The Largest Short-Term Rental Management Companies, 2026

Founded by Steve Schwab in 2001, Casago spent two decades as a regional franchise operation with roughly 5,000 properties across 72 destinations. The Vacasa acquisition was a step-change. According to the Casago press release, the combined company now manages approximately 43,000 vacation homes.

Casago is unusual among full-service operators in running a true franchise structure: local operators license the brand and technology stack, but run their own markets. Schwab told PhocusWire this is why the deal worked where Vacasa's fully company-owned model had not: franchisees carry the ops cost and accountability, removing the structural margin problem that sunk Vacasa's public company.

Founded by Brian Egan and Adam Sherry in 2011, Evolve is the leanest operator in the top five and, per VRM Intel's profile of Egan, the only US-headquartered operator at scale publicly known to be profitable.

Evolve's structural advantage is that it does not own or manage the local cleaning and maintenance crews. Owners source their own vetted crews from a partner network, while Evolve centralizes listing distribution, dynamic pricing, guest messaging, and accounting. The ~10 percent fee (vs 25-35 percent at full-service peers) reflects this split.

Awaze was formed when Platinum Equity acquired Wyndham Worldwide's European vacation rental business for approximately $1.3 billion in 2018. The company operates a federation of national brands: cottages.com and Hoseasons in the UK, James Villa Holidays, Novasol in Denmark, and Landal GreenParks in the Netherlands.

Awaze is the clearest example of the multi-brand federation archetype: it got to the top of the global unit-count ranking by buying and operating existing brands rather than building a single consumer-facing monolith.

AvantStay is the US luxury leader by unit count. According to a December 2021 announcement, the company closed a $160M Series B led by Tarsadia Investments and 3L Capital, followed by a separate $500M propco fund led by Saluda Grade in February 2022 — one of the first short-term rental propcos ever created.

The operating model combines traditional property management with group-travel product design: most homes are 4+ bedrooms, set up for families and corporate retreats, with curated interior fit-outs standardized across the portfolio. AvantStay's reported $5B AUM on ~2,300 homes works out to more than $2M per property in asset value.

VTrips is the clearest example of the roll-up model in US vacation rentals. Founder Steve Milo launched the company as Vacation Rental Pros around 2005 and grew it through acquisitions of regional operators in leisure markets (Florida, Gulf Coast, Blue Ridge, the Smokies). Per a 2023 acquired-brand announcement, VTrips reached ~7,000 rentals and ~1,000 employees. Milo stepped down as CEO in early 2025; Scott Seay, previously COO, succeeded him.

VTrips matters because its model — buying regional operators and integrating them — is what Casago is now attempting at larger scale post-Vacasa. Its track record will inform whether the Casago playbook works.

Operators in this category lease or revenue-share entire buildings and run them as branded hospitality products blending short-term, extended-stay, and hotel demand. Kasa operates ~80 properties, roughly 60 percent apartment-style and 40 percent boutique-hotel, and has raised ~$125M across three rounds.

In 2024, Hilton launched Apartment Collection by Hilton, combining ~3,000 units from Placemakr with 10,000 of Hilton's own. Placemakr announced profitability in June 2024, an unusual disclosure in this segment. The category is still small by units but bridges vacation rentals and hotels, and the Hilton partnership is a signal that the majors see it as strategic.