Lodgify is predicting healthy growth for vacation rental hosts and property managers in the run-up to the 2022 peak season. That means NOW is the time to prep your rental and listings to make sure you don’t miss out. In this webinar, we look at the expected trends and how you can use them to boost your revenue.
For the webinar, hosted by Lodgify, we team up with Beyond, a leading revenue management platform, which also shares market data and actionable tips for optimizing your pricing strategy.
Webinar recording
Lodgify recently integrated with Beyond to enable our customers to boost their occupancy and revenue by using Beyond’s dynamic pricing tool. The joint webinar aims to give our customers an overview of trends, including pricing trends, as well as a sneak peek into the benefits of dynamic pricing and how it can be a game-changer for your vacation rental business.
For Lodgify Chené Koscielny (aka me!) shares the stage with Suah Kim, a sales engineer from Beyond, who also takes us into the Beyond platform to show how the tool can be used to help vacation hosts act on the insights we both shared.
During the first part of the webinar, I share the latest trends for the vacation rental industry in the U.S., based on the projections in Lodgify’s 2022 U.S. Vacation Rental Forecast.
The overall message is good news all round for hosts and property managers as we expect to see healthy growth, rising daily rates, lengthier stays, earlier peak season bookings and strong growth in direct bookings.
For every trend, I also talk about how you can use this data to boost your revenue.
Trends and tips from Lodgify
Lodgify’s results are based on an analysis of over 400,000 bookings, both direct and OTA bookings, as well as previous years’ data and reservations made up until end of February 2022.
Rise in ADR
An expected 23% increase in ADR (Average Daily Rates) in Q2, 2022 compared to the same time last year, with direct booking ADRs rising at a higher rate than those of OTAs (online travel agencies).
Top tip: Increase your prices in the runup to peak season.
Lengthier stays
You can expect your guests to stay longer, as we predict an 18% increase in length of stay in Q2, with lengthier stays in direct bookings than OTAs.
Top tip: Lock in longer stays by catering to remote workers and digital nomads and promoting these features.
Summer bookings come early
You can expect your summer bookings earlier this season as travelers regain confidence that their plans won’t be ruined by COVID regulations. Direct bookings will be made earlier throughout the whole year than bookings through OTAs.
Top tip: Update your listings and refresh your property now. Use social media to promote peak season amenities now.
Direct bookings grow
Direct bookings are gaining ground on OTAs every year and will represent 23% of the overall OTA bookings pie in Q2.
Top tip: Create your own professional website to manage bookings and grow your business. Offer a personalized, bespoke experience.
Trends and tips from Beyond
For the second part of the webinar, I hand over to Suah Kim, who shared market data from Beyond and then took us into the platform to illustrate how the tool can be used to optimize pricing strategy in line with these peak season trends.
Beyond’s findings are based on their integrations with several property management channels, giving them insights into industry data and trends.
ADR rates up for the whole year
Average Daily Rates are up 40% year on year in the US for the next 365 days, with higher rates in summer, during weekends and during the fall.
Top tip: Leverage Beyond’s dynamic pricing tool to factor in premiums for events in the future and seamlessly integrate prices into Lodgify to capitalize on the increasing ADRs.
Lower occupancy in the shorter term
Occupancy is struggling in the short to mid-term at -16% year on year.
Top tip: Last-minute demand is more important than ever, so you need a solid last-minute discount strategy.
Earlier bookings, but we still expect last minutes too
Bookings for Summer are made well in advance, but last-minute bookings are still important
Top tip: Cash in on the early summer bookings and combine them with a last-minute strategy.
Longer stays
Expect guests to stay longer, but last-minute bookings are shorter
Top tip: Allow for more flexibility as you get closer to the booking window using the Beyond automation feature, which is integrated with Lodgify.
A practical behind-the-scenes look at the Beyond platform
During the final section, Suah deep dives into the Beyond platform to illustrate how you can use the features to optimize your pricing for specific periods.
This includes the insights features – a reporting tool available to you as a Lodgify user and Beyond customer to give you an overview of your own rental statistics.
You can see how your rental is pacing year over year and also hone in to see performance on a granular level for specific periods.
She illustrates how dynamic pricing and customization can help you strategize pricing based on fluctuations in the market.
Questions and Answer Session
Finally, we have a Q & A section, although most of the technical questions are passed on to be dealt with by our support team.
Question: How do I set up with Lodgify and Beyond?
Answer: First, join Lodgify and then sign up with Beyond and connect your Lodgify account with Beyond to start seamlessly integrating pricing.
Q: How does your pricing discern between different property types, for example, 3-bedroom or 6-bedroom properties?
A: With our market data, we drill into different sized bedroom types and you can set your base price in line with the type of property you own.
Q: Does Beyond also work with the UK?
A: Yes, Beyond is also live in the UK market!
Wrapping it up…
We encourage viewers who were not Lodgify customers to start a free trial to test our all-in-one vacation rental software.
Webinar viewers are also invited to a 30-day free trial with Beyond to test-drive the dynamic pricing tool for their rentals.
