5 Ways to Increase Off-Season Bookings on Your Vacation Rental
The Woes of the Low Season
Every vacation rental owner looks forward to the busy season, when bookings are at an all-time high and revenue is pouring in every day. In contrast, the low season can be a bit tougher on your real estate investment, with your short-term rental remaining empty for days or even weeks at a time.
It can be difficult to manage these slower periods and make ends meet when occupancy has dropped for the season. That’s why today, we’ve put together 5 ways to help increase off-season bookings on your vacation rental. Not only will these strategies raise your profit margins, they’ll also ensure that your rental doesn’t stay empty for large swaths of the year.
Low Season vs High Season
Before we jump into our strategies for getting more bookings during the off-season, let’s define our terms.
Seasonality refers to the variations and fluctuations that happen in the short-term rental industry depending upon the times of the year. The high season, or busy season, is when your bookings will be at their peak, while the off-season, or low season, is when bookings will slow down for a period of time, typically due to weather and other climate-related factors.
If you own a vacation home in Breckenridge, Colorado, for instance, your high season would likely fall during the winter months, when tourists and travelers are coming out to ski. Your low season will come when the snow melts and the mud season begins.
When you compare that to someone who owns a vacation home in a more tropical locale, their high season rolls around during the warmer months, when people want to spend time in the sand and sun, while the low season happens when the weather cools down and temperatures drop for the year.
#1: Target a New Market for Your Short-Term Rental
One simple way to pull some revenue in during the slower times of the year is to tweak your target market. Perhaps you own a vacation rental that tends to appeal to tourists–during the off-season, it would be wise to pivot towards another market, such as business travelers. Typically business travel does not tend to be affected by seasonality, as these kinds of travelers need somewhere to stay no matter what time of the year. In your rental listing, highlight amenities that workers might need, like a large workspace or desk and lightning-fast WiFi, to appeal to this type of market.
#2: Leverage Past Guests for New Bookings
Another easy strategy to make the off-season work for you is to contact past guests and offer them exclusive deals and discounts if they decide to stay with you during the periods of the year when business has begun slowing down.
This is also a good reason to keep an email subscription list–when bookings are slow, you already have a list of past guests who loved your short-term rental, and would be willing to stay there again for the right price. Leverage these past guests to fill in the empty slots in your calendar and help keep your rental profitable during the low season.
#3: Take a Look at Your Minimum Nightly Requirements for Your Vacation Rental
As we mentioned in our previous blog post, another simple way to drum up more business during the off-season is to take a closer look at your required nightly minimums for booking. It might make sense to fill up your short-term rental as much as you can when the high season is booming, but when the slow periods of the year roll around, lowering those nightly minimums is a simple strategy to appear on more short-term rental searches. And while owners might shy away from allowing one-night stays, it’s far better to book a guest for one night than to allow your rental to stay empty and earn you no profit whatsoever.
#4: Run Local Event Promotions
An often-overlooked way to increase your low season bookings is to get the inside scoop of local events, and mold your marketing around them. For example, is there a yearly festival or event located nearby your short-term rental that falls during the low season? Edit your listings to include information about the event and offer promotions for people booking during those times, whether that includes the bonus of extra amenities (such as tickets to the event) or just a special price during the event’s run.
Not only will this strategy help you to get more bookings during the off-periods, it’ll also give you better insight into the community that your vacation rental is in, making you an even more knowledgeable host for your guests.
#5: Make Weekdays Work For You
Our last strategy for getting more bookings during the off-season is to make the weekdays more attractive to guests. Owners often neglect the weekdays. It makes sense, especially since most vacations tend to fall on the weekend, when people are more easily-able to take off from work and other responsibilities.
But one easy way to appeal to travelers during weekdays is to run promotions and discounts, especially during those off-season months. Knocking a few dollars off of your weekday price can draw in more business and bookings, allowing you to fill up your short-term rental when it would’ve otherwise gone empty.
LocalVR Takes the Stress Out of the Off-Season
When business is slow for your short-term rental, it’s time to pull out all of the stops to ensure that your real estate investment stays profitable. And while it may require a bit of extra work to implement the above strategies for increasing your off-season bookings, it’ll all be worth it when your revenue begins to pick up when, by all accounts, it should be slowing down.
For vacation rental owners looking for a simpler way, LocalVR can take the weight of the off-season off of your shoulders. Our dynamic pricing technology takes into account a variety of market factors, including seasonality and the rates of other comparable properties, to ensure that your rental is always set at the ideal market rate to attract guest bookings and keep your occupancy high. To learn more about LocalVR’s expert property management services, take a look at our Program page for more information.