COVID changed the world for sure. Some industries for positive, and some for negative. The vacation rental business is affected negatively at the beginning, but once the initial panic wave was over, the demand came back much stronger.
Per AirDNA, average daily rates of US short term rentals in December jumped 28.8% compared to 2 years earlier at $275. Adding up the increased occupancy, revenue per listing increased much more.
I own and manage our Destin Beachfront Condos since 2016 at Pelican Beach Resort. While property prices sky rocketed, and it became almost impossible to buy additional properties competing with cash buyers, I noticed the higher demand in early 2021.
It is merely the demand, location and quality of service dictating the rates, so I did not need more intelligence to see that the flat rate tables were not a match for the demand.
Investigating the options, I found Pricelabs (affiliate link) to be a good fit for my listings. They were charging very reasonable monthly rates (fix, not % of revenue) with a 30 day trial offer. Moreover, you did not need to synchronize your rates until you were totally happy with them.
Pricelabs collects market intelligence, likely using other paying customers and partnerships with OTAs, and uses that intelligence near the location of your short term rental. It then paints your dates tones of green and yellow depending on the demand, and blends this data with your property occupancy, how far the dates are and a few more factors to give you a dynamic rate on each single day. This dynamic rate is based on the base rates you set for each season; and you have full control of changing the base, min and max rate for the seasons you create. Moveover, you can click the single day and manually customize.
The rates and minimum stay can be automatically pushed to several PMS and Airbnb/VRBO. And again, you do not need to push them until you are comfortable. There are more customizations you can do, my favorite is for example automatically discounting rates by 10% and adjusting the minimum stay for orphan days left between bookings. Another one is giving a flat or linear last minute discounts.
With Pricelabs, I was able to sell some nights for 30% more than what I was asking for. It paid its whole year subscription at the 2nd booking I received. Customer support and help articles are also great. So just check-in, and please use my affiliate link in case you decide to do so !
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