When is the busiest season in your area?

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

When is the busiest season in your area?

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Hey there,

 

Whether you host on the coast or in the mountains, in a city or in a small village,  you will probably have certain seasons or periods which are busier with visitors than others.  It might be simply due to the weather or perhaps there is an event that brings lots of people to the area at that time.

 

When is your busiest season/period of the year and how do you prepare for it? It might just be starting now with the arrival of summer or maybe this is your quieter period!

 

Looking forward to hearing more about when guests visit your areas,

 

Stephanie

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82 Replies 82
Barry-and-Lera0
Level 10
Sarasota, FL

January through May is peak season here.

Veronique271
Level 4
Tucson, AZ

January to May in Tucson, AZ

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Stephanie 

 

Hey it's the start of winter here in New Zealand!!


Nice crisp June mornings as is tradition.

 

I've just had my first year of hosting so I'm not really sure if I can comment.

 

It would be nice to have an even flow of Guests all year round.

 

Lpa up that sunshine & hanging outdoors whilst you can.

 

I recall spending time in my bikini in late July when I did my OE in the UK & Europe, it wasn't as cold in our beloved 'mother country' as some think it is.

 

Cheers 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Can't wait for July myself, my trains are cancelled this morning as the station I'm headed to is flooded from rainfall! I didn't know you were a Brit too @Helen427 , amazing! I suppose it looks a bit like Caradhas during the winter months? (Tolkein reference 🤓)

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@Stephanie , ah well isn't it great you live in 2019 not 1919 when people used to have to walk through muddy paths & women sunk in to the mud in their heels!!

 

Nice you don't have to water the garden but how bad are the floods?

 

We overlook why in the good ole days they had drains that were along the side of the street/ roads that  were drains/ ditches for the water to absorb into the soil, now everything is through pipes...

 

No a natural Brit, NZ born with European background, alas Her Majesty is our current Head of State so honorary Brit!!!

 

Keep safe & hope you have a great pair of gumboots.

Pete69
Level 10
Los Angeles, CA

I'm near Malibu. June through August is a feeding frenzy. Weekends ALWAYS booked.

Same for us in Charleston Sc

Heather106
Level 4
New Orleans, LA

Here in New Orleans, where our weather is decent all year round and there’s always something going on, we don’t really have a slow season. There are a few weeks here and there where I see a bit of a slow down, but I’ve never gone more than 5 days without a booking. I find that it can go a little quiet for the week after New Years Eve and Mardi Gras. Even during our hottest months and in the middle of hurricane season, I still have around 80% occupancy- granted those reservations are usually last minute or are made a few days before. 

 

It it also helps that we have some kind of festival or music event just about every weekend of the year!

Heather, we visited New Orleans last November and had a good time. No festivals, so it was quiet and we had nice chats with several shop owners and musicians. I loved Mardi Gras when I was younger, but enjoy the quieter seasons now. 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

In Zagreb, the full season is from the beginning of Jun to the end of October and then again in December

 

November, January, February, and March are slow.

Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

@Stephanie .

Tiwi seasons calendarTiwi seasons calendarDarwin in the Top End of the Northern Territory - Australia, has six subtle seasons. But essentially, two main weather seasons: The Wet (hot & Wet) and The Dry ( hot & Dry). The Dry Season goes from May till the end of September with the official Wet from October to the end of April.

 

So as we are now in the Dry, we are now in our very short, high volume - full throttle, tourist season. Beautifully warm, low humidity and dry, allows for many activities to be undertaken. As the rest of central and southern Australia is in winter, the north of Australia celebrates all it has to offer. Festivals, many outdoor concerts and events, plus great camping and gentler warmth for everyone. The world heritage parks and Arnhem Land become accessible to the visitor during the Dry. Many indigenous local art and cultural festivals, sports sports and more sports. Fishing fishing fishing and more fishing....

