How to Work ON Instead of IN Your STR Business
Summary
This article from Get Paid For Your Pad highlights key differences between hotel and short-term rental revenue management, emphasizing how STR pricing is more complex. It stresses the importance of scheduled revenue management routines, understanding booking behaviors, and the role of operational constraints. Hosts should focus on daily and weekly pricing reviews, utilizing tools like Freewyld Foundry to optimize their revenue strategies and stay ahead of market trends.
Key Insights
- •STR pricing is dramatically harder than hotel pricing due to product uniqueness (every listing being like its own “mini hotel”), booking window impacts, and operational constraints.
- •Booking windows and pacing strategies shape revenue strategy in ways hotels never deal with, and STR rate drops must be deeper near arrival.
- •Major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico City may experience lower price elevation due to hotel supply.
Action Items
- ✓Review every booking to reveal pricing and demand signals.Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Make small daily price changes to increase exposure on OTAs.Effort: lowImpact: medium
- ✓Pay special attention to weekends, which require a different pricing strategy than weekdays.Effort: lowImpact: medium
Tools & Resources
- →Freewyld Foundry: Learn more about Freewyld Foundry
Watch Out For
- ⚠Hosts often underperform because they don’t know what to look at, when to look at it, or how to interpret booking behavior.
- ⚠Don't overcorrect pricing too quickly.
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