Host Planet Roadshow Cornwall: strong start to seven-stop UK series
- Feb 6
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 10
The Host Planet Roadshow Cornwall marked the first leg of our seven-stop UK roadshow series, setting the tone for a year focused on collaboration, insight, and practical solutions for short-term rental hosts and property managers.
Held in one of the UK’s most important holiday let markets, the Cornwall event brought together operators, industry leaders, and tech providers for a full day of honest discussion, data-driven insight, and peer-to-peer problem solving.
The Host Planet Roadshow is being delivered in collaboration with:
Strategic Partner: Short Term Accommodation Association
Title Sponsor: PriceLabs
Delivery Partner: Women in Short Term Rentals Community
Event Partner (Cornwall): Beach Retreats
Cornwall panel: challenges, change, and collective action
The day opened with a Cornwall-focused panel featuring Andy Easton (Beach Retreats), Katie Warren (Cornwall Self-Catering Collective), and Rick Wild (Travel Chapter).
The discussion covered many of the most pressing issues facing the local market, including:
The challenges and opportunities for Cornwall’s short-term rental sector
What comes next following the liquidation of Visit Cornwall
The growing importance of collective action and industry collaboration
Progress and concerns around statutory registration
The EPC victory for holiday let hosts and what it means in practice
Ongoing pressure around business rates and regulation
The panel set a constructive tone, focusing not just on challenges, but on how the industry can organise, communicate, and move forward together.
Market insight: Cornwall data snapshot
Following the panel, Siana Vesselinova from PriceLabs shared a focused snapshot of Cornwall-specific data.
The session explored:
Current average rates
Booking windows and how they’re shifting
Pricing trends across the region
The data provided valuable context for operators looking to plan ahead for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Roundtables: real conversations, real solutions
The first roundtable session combined icebreakers with structured discussion around:
Key challenges operators are facing right now
Emerging opportunities in the Cornwall market
Shared problem-solving and peer support
For many attendees, this was one of the most valuable parts of the day – creating space to connect, network, and learn directly from others dealing with similar issues.
Knowledge bursts: practical insight in 10 minutes
Throughout the day, attendees heard a series of fast-paced, 10-minute Knowledge Bursts from industry experts, including:
Topics ranged from revenue management and tax efficiency to AI, guest experience, listings performance, and the future of hospitality technology.
Ask the Experts: open, honest Q&A
An Ask the Experts session gave attendees the chance to put their questions directly to the panel, with discussion covering:
AI
Guest experience
Property management
Direct bookings
Tax planning
Regulation and lobbying
Data and revenue management
The session reinforced the value of bringing different parts of the industry into the same room.
PR challenge: reframing the image of short-term rentals in Cornwall
The afternoon featured a collaborative competition where attendees were challenged to devise a PR campaign to improve the public image of short-term rentals in Cornwall.
Teams worked together to develop ideas focused on:
Community impact
Responsible hosting
Economic contribution
Clear, positive messaging
The exercise highlighted just how much creativity and shared purpose exists within the sector when people are given space to collaborate.
Host Planet Roadshow Cornwall: 'The bar has been set extremely high'
Reflecting on the day, James Varley, Founder of Host Planet, said: "Cornwall was the perfect place to kick off the Host Planet Roadshow. The quality of discussion, the openness in the room, and the willingness to collaborate made it a genuinely brilliant day. If this first stop is anything to go by, the rest of the series is going to be very special – it feels like the bar has been set extremely high."
Andy Easton, from Beach Retreats, added: "It was great to see so many operators and industry voices in one place, having constructive conversations about the future of short-term rentals in Cornwall. Events like this are exactly what the sector needs in order to help it develop and thrive."
Next stop: Portsmouth on 4 March
The Host Planet Roadshow continues with its next event at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth on 4 March.
If Cornwall was any indication, attendees can expect another day packed with insight, debate, and meaningful connection.
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