What pricing do you set for New Years and Holidays?

[Cristina-And-Daniel0]

December and holidays are fast approaching again.  What are your tips for maximizing rental rates during the Christmas and New Years holiday?

Also, how far in advance do you open up holiday dates i.e New Years, for bookings?

Thank you!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Cristina-And-Daniel0

good question 🙂 I can just tell you how is it here but every city is different . Zagreb is popular in December and it won the first place for Advent destination few years in a row ( according to Lonely planet.) It is so much going on from 1. 12. - 7. 1. , it's total maddness ... but it is different then in summer. While during Jun - October we are fully booked, in December we are fully booked only during the weekends and from Christmas - New Year. During the week not so much.

Our base/season price is 35€ for studio and 50 € for 2bdr apartment + cleaning fee

November and from January - March we discont to 30 € / 40 €

December , during the week = 35 / 50 €

December weekends and the week from Christmas to NY = 40 / 60 €

New year eve = 100 / 200 € , min stay = 3 nights

We usually get bookings for New year eve already in August so be carefull and set your NYE prices on time. NYE is the only night when we set our prices 3-4x higher then the rest of the year just to prevent someone from booking 3 nights and then cancel after NYE and get refunded.

Our calendar usually fills up for December weekends during September - November and then we also get last minute bookings during December.

[Letti0]

@Cristina-And-Daniel0  I price the holidays with a 4 night minimum with New Year's Eve being the highest rate also. My regular price for 8 ($20 per person over) is $199 week days and 229 weekends. Holidays from Dec. 21st - Jan. 5th I am at $250 a night except New Year's Eve is $300. They must book 4 days during this time frame. Otherwise I do 1 night minimums for the most part. 

[Paul1255]

@Cristina-And-Daniel0 I have my calendar open for the upcoming 3 month period- the further away the dates are the higher I set my price.

I do this for 2 reasons: 1- it means I can have my calendar open to bookings but not have my calendar fill up really fast 2- it gives guests who do want to reserve way ahead of time and pay a premium the opportunity to do so!

Once dates are about a month out I will bring them down to my base price- and never any lower until they book.

My aim is for my listing to be the last place booked in my area, so I will get some early bookings 2/3 months out but the bulk will happen the month of, and sometimes the week and day of!

For the holidays- Christmas and NYE here, I put my prices up by at least 50%, and already had a 4 night stay over NYE booked out 2 months ago.

I will provide a small gift and a bottle of prosecco and chocolates for the mother and daughter who have made the NY booking as I want to make sure they have a great time 🙂 

Christmas hasn’t booked yet, but probably will closer to the time so I’m not concerned about that at the moment and I won’t lower my pricing strategy.

I have already gone through all the bank holidays and peak periods for 2019 and planned those prices in even though the dates are blocked, so there are no surprises or missed opportunities when they do open- it’s easy to forget about valentines, Easter and so on when your calendar opens dates automatically 3 months ahead of time!

[Cristina-And-Daniel0]

Thanks that's very helpful.

@Paul1255, @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Letti0 How do you prevent cancellations from premium bookings i.e NYE?  I am considering switching from Moderate  to Strict Cancellation Policy for holidays only but I'm afraid it will keep travellers from booking.

[Paul1255]

@Cristina-And-Daniel0 I have a strict cancellation policy in place- but when I started hosting it was set to moderate, as I wanted to maximise my booking potential (in my mind at least!)

I think having a strict policy in place means guests will think more carefully before they book, and my booking rate hasn’t changed since sliding up to strict.

I think I’ve only had 2 guests cancel a stay, and I re-booked both stays so all good. (One at an increased rate)

I guess having a strict policy will help with preventing cancellations of any type including those during premium times- from my research for London listings, many in-home hosts don’t host over Christmas and NYE so I believe if any of my guests cancel I will be able to re-book (and probably with a higher rate if it’s closer to the time)

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

 you can't have different cancellations policy for some days.  Once you set it , it will apply to all future bookings

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@Cristina-And-Daniel0

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