There’s more to pricing your holiday rental than picking the most appropriate price point and sticking to it. The price should change throughout the year depending on what’s happening at the time. For example school holidays see a rise in bookings and families wanting to go away, so you can generally get more for your holiday let during this period than you would during the off season.
Here are some tips on getting the pricing for your holiday let just right.
1. Start with a yearly planner
Ideally it should be large enough to work with and stick to a wall, so you can see the entire year, month by month, at a glance. All you need then are some coloured marker pens so you can work out where the different price ranges are going to fit in.
This type of planner makes it much easier to see what your potential is to earn money from your holiday let at different times of the year. You could also mark out last year’s earnings on the planner with sticky notes that can be removed. This will reveal any periods where your holiday let stood empty. You can then reconsider the pricing for those periods for the forthcoming year.
2. Mark out the peak season periods
This is best done so you can distinguish between the peak season and the off season. The peak season should include all school holidays (particularly the summer six week break) as well as bank holidays and Christmas and the New Year. These are the times you are most likely to find it easy to book up your holiday rental, and thus you can charge more for the privilege.
You’ll also be able to identify those periods where you traditionally won’t get many bookings. These are the times when cheaper rental fees will be ideal, because they will attract more people who are able to take holidays ‘off peak’.
3. Consider shorter and longer stays
When it comes to filling up your holiday rental property during the off season period, you need to price it attractively. However you also need to make it as accessible as possible. This could mean offering shorter 3 night stays instead of full weeks. Put simply, someone may not like the idea of going away for a week during the off season, but a long weekend (which will be cheaper too) could appeal as a way to get a short break from everyday life.
In contrast, longer stays may also be convenient and attractive for some people. Think about offering a month long stay for the same rate you would normally charge for a couple of weeks in the peak season. This guarantees a nice fee for you and it means your property won’t be empty.
As you can see, it is very important to look at the different seasons of the year individually when it comes to pricing. Proper pricing can lead to better profits all round once you get the hang of how to do it.
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