Lakefront vacations
Lake Geneva, Door Co. double in popularity
Lake Geneva, Door County rentals double in popularity during pandemic.
With international travel limited and domestic travel discouraged, Midwesterners who planned a big vacation to Europe or New York City in 2020 have long canceled their trips. But there’s little stopping you from driving a couple hours to a lakefront cottage in Wisconsin — and you wouldn’t be the only one doing it.
Bookings on Airbnb and Vrbo.com more were up about 150% in Door County and Sauk County in June this year, compared to June 2019, and in Lake Geneva, short-term rental bookings more than tripled, according to data from AirDNA, a data and analytics website that focuses on short-term rentals.
Meanwhile, urban areas aren’t seeing the same uptick. During both June and July this year, the number of short-term rental reservations in Milwaukee remained similar to last year, and bookings in Chicago dropped by about 50%.
“When you go to Chicago, for example, and you want to go to see the city, it’s usually to go shopping or for the nightlife or the restaurants or the museums or any of those types of things,” said Pam Knudsen, a short-term rental tax and regulation expert and director of compliance at Avalara MyLodgeTax. “If they’re even open at all, they’re limited in what you can do, what you get to see, all of those types of things.”
Resort areas tend to have fewer crowded areas and plenty of outdoor activities to keep travelers occupied and provide a change of scenery, Knudsen said, and these locations have the added benefit of being within driving distance.
The transition to a work-fromhome environment for many has allowed people to schedule getaways for longer periods of time, she said. So instead of vacationing for one week and going home right after, people can vacation for one week and work remotely from a scenic location for even longer.
In March and April, short-term rentals saw a general drop in traffic, and some cities and towns placed bans or restrictions on short-term rental properties, Knudsen said.
But as time went on and restrictions lifted, “low-key” areas began seeing a surge, she said, particularly from people who already live in the region and could drive there.
“I think that people within a reasonable driving radius, five or six hours, are seeing Door County as an achievable getaway,” said Elaine Carmichael, an Airbnb superhost with a cottage on Sturgeon Bay. “Sometimes they mentioned that they canceled plans to go to Europe or wherever and this is what they’re doing with their family instead.”
some guests, trips to Door County have been a way to return to childhood memories of exploring nature in Wisconsin, Carmichael said. She lives next door to the cottage she rents out, which is booked until midnations
October.
“A lot of people have said things like, ‘I haven’t been to Door County in years, and I forgot how pretty it was.’ “she said. “Or, ‘I used to come here as a kid and it popped into my head that I could bring my family here.’ And so they’re casting about for vacation destinations within a reasonable range, and they’re just combing through the memory banks and Door County comes back up.”
Bookings in these Wisconsin destinations dipped a little in July but were still higher than in 2019. However, in late July and early August, bookings dropped substantially. An AirDNA spokesperson said this is roughly consistent with national rates, likely due to the an increase in coronavirus cases nationwide and newly imposed travel restrictions.
Northern Wisconsin and Wisconsin Dells are among the top trending destiFor for local travel in the state, according to an Airbnb news release. During the month of June, hosts throughout Wisconsin earned over $3.6 million from guests living within 300 miles of their properties.
Usually, Carmichael host guests in the summer who come to the Midwest to visit Chicago, Milwaukee or Minneapolis and swing by Door County as part of their trips, she said.
She’s been seeing fewer of these guests this year, along with fewer guests planning small family reunions and travelers from Canada. Still, demand has remained high given the traffic from those already living in the region.
Carmichael said that some Chicagoans have canceled their reservations since the city instituted a 14-day quarantine for anyone returning to the city after spending time in Wisconsin. But it hasn’t been difficult at all to fill the spots with locals.
“We’ve had some people who have canceled because they took the quarantining on the other end of their trip seriously and didn’t have time to do it,” she said. “In my case, all the bookings I lost have been replaced with other people, so there’s been no net loss.”