South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Kicking ‘weekend getaway’ to curb
A pandemic travel pattern has emerged: Not ‘long weekends,’ but ‘short weeks’
Health declaration forms and virus tests. Quarantine-on-arrival (and on return) requirements. Infection rates that change by the day and labyrinthinemiddle-seat policies that require an advanced degree to decipher.
Combinethosenewhurdles with the ability towork and virtual-school fromanywhere and the desperate need for a change of scenery, andsometravelers are kicking the archetypalweekend getaway to the curb. Trips that might have been two or three nights last yearnowfeel too brief — notworth all the hoops, not quiteenoughtime away. Instead, anewpandemic travel pattern has emerged: not “longweekends,” but “shortweeks.” Andthe people whotakethemagree: Whata difference aday (ortwo) makes.
“You can’t go touristing anymore like you used to, but weekends away— traditionally crammedinto sneaking out of work slightly early on a Friday in a dash to have somerepose— now mean heading out on aWednesday night, logging on towork and coming backMonday night,” said TomCaton, co-founder and chief revenue officer of AirDNA, a data firmthat analyzesmore than 10 million vacation rentalsworldwide.
Summervacations expanded this year, withmany rental homes booking up for a month or more. Custom AirDNAdata from several key EastCoast vacation markets shows thatweekend tripswere longer, too: Although therewere fewer bookings than therewere last year, the average staywas longer.
At Discover 7, a luxury travel agency, weekend trips are now four nights on average, up from two last year. Destinations in theWest— Aspen, Colorado, dude ranches inWyoming and Montana— have been popular this summer and fall.
“The most dramatic behavioral shift emerged in the demographic that can carry their virtual office in a laptop case,” said Eric Grayson, the company’s founder and chief executive. “The knowledge that their vacation can restart every time they finishwork creates a very different feeling on Friday at 6:30.”
Five-night bookings have becomeincreasingly commonat HolidayParkAce, whichrents out luxury lodges aroundtheUnited Kingdom. Last July andAugust, bookings of that length accounted
for8% of the business; this year, thenumberhasjumpedto 24%.
“This is unsurprising— people are looking tomake the most of a long holiday in case they don’t get one in the future, andwe are seeing this pattern continue into the holidays,” said Joe Spencer, the company’s owner.
Longer bookings can help offset the financial toll of fewer bookings. But Spencer said that each reservation nowcarries moreweight, particularly with the added risk that renters will pull out because of illness, travel restrictions or cold feet.
“If a group books a five-night stay and cancels last minute, it is a big problem aswe then have to try and fill the lodges last minute — and usually the onlywaywe can do this is by offering it at a discounted price,” he said. “For a two-night stay, it’s a lot easier to get it filled.”
Reservations atTurnKeyVacationRentals, a rental management companywith more than
6,000 homes across theUnited
States, are increasing by about one day per month, over last year. The median length of stay for Octoberwas five nights (up from four last year); November is six nights, up fromfive; December is seven, up fromsix.
Short-week stays are also on the rise at hotels. ClubMed SandpiperBay, an all-inclusive resort between Miami and Orlando, Florida, has seen a 9% year-overyear increase in four- and fivenight reservations fromJune to October. Four- to six-night stays are up 55% over last year at The FoundryHotel, a boutique hotel in Asheville, North Carolina.
Newhotel packages spur— or
reward— guestswhosubmit to an extra night or two. The fifth night is free for every four nights booked atWyndham Grand Rio Mar Puerto Rico Golf& Beach Resort; the offer also includes a $50 food-and-drink credit per stay. At theHotel del Coronado, near San Diego, familieswhostay six nights ormore get discounted roomrates and a $350 resort credit per stay.
But for Glen Broomberg, 54, the real value of a few extra days away with his wife and three children, 13, 11 and 5, goes beyond any physical perk.
The Broombergs, wholive in SantaBarbara, California, had
planned to stay only two nights at the Farmhouse Inn, in Sonoma County, at the tail end of July. Taken with the setting, the staff’s hospitality and theMichelin-starred food, they extended their trip twice— first to four, then to seven, nights.
“We kept saying, ‘This is so muchfun. Canwe just stay another day, and then another day?’ ” said Broomberg, the co-founder of a luxury packaging company. “You often go on vacation and take things for granted. This put it back into focus for us: Thatwe actually need to be appreciative of our time away becausewe missed it this year.”