But one of the big hidden events is the manic and well run wedding season. Fantastic day and evening weather for celebrating outdoors under the stars and festoon lights. 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hey everyone,

 

This is all super interesting stuff! It gives me some additional thoughts on it mind you...

 

Do you see a specific type of tourist in your peak times? 

 

Thanks

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"Do you see a specific type of tourist in your peak times""

 

Milan is not really a tourist city, @Stephanie, so we earned in the same way regardless of the time of the year, there is no difference between high and low season: prices rise and fall depending on events scheduled throughout the year, exhibitions, fairs, etc. The periods from March to May and from September to November can be defined as peak times.

 

Over the years I convinced myself that when we travel we let our guard down and show the real us. The journey becomes a magnifying glass. So nothing learned from one tourist can be used to decipher another tourist.

 

During peak seasons I met different types of tourists. I’ll let you figure out where the  tourist comes from.

 

Tourist 1. When he leaves his country, he apparently wants to declare clearly the whole world that he’s not an American! He's so patriotic to put his flag everywhere: backpack, suitcase, knickers (don't ask me how I know). He’s a very polite guest.

 

Tourist 2. Since the sun does not shine at home, on vacation he tends to use it carelessly. From the second day of stay in Italy the complexion of this guest’s skin changes from red to purple. Flush, red around the ears. It is not necessarily sunbathing’s fault, alcohol plays a big role there.

 

Tourist 3. He wears the flip-flops all the time, beachwear is proudly displayed even in the middle of winter. He’s a special kind of crazy, but I love him. Have you seriously not figured that out yet? Okay, I’ll give you one more clue. You start to get through to him by giving him a beer (Foster’s preferably).

 

Tourist  4. He’s a guest of regular habits. He wears half sleeves shirts that are two sizes too big, short trousers, brown sandals, and white socks. He doesn't care much about the judgment of others, so he dresses as he likes. For him a red light has only one possible interpretation: Stop!

 

Tourist 5. This guest is an interesting chap. He’s a  careless flaky-guy. He often shouts. These tourists are the children of the world. While tourist 1 thinks, tourist  2 reads a book, tourist 3 sleeps on the sofa, tourist 4 checks that everything is in order, tourist 5 never stands still. He could always make something out of nothing.

 

For him, a red light doesn’t warn or order you as much as provide an invitation for reflection. It’s not red, it’s an ”almost red”, it’s a negotiable red. He doesn't accept the idea that a ban is a ban, or that the red light is a red light. His reaction is "Let's talk about it"! This is his take on rules of whatever kind, house rules, the road, the law, taxes, or personal behavior. He thinks it’s an insult to his intelligence to comply with a regulation.

@Emily352  #5 is very ubiquitous around here (although the guests I get are the opposite). They walk down the middle of the street 4 abreast, oblivious of the cars backed up behind them. They think because they are on vacation here, that everyone is. It never occurs to them that when they scream and yell drunkenly in the pool until 3AM, that they may be keeping the neighbors awake, some of whom have to wake up in 2 hours to go to the restaurant where they work to start preparing the breakfast they will arrive for some hours later. They look like they could go without eating for a year and maybe end up a healthy weight for their height. They talk so loudly, even when standing right next to each other, that everyone on the block can hear every word of their conversation (which is far from interesting). They insist on speaking English to Mexican shopgirls, because of course it never occurred to them to get a little Spanish/English phrase book for useful things to be able to say in Spanish. Because everyone should speak English, right? When the shopgirl smiles sweetly but uncomprehendingly, they repeat the same thing in English, only much louder, and slowly, as if she is deaf or mentally handicapped. They are embarrasing and you just hope that the locals make the distinction between them and you, even though you have the same color skin.

#1- A Canadian friend who was travelling in Thailand struck up a conversation with some people sitting at the next table in a restaurant. She asked them where they were from. They said Canada. She asked where in Canada? They said British Columbia. She asked where in British Columbia. They said Victoria Island. The capitol of British Columbia is Victoria and it is on Vancouver Island. There is a Victoria Island- it