How 10 Stars dynamically optimizes minimum stays to maximize revenue
Minimum stay requirements can be useful for vacation rental owners or small property management companies. It’s much easier to set a standard minimum stay requirement year-round (or one requirement for peak season and one for off-peak) than to constantly adjust based on demand and booking windows.
However, 10 Stars can rely on automatic adjustments from our dynamic pricing technology, monitored by an exceptional team of regionally focused revenue analysts. And it’s actually easiest for our pricing system to earn you more when you don’t require a standard minimum stay.
Make the most of your minimum stay
Let’s be clear: not all minimum stays are bad. Our pricing tools automatically apply a longer minimum stay when it makes sense, such as three- or four-day weekends over a holiday.
But applying a minimum stay at all times can negatively impact your earning potential. Here’s why:
You’ll reach more potential guests
Enforcing a strict minimum stay inherently limits the number of potential guests looking at your home. A home with a two-night minimum will still be viewed and booked by guests looking for weeklong stays. However, a home with a seven-night minimum will not be seen by guests looking for a long weekend stay. The pool of guests interested in long stays is a small subset of a home’s potential demand pool, especially in drive-to markets.
Your guests will pay more for their preferred dates
Guests are often willing to pay more per night in order to book the exact dates they want. With optimized minimum stays, we can capture higher rates for advance bookings by allowing guests to choose their ideal dates and length of stay.
You’ll fill in your calendar with “gap nights” between longer stays
Lower minimum stays enable us to fill in “gap nights” between longer reservations that would otherwise sit empty. Business travelers or retirees will often book midweek travel and fill in those available gaps.
Your last-minute demand will increase
Optimized minimum stays help us capture last-minute demand during shoulder or off-peak seasons. Most guests book last-minute trips for a weekend away from work or school, not for an extended period of time. Our pricing tools keep your rates competitive for last-minute trips, and this is one of the areas where we really excel for our owners. However, these guests won’t even see a home with a three- or four-night minimum stay when searching for their last-minute getaway.
Over the course of a year, those missed weekend bookings can really add up! In one market, properties that went from a three-night to a two-night minimum saw about a 30% increase in both gross rent and nights booked—with a 90% increase for off-peak seasons.
You’ll get the best bookings throughout the year
Most markets have a clear peak season and off-season, and guests will book their weeklong vacations earlier—and for higher rates—for the most popular dates. When the time is right, our pricing tools will require a longer minimum stay far in advance of peak season to protect those valuable dates for longer reservations.
But, we also want to be able to gradually lower that minimum requirement as the year progresses to capture the most revenue for your home. Sometimes that means taking a three-day booking four months in advance (plus a last-minute two-day reservation!) rather than a four-day booking two months ahead of time.
Bottom line? Giving our pricing tools and revenue analysts the flexibility to optimize your minimum stay requirements over the course of the year nets you more revenue in the long term.
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