Price Your Vacation Rental Properly

The key to properly pricing your vacation rental is to keep your prices comparable to other vacation rental homes in your area. This means you do not want to be too much higher than them or too much lower. Unfortunately there is no real set in stone strategy to pricing your vacation rental property. It’s important to recognize that the price of your vacation rental will directly affect the amount of inquiries that you will receive.

Getting Started

The very first thing that you should do when determining a rental price is to compare your home to other short-term rental homes in your area. This process is very similar to what real estate agents do when deciding what price to list your property at. Compare your property to those that are similar. If you have a condo, compare your condo to others in the area to get the most accurate pricing. Also compare the amenities that are being offered then determine how your rental property stacks up against the competition. How much are they charging for nightly rentals, weekly rentals and monthly rentals?

Comparing your vacation rental to local hotel prices can be a good way to attract guests that were seeking a hotel stay but found out that your vacation rental costs on a nightly basis are actually cheaper.

Seasonal Pricing

Pricing varies depending on what time of year it is. You should determine what weeks and months of the year are peak, shoulder and off-season. The peak season will be your busiest time usually and you can capitalize on the demand by increasing your rates for those periods of time and requiring a rental minimum of a week if you can get it. During shoulder times and off-peak times you should charge a lower rate and lower your minimum rental length to at least 3 days to capture the most demand.

The rental seasons tend to coincide with school calendars. To be sure of when your peak, shoulder and off-season time periods are you should look at other vacation rentals in your area and see what times of year they adjust their pricing and rental term minimums.

Organization

This is the key. Get a yearly calendar and mark down which dates are peak, shoulder and off-season, determine a rate for each one and mark it down on the calendar. If a renter wants your property during a specific week you will know exactly what to charge them. Furthermore, as you begin renting out your vacation rental mark down the days that are already taken so you do not double book.