Updated on January 21, 2026

Rent Responsibly’s core team recently spent a few days reconnecting and workshopping in Fort Worth, TX, a fitting place as a former cowboy outpost and cattle herding hub.

For a long time, STRs have been described like Texas’s early days: the Wild West. I think it’s time to retire the phrase.

We should still carry with us the best of our homegrown hosting and deeply-rooted local cultures, but like the city, the 21st century and beyond are being built with technology, data, sustainable practices, and, best of all, inclusive collaboration.

STRs have seen the same transformation in recent years, perhaps none more so than 2025. As our top 10 articles of the year exemplify, STRs today aren’t lawless or shooting from the hip.

We’re regulated, sometimes reasonably, sometimes not.

We’re organized more than ever before: Just this year, seven new state STR associations formed, most starting with executive directors on day one.

Like the introduction of the steam locomotive, we’ve introduced new horsepower with the Right to Rent Collaborative, which raised over $200,000 for advocacy and organizational needs.

And more than ever, properties are operated by thoughtful, skilled people who care deeply about getting it right.

This ain’t our first rodeo – but it’s also not our last. As the regulatory map continues to be drawn and the World Cup brings new opportunity and pressure to our space, 2026 may still feel like a bucking bull, but we’re now well prepared to stay on for the wild ride.

And when we’re sitting around the proverbial campfire this time next year, I bet all my silver dollars the tales shared will not be of ghost stories but of legends who put on their boots, saddled up, and rode into the year with equal parts grit and downhome hospitality.

Hat tip to all you future legends for this year and next.

Giddy-up,

Alexa Nota,
COO and Co-Founder of Rent Responsibly