A Newbie’s Guide to Seasonality in Vacation Rentals
Your Guide to Seasonality
Peak season, shoulder season, off-season. Short-term rental owners may live for the passive income that pours into their accounts during the busiest times of year, but if you’re just starting out in the vacation rental industry, you might not know what all of these seasonality terms mean.
That’s why we’ve created this guide–to help you not only define these terms in a more concrete way, but also to get a better understanding of what to expect from seasonality depending upon what region your rental is located in. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at what seasonality is, what peak season, shoulder season, and off-season mean, and then take a dive into how regionality can all affect your vacation rental’s seasons and potential revenue.
What is Seasonality in the Short-Term Rental Market?
In the short-term rental industry, it can be difficult to predict just how much income you’ll make each month, since there’s just so much variation in the amount of travelers booking and the amount of supply on the market at any given time.
One method that vacation rental owners use to predict their revenue is by looking at the variance in the seasons and their effect on revenue. During busier seasons, revenue will be up, but during slower seasons, you might not see nearly as many bookings or as much revenue. Each year, it’s fairly easy to predict when the busier seasons will be depending upon the region or city that your rental is located in, and in this way, owners can prepare for more revenue during some months and less revenue during others.
What is Peak Season?
Peak season is the most important part of the year for vacation rental owners. This is the busiest season, when guests are chomping at the bit to reserve a stay at your property, and it’s typically the time of year when you’ll be able to charge the highest rate per night, leading to higher revenues than any other period. For instance, if you're managing a mountainside vacation rental in Breckenridge, your peak season would likely fall during the winter months when people are traveling to ski/snowboard.
In the months leading up to peak season, you’ll see lots of early reservations coming in from guests, who will usually stay for longer periods of time than during any other season of the year. Due to this, many vacation rental owners set their minimum nightly requirements to be a bit longer, from 5 days to a week, to encourage these longer stays at higher prices.
What is Shoulder Season?
Shoulder season, on the other hand, sits on the “shoulders” of peak season–it is the time just before peak season begins and just after it ends. You’ll find that while shoulder season isn’t as busy as peak season, it’s the second most-profitable season of the year for vacation rental owners. Prices per night will drop a bit from their peak season high during shoulder season, and typically owners will also lower their minimum nightly requirements in order to encourage more reservations during this period.
What is Off-Season?
The off-season is when things slow down for the year, both revenue-wise and reservation-wise. Some short-term rentals that are highly seasonal may even shut down during the off-season in order to save on maintenance and utility costs.
During the off-season, however, you’ll still be able to turn a profit if you lower your nightly rates as well as your minimum stay requirements to appeal to those thriftier travelers looking for deals on short-term stays. Other rentals might not have much of an off-season at all, including year-round tourism destinations like Las Vegas and New York City.
During the off-season is also when a lot of rentals undergo much-needed renovations and maintenance, since there may be a longer gap between guests that allows for these projects to be completed.
Seasonality in Different Regions
Seasonality varies depending upon which region you’re located in. Here’s a broad look at how seasons affect rentals in a few different types of areas:
Beach Regions: If your vacation rental is located in a beach destination or nearby, you’ll find that both the winter and summer are considered the peak seasons. Holidays and holiday weekends are also particularly busy for these types of regions. For example, Panama City, Florida sees a large influx of tourists during Spring Break.
Mountain/Ski Regions: For short-term rentals located in the mountains or near ski resorts, seasonality can be highly variable. Peak season will almost always fall during the winter months for those traveling to ski and snowboard, with a huge spike of holiday guests around Christmas and New Years, but many mountain areas also see a good amount of travelers during the summer months as well. Park City, Utah, for instance, is a popular winter destination that boasts a number of special events during the summertime and sees another wave of visitors in the warmer months.
Desert Regions: For travelers looking to escape the cold air and heavy snow during the winter, desert regions are quite popular, and areas like Arizona and New Mexico typically experience peak season during these colder months. Since no one wants to be in the desert when temperatures are rising above 100 degrees, desert regions also experience a longer off-season than other regions around the country and are usually inactive during the summertime.
No Matter the Season, Going Local is Always a Good Choice
To conclude, seasonality varies wildly depending on the region that your short-term rental is located in, but you’ll come to expect the changes in revenue and reservations that come along with the different seasons of the year.
And while you can’t expect to be an expert in short-term rental management overnight, we’ve got you covered if you want to take even more advantage of peak season and its potential revenue. When you Go Local, you’ll be taken care of by our expert and experienced teams who know seasonality like the back of their hands, plus you’ll get access to our in-house pricing guided by an intelligent and advanced algorithm. To learn more about what we can do for owners like you, take a look at our Program page.