The Pros and Cons of Allowing Longer Stays at Your Vacation Rental
Maximize Revenue With Longer Stays
In the short-term rental industry, there’s always been a lot of chatter about the best minimum nightly stay requirements as a means of maximizing revenue. However, one strategy that most vacation rental owners overlook is allowing longer stays. Although a short-term rental is typically delineated by a 30-day nightly stay limit, owners typically do not allow stays of longer than a week or two in order to make the most profit possible.
Today, however, we’ll explore the opposite side of the coin and give you an overview of who needs to rent for up to 30 days, plus we’ll uncover the pros and cons of allowing longer stays in your short-term rental.
Who Needs Longer Rentals?
Who is the target market for longer stays? Since most travelers won’t be planning a vacation for longer than a week or two, the market for longer stays tends to be a bit different than for exclusively shorter-term accommodations. There are many reasons that someone might need a rental with a longer maximum stay, including:
Remote Workers and Digital Nomads: Since 2020, the number of remote workers and digital nomads has grown by leaps and bounds. Because they often spend quite some time in the locales they travel to, these flexible employees are on the hunt for longer-term stays than typical short-term rentals can provide.
People Moving to a New City: Anyone who is trying to relocate to a new area knows how tough it can be to nail down permanent housing without being able to take a look at the accommodations yourself. Thankfully, longer stays can be incredibly beneficial during this process.
Travel Nurses: During the pandemic, demand for nurses skyrocketed, and with it, travel nursing exploded as well. Since then, demand for travel nurses has stayed at an all-time high, and these short-term workers need somewhere to stay during their tenure.
Business Travelers: Business travel encompasses a few different types of stays, ranging from short-term to mid-term rentals. For some industries and positions, longer stay rentals are important to establishing regional offices and overseeing company expansions in a new area.
How You Can Benefit From Allowing Longer Stays
Boost Your Occupancy During the Off-Season
Being a vacation rental owner means being subject to the ups and downs of the market, but allowing longer stays at your vacation rental is one solid strategy to maximize your occupancy rate during the slower months.
For owners whose properties are located in an extremely seasonal market, for instance, allowing longer rentals during the off-season is a great way to ensure you still retain income from your property when you can’t rely on travelers and tourists to fill in all of the gaps.
Longer Stays Have Lower Costs and a Smaller Workload
When you have multiple people staying at your property on a weekly basis, juggling all of the administrative tasks, maintenance, and cleaning can be a bit overwhelming. One of the advantages of allowing longer stays is that there is less work and overall lower costs associated with them.
Unless a guest requests weekly cleanings or other special considerations, the property will only be cleaned once after their stay, which is much less expensive than bringing in a cleaning crew to refresh your rental several times a week. If you need to take some time off from your business, allowing longer stays will give you the opportunity to offload some of the stress until you can return in full force.
The Disadvantages of Allowing Longer Stays
Shorter Stays Lead to Higher Overall Revenue
As we mentioned earlier, a large part of the reason that vacation rental owners impose a maximum length of stay has to do with profit potential. It’s just simple math–the more often you are able to turn over guests, the more revenue you can make.
When you allow longer stays, there’s typically a discount associated with them, since most people expect a lower nightly rate on a longer-term rental than on one they’ll only utilize for a few days. While the costs and workload of operating an extremely short-term rental are higher, you stand to profit more when you only rent out your property for minimal periods of time.
Not As Much Flexibility for Personal Stays
Allowing longer stays can leave you at a disadvantage if you’re hoping to utilize your property for personal use. While you might have higher occupancy rates when you allow stays of up to 30 days, this will leave you with almost no openings in your calendar for personal stays.
For owners who take a hands-off approach to their business, this might not be a big deal, but if you’re hoping to visit your vacation property multiple times throughout the year, allowing longer stays might not be for you.
Shorter Stays vs Longer Stays: It’s All About Your Needs As a Vacation Rental Owner
Length of stay is a tricky subject for vacation rental owners. Whether you want to be conservative and only allow up to 5-day stays in order to maximize your profit potential or you’re hoping to take a more hands-off approach for the next few months by allowing guests to rent for weeks at a time, it’s all about your needs and desires as an owner.
Hoping to find more tips and tricks for owning a vacation rental? Take a look at our guide on automating your short-term rental or check out why direct booking could be a game-changer for your rental.