmidt."

"The slight dip in prices for long-term rentals is occurring as thousands of new condo units and apartments are scheduled to be completed in the greater Toronto area this year. The addition of Airbnb and Vrbo properties could further reduce rents."

From CBD News in Australia. "The city’s rental market is flooded due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic causing the short-stay market to collapse, according to real estate agents and short-stay operators. Belle Property’s Carlton and Melbourne business development and leasing manager Suzie Inglis told CBD News the CBD market was 'absolutely flooded mostly with furnished properties that would usually be on Airbnb and other short term stay platforms.'"

"Ms Inglis said on April 21 there were over 2200 apartments online in the CBD alone. 'In our busiest period this number will usually never exceed 1200, so you can clearly see the huge and rapid increase happening,' she said. 'The 1000 extra properties are all furnished and have all come online in the past two to three weeks which is simply unheard of. This heavy competition teamed with the fact there are hardly any prospective tenants in the market anyway has forced owners to significantly drop prices in order to be competitive.'"

"Tony Penna, a short-stay operator in Southbank, said he had 30 empty properties he was trying to move into the rental market. 'There’s literally no revenue, every booking I had for the next three months is cancelled. I’m absolutely trying my best to put medium- to long-term tenants in them as fully furnished apartments,' Mr Penna said. 'When you look online for two-bedroom apartments in Southbank there’s around 800 already available. There’s definitely a saturation of rental properties going onto the market, and many are fully furnished so you’d guess they’re likely from short stay.'"

"Rus Littleson, a representative of property owners and long-term resident advocacy group We Live Here, said COVID-19 was an 'apocalypse for the whole short stay industry.' 'We have residents telling us that short-stay operators are collapsing throughout the city,' he said. Short-stay companies that have been around for more than a decade have not been immune – they’re crumbling under the pressure of paying above-market rents with near-zero income. We Live Here is hearing that short-stay operators are invoking the small print in their rental agreements and bailing out, abandoning their apartment owners in the long-term rental market.'"

From Wired. "According to AirDNA, new bookings on Airbnb are down 85 per cent; cancellation rates are close to 90 per cent. Revenue generated by Airbnb’s platform in March was down 25 per cent year-on-year, wiping out $1 billion in bookings. With much of the world still on lockdown, those numbers are unlikely to pick up anytime soon. Hosts are calling it the Airbnb apocalypse. But it’s more akin to an enema."

"Airbnb maintains that it’s 'powered by local hosts,' but the reality is quite different. Yes, there are many hosts on Airbnb who live in the properties they list on the platform. But, in many markets, including the entire of the United States, the number of 'professional' hosts seemingly outnumbers those listing on Airbnb to earn a bit of extra cash from their cosy spare room."

"Airbnb’s hosts range from retiree holiday home owners to investors with vast but flimsy rental empires. While the former will lament the loss of a reliable secondary income, the latter now face financial ruin as their business model – a sort of ponzi scheme built off the back of Airbnb’s market-busting rental yields – turns to dust in the grip of coronavirus."

"Look behind these numbers and you get a glimpse of the real issue: tens of thousands of rental bills and mortgages that need paying and, potentially, no income with which to do so. As coronavirus lockdowns came into force, the Airbnb effect became more visible than ever before. In cities across the world, long-term rental websites have been flooded with identikit one and two-bedroom apartments, replete with bedrooms adorned with neatly-folded towels and prominently-displayed Nespresso coffee machines."