The most expensive thing in tourism isn’t your media buy.

It’s the gap nobody owns.

And we’re all paying for it.

Earlier this week, Kristen and I hosted a field session on something the industry keeps dancing around:

DMOs. Short-term rentals. And the space between them that everyone feels and nobody is in charge of.

Before we even got in the room, we brought data from 13 states.

And it said this, very plainly:

1 in 7 DMO leaders think they have STR alignment handled.

That’s it.

One.

And to be clear… no one is exactly throwing a parade for that one.

We've also logged dozens of Zoom hours, having conversations with the industry.

A really strong consensus:

oh, we’ve all been winging this.

Two systems. Same destination.

On one side:

DMOs. Budgets, boards, partners, politics.

On the other:

Hosts. Guests, turnovers, reviews, neighbors.

Same visitor. Same stay.

Two completely different operating systems.

And the only time they really interact?

Is when something goes wrong.

Meanwhile, we love a solution

Not a real one.

A tool.

Something with a login. Maybe a dashboard. Definitely a portal.

Because nothing says “alignment” like another password reset email.

The system that holds us hostage.

The system wasn’t built for this.

Hotels had a head start measured in centuries.

DMOs were built around them.

STRs showed up in 2008 and basically pulled a chair up to a table that was already mid-meeting.

And we’re still acting surprised, it feels… awkward.

So the gap just hangs out

Nobody owns it. Everybody works around it.

And when something like that sits in a system long enough, it starts costing money.

A lot of money.

STRs are doing about $70B in bookings/annum (2025 reports).

Tie in everything around the stay—food, retail, experiences—and you’re looking at something closer to $200B moving through that ecosystem.

Now add a little friction.

That’s where the billions go.

Quietly. Consistently. Every year.

And the people?

They’re not the issue.

DMOs aren’t asleep at the wheel. Hosts aren’t out here plotting chaos.

Everyone’s doing their job.

They’re just not doing it together.

Which leads to…

Marketing promising one thing. Experience delivering another.

Guests notice.

Reviews keep receipts.

City councils get involved like, “don’t worry, we’ll handle it,” which is never calming.

Here’s what was interesting

Nobody in the room needed to be convinced this was a problem.

They already knew.

They just haven’t had a place to actually deal with it.

Not a panel. Not a webinar. Not a “let’s circle back.”

An actual working conversation.

So that’s what we built

A room where the people shaping the destination and the people delivering it sit down and work on the same thing at the same time.

Wild concept.

Because this gap?

It’s not theoretical.

It shows up in revenue. In tension. In policy swings. In guests who leave thinking, “eh, it was fine.”

You can keep working around it.

A lot of people are very good at that.

Or you can actually fix it.

I’m Jenn Barbee.

And if it feels like everyone’s working hard but something still isn’t clicking…

it’s probably not effort.

It’s alignment.