The second half of 2016 saw Airbnb pass three million global listings and Expedia complete its integration of the HomeAway acquisition, reshaping the Caribbean STR platform landscape. Jamaica recorded approximately 2.2 million stopover visitors for the full year despite Zika-related headwinds, while the absence of any regulatory framework for the island’s flourishing vacation rental sector remained conspicuous.

The first half of 2016 brought Zika virus advisories that cast a shadow over Caribbean tourism planning, a rapidly growing Airbnb presence in Jamaica and the wider region, and the beginning of Expedia’s integration of the HomeAway family of vacation rental platforms following the landmark December 2015 acquisition. Jamaica’s STR regulatory framework remained absent as the platform-economy accommodation market entered its most complex period yet.

The second half of 2015 ended with a transaction that would reshape the Caribbean vacation rental platform landscape: Expedia’s US$3.9 billion acquisition of HomeAway in December, creating a combined group controlling both the leading online travel agency and the largest dedicated vacation rental platform. Jamaica’s tourism growth continued, Airbnb passed two million global listings, and the STR regulatory debate remained theoretical for the island.

San Francisco became the first US city to formally legalise and regulate short-term rental activity when its STR ordinance came into force in February 2015, creating a registration framework that other cities and, eventually, Caribbean jurisdictions would study closely. Jamaica’s tourism sector continued its growth trajectory, Airbnb was expanding aggressively in the Caribbean, and HomeAway remained the preferred platform for the island’s established villa rental sector.

Airbnb’s April 2014 fundraising round valued the company at US$10 billion, signalling that the platform economy had arrived as a permanent structural force in global accommodation. In the Caribbean and Jamaica, HomeAway and VRBO remained the platforms of choice for established villa operators while Airbnb steadily built Caribbean presence. San Francisco was preparing the first US city STR ordinance and New York City’s attorney general was gathering data — but no Caribbean government had yet begun to formulate a regulatory response.