Booking a summer rental
As travel rebounds in the US, here are five things to know about renting a vacation house
Travel is rebounding in the United States with gusto, as vaccination rates rise, restrictions loosen around the country and would-be travelers act on their eagerness to reunite with family and friends. The surge has already left its mark on the vacation rental market, where property owners, agencies and management companies are predicting an extremely busy, if not outright bonkers, summer.
“This is probably contradictory to what a lot of people may think, but it’s really one of the most exciting times in the industry right now,” said Carrington Carter, co-founder and managing partner of Getaway Society, a luxury vacation rental company with properties in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Hilton Head, South Carolina, as well as other markets.
Looking to rent a vacation house this summer? Here’s what we know.
You might already be too late
By the end of March, 90% of vacation homes on the Jersey Shore and Cape Cod listed on VRBO were booked for July. Compare that with 2019, when more than 30% of homes in those markets were still available in March for the following July.
“It’s crazy. There’s so much pent-up demand,” said Noelle Randall, the founder of Nuurez, a crowdfunded short-termrentals company that lists its properties on sites like VRBO. “We have bookings through August on almost every property — like, totally booked up: all of June booked up, all of July booked up.”
Thanks to a confluence of the pandemic, wildfires and storms, Yosemite National Park has been half-open and half-closed for the better part of a year. Yet reservations at The Redwoods In Yosemite, a company that operates more than 120 vacation homes in the park, are running well above normal. As of April 11, bookings for May were up 35% over the same date in 2019; June is up 37% and July is up 27%.
Similar patterns are materializing on Homes & Villas by Marriott International, a home rental platform, where the booking lead time for summer stays is 147 days this year — up from 34 days last year.
“We’re beginning to see increased long-term confidence in booking summer travel in 2021,” said Jenny Hsieh, the company’s vice president. “We’re also seeing lower cancellation rates as demand grows. Consumers are less willing to give up what they booked since homes are getting filled up quickly.”
At Barkwells, a cluster of dog-friendly vacation rentals in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, bookings for the rest of the year are up almost 30% over what the forecast looked like in April 2019.
“It’s a combination of people being cooped up from home and being desperate to get out,” said Michael Winner, who co-owns Barkwells with his wife, Ellen. “I think vaccinations are making us more comfortable.”
You’re competing with everyone, for anything
Another factor driving demand: the COVID-fueled surge in second-home buyers who actually want to use — if not live in — their weekend houses.
“With the flexibility of remote work, owners are finding that they have more time to enjoy their second homes and are renting them less, or not at all,” Carter said. “This reduction in the supply of available homes to rent, coupled with increasing demand, are also factors that are driving rate increases in destinations across the country.”
Rental companies are also seeing the usual search metrics take a back seat to the need to find a place.
“Your large houses always book up way in advance because those are usually two and three families, so they have to plan,” Randall of Nuurez said.
“But what’s surprising is that every type of property, even the studios and one-bedrooms, are booked.”
The demand presents an operational challenge: making the gears run smoothly with few, if any, gaps between stays.
“There are a lot of operators and owners who aren’t accustomed to being fully booked, and it can be tough to make sure they’re sorting out cleaning schedules and things like that,” said Jeremy Gall, a veteran of the vacation rental industry and the chief executive and founder of Breezeway, a property care and cleaning operations platform.
But, he added, “I think it’s all generally good news, especially in the context of the last 12 months. I don’t think there’s an owner, host or manager who would trade off the uncertainty that they felt this time last year for a fully booked summer.”
You’ll probably pay more than you did in 2019
According to Transparent, a vacation rental data company, the average nightly rate for Airbnb vacation rentals in July and August is expected to be $220. Last year, it was $194; in 2019, it was $185.
At Evolve, a hospitality company that manages more than 14,000 shortterm rentals around the United States, nightly rates are up 27% in July and 19% in August over those same months in 2019.
“I’d be remiss to say that we didn’t raise our rates significantly,” said Jon Mayo, whose Airbnb in Palm Springs, California, has more nights booked this summer than ever before, despite the sureto-be-sweltering desert temperatures. “I’m renting at rates I wouldn’t have even dreamed of three years ago.”
You’ll probably stay for a while
The elongated travel patterns that emerged last summer, from monthlong stays to four- and five-night “weekends,” are back in full force this year.
“We have more multiple-week guests this year than ever,” Winner of Barkwells said. “Guests may be vacationing for some of the time, but they can also check in with the office.”
Across Evolve’s portfolio, the average length of stay this summer has increased from 3.7 days last year to
4.9 days. HomeToGo, a large vacation rental search engine, is reporting that the average domestic traveler with a check-in date between May 1 and Sept. 1 will stay for 11 days, a 14% increase from 2019.
If you’re looking for a nonurban destination, you’re not alone
Jim Prugh owns nine properties in Lindsborg, Kansas, a city of less than 4,000 known as “Little Sweden USA” for its Scandinavian heritage and culture.
“When thinking of vacation rental destinations, central Kansas might not be on everyone’s list,” he said. “But I’m already seeing that pricing and lead times will be increasing very soon in tandem with the demand for overnight stays.”
Prugh’s numbers have been up all year, and he expects his third-quarter occupancy rate to top 61%, up from around 53% last year.
That tracks with new findings from AirDNA, a data firm that analyzes 10 million vacation rentals worldwide: Cities — with the exception of small, rural ones — are generally down in summer bookings compared with 2019.