Thank you, @Ben551, you have filled in the missing puzzle piece! "The STR market takes longer to run dry, because it's easy to both enter and exit."
I didn't realize you could use Airdna for just a month, so thanks for that tip - I'm definitely going to do it.
We don't really have big events on the peninsula, so I'm going to look at the 4th of July to Labor Day as the big event. The black flies disappear at the end of June, the mosquitos dwindle throughout July and August, the blueberries become ripe, sailboats are out of dry dock, all the ice cream stands and lobster shacks are open and there are farmstands and organic produce everywhere. These are the reasons people vacation in Maine. I think the song "Camelot" sums it up:
"A law was made a distant moon ago here
July and August cannot be too hot
The rain may never fall till after sundown
By eight, the morning fog must disappear
In short, there's simply not a more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here in Camelot."
(Edited to fit the argument 🙂
I tested the places on Beyond Pricing yesterday. The prices varied widely and in the end, did not average as high as my own pricing. So I'm going to stick to my guns but get some intel from Airdna. You're right - I can't check every calendar of every likely place on the peninsula!
And finally, although the last week of August through Labor Day used to be a popular time to be there, I've noticed that Smart Pricing and other pricing tools bring the prices down that week. I can only attribute it to how many US public schools start during the third or fourth week of August. (Gosh, I feel sorry for today's kids!) But I won't lower prices for that week yet. And all three places have been booked for the 4th of July weekend for weeks. That has never happened before, so I'm stoked.
In the meantime, I've turned Smart Pricing off for certain periods, turned it back on for others. The prices are generally climbing, though there are odd gaps where it sticks to the minimum. But as I've said elsewhere, my minimum is what I would charge normally, so while that perplexes me a bit, it doesn't really bother me.
Thanks again, Ben - you've really cleared something up for me!