It is truly a science when it comes to setting the right price that will attract potential guests to your home and generate a healthy income for home owners as well. There are many factors to consider when setting the appropriate rental rate for your home.
Comparable Properties - Understanding the Rate Metric
I list your home a multitude of 3rd party rental sites to maximize your home's exposure to potential guests. These 3rd party rental sites offer some powerful tools and market place analytics that stack your property up to comparable properties in the area. I can easily scan the rates of comparable properties and dive into their vacancy rate vs your homes vacancy rate and quickly adjust rates as required.
Unique Qualities & Amenities
Marketplace analytics typically display comparable properties that have the same amount of bedrooms, bathrooms and occupancy. Unfortunately, they are not sophisticated enough to discern your property's unique qualities or amenities. For instance your property may come with a buoy or boat slip, or it is located in a more desirable location, new constructions vs old construction, lakefront or nice view. We must consider these factors when setting your home's rental rate.
Vacancy Rate
During peak season your home should be rented 95 - 100% or we are doing something wrong. We typically start booking up by the end of January for the summer season and thus, we list the highest price for summer. Low and Mid Season, the rate fluctuates more. I look at the vacancy rate of your home and comparable properties and adjust rates up or down continually to try and attract potential guests.
Season
Rates will fluctuate significantly based on peak, mid and low season here in Mara Lake & Shuswap. Additionally, when considering seasonal rates, we don't want set your min rate too low that it would attract undesirable guests and we don't want to set your rate too high that it will not book at all.
Peak Season
July and August call for the rental maximum rate for your home.
Dec 22 through Jan 4
May Long Weekend
Low Season
September 5 through Dec 22
April 1st through to second week of May
Mid Season
Jan 4 through March 31 - Here come the sledders!
End of May through June
Contributing Outside Forces
Contributing outside forces that are out of ones control, such as Covid-19 pandemic, forest fires and the economy have greatly changed the way that people travel, when they travel, how far in advance guests will book their stay and how much guests are willing to spend.
Thus, these outside forces influence how we as property managers set the rental rate. For instance, in the initial days of Covid-19 pandemic, cancellations were rampant and rates went down. During the height of the pandemic, bookings increased as travelers worked remotely, allowing people to work from any location and rates went back up to pre-Covid rates, even increasing in low and mid seasons.
In summer of 2022, we entered the summer months with availability in August, which I had never experienced before. Typically summer months are 85% booked by the end of February. Peak season availability in summer 2022 was because travelers were worried about forest fires like we had experienced in 2021. As a result, we experienced fluctuations in peak summer rates in order to attract last minute bookings.
What will your vacation rental rate be? Let us take a look!