NASHVILLE, Tennessee — For aparthotel company Kasa, 2026 has been a year of growth, both in terms of its portfolio and traveler demand.
As platforms such as Airbnb gained prevalence in the U.S., people liked having alternative accommodation options, but there has always been a degree of uncertainty in what they’re going to get, said Kelly McGuire, chief commercial officer at Kasa, in an interview for the "CoStar News Hotels" podcast at the 2026 Hotel Data Conference.
“Will it match the pictures? Will I have access to the host if we run into any trouble?” she said.
Kasa’s model of a professionally managed aparthotel takes that anxiety out of the picture, she said. Travelers can stay in parts of a city where there aren’t many traditional hotels, so they get to see parts of the city they otherwise might not.
“It’s a combination of those two things: the certainty of what the experience will be like, and then access to a neighborhood you might otherwise not have been able to stay in,” she said.
Staying in an aparthotel-style accommodation is about space and comfort, she said. It allows travelers to maintain their lifestyle when they're on a trip by providing full kitchens, living areas and purpose-designed workspaces.
"People can just keep those lifestyle habits and that extra sense of space and comfort while on the road," she said. "You think about that for the business traveler and that really being a benefit, but we see that for the leisure travelers as well."
Earlier this year, Kasa bought luxury residential hospitality operator Mint House, a deal that Kasa's CEO called "a maturation moment" for the company. The acquisition added a majority of Mint House's 22 properties with more than 1,000 units to Kasa's portfolio.
About one-third of Kasa’s portfolio is aparthotel-style units in a full building, McGuire said. Another third is select floors of aparthotel-units in an apartment building with residential apartment leases. The final third is small, boutique-style hotels.
The biggest difference between revenue management of traditional hotels and aparthotels or short-term rental-style units is the value proposition of what the traveler wants, she said. It could be a studio unit or a one- or two-bedroom unit. It’s a different trip purpose for a different traveler type.
“You have to think about really being able to forecast and price those room types according to the demand for the room type, and it could be both dramatically different from each other, but also dramatically different time periods, midweek versus weekend,” she said.
The different unit types in the inventory means paying extra attention, she added. Across the board, however, the portfolio requires a strong revenue management and commercial strategy discipline.
Everyone learned from 2020 that anything can happen at any time, she said. While she hopes nothing that dramatic happens again, there are always pockets of uncertainty to watch. The old saying of “make hay while the sun shines” is relevant now during a good hotel demand period.
“Take advantage of it, but certainly hedge it,” she said, pointing to ongoing geopolitical unrest and economic disruptions.
For more from Kasa’s Kelly McGuire, watch the video embedded above or listen to the podcast below.