On Monday 7 September, Holiday House Manager was named Rising Star at the Airbnb Host Summit 2026 in Sydney. The award covers the whole of Australia and New Zealand, and this year it went to a Melbourne management company that started with a single property. We are still a little stunned.
What the Rising Star award recognises
The Rising Star award is for Airbnb property managers who have grown quickly while keeping the quality of their listings high. The second part is the hard part. Adding properties is easy if standards are allowed to slip, and the award is designed to find the businesses that have managed to do both.
There was no application process. Airbnb nominated the finalists itself, based entirely on its own performance data, and narrowed the field down to three. We did not apply or submit anything.
In announcing the award, Airbnb pointed to two results. First, 44% of the properties we manage hold Guest Favourite status, where around 5% is more typical across the wider ecosystem. Second, our review scores are significantly higher than what is usual for a portfolio with as many listings as ours.
A surprise on the night
The summit was held at ILUMINA, the event venue above Martin Place Metro at 1 Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD. Around 300 of the best-rated hosts in Australia and New Zealand were in the room, and Rebecca Malzacher and I were there on behalf of Holiday House Manager.
We were anxious before the announcement and very surprised when our name was read out. Because Airbnb judged the award on data and we had not put anything forward, we went in with no real sense of where we stood against the other finalists. Hearing that the numbers had put us ahead was a great feeling, and we are both very excited to bring the trophy home to Melbourne.
The numbers behind the award
| Measure | Holiday House Manager |
|---|---|
| Properties with Guest Favourite status | 44% (around 5% is typical) |
| Airbnb co-host rating | 4.85 |
| Response rate | 100% |
| Airbnb Superhost | Six consecutive years |
| Properties under management | More than 70 across Melbourne |
The Guest Favourite figure is the one we are proudest of. A property only gets there when the cleaning, the check-in and the guest communication all go right, stay after stay.
What Guest Favourite status means for owners
Guest Favourite is the badge Airbnb gives to the listings guests love most. Airbnb decides it using ratings, reviews and reliability, so it is earned over many stays and can be lost if standards drop. Listings that qualify carry the badge on their page and in search results, and guests can filter their search to show only Guest Favourites.
For an owner, that badge is one of the clearest quality signals a guest sees before booking. Having 44% of our portfolio carry it shows that our standards are holding across the whole portfolio, rather than on a handful of showcase properties.
How we approach management
We are genuinely Melbourne based. The people looking after our properties are on site and responsive, so when something needs attention at a property, it gets dealt with quickly by someone who knows the home.
We also do not run a two-tier service. A one-bedroom unit in Carlton gets exactly the same treatment as a three-bedroom house in Kensington, with the same quality of cleaning and the same customer service. We think that consistency is a big part of why so many of our listings have reached Guest Favourite.
What began with one property has grown into a portfolio of more than 70 homes, and keeping every one of them to the same standard has been the goal of our Airbnb management in Melbourne from the start.
Thank you
This award belongs to our team, the cleaners who turn our properties around between every stay, and the owners who trust us with their homes. The numbers above do not happen without every one of them. Thank you.
Winning the Rising Star award does not change how we work. We will keep providing the same service to every owner and every guest, one stay at a time.
