EP235: Time for Change
Summary
This article discusses revenue management strategies for STR hosts, emphasizing the importance of scheduled pricing routines, analyzing booking behavior, and understanding the unique challenges STRs face compared to hotels. Hosts should schedule daily and weekly pricing reviews, and pay close attention to booking windows and demand signals to optimize their revenue.
Key Insights
- •The article emphasizes that STR pricing is dramatically harder than hotel pricing due to product uniqueness, fragmented demand, and operational constraints.
- •Early bookings can indicate underpricing or upcoming events, and last-minute inventory reveals demand and visibility.
- •Smaller markets like Kansas City, Boston, Seattle, and Philadelphia may outperform larger cities during the FIFA World Cup.
Action Items
- ✓Make small daily price changes to increase exposure on OTAs.Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Review pacing on a weekly basis using Market Penetration Index (MPI).Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Review every booking to reveal pricing and demand signals.Effort: lowImpact: medium
Tools & Resources
- →Freewyld Foundry: Learn more about Freewyld Foundry.
Watch Out For
- ⚠Most hosts underperform not because they lack tools, but because they don’t know what to look at, when to look at it, or how to interpret booking behavior once it shows up.
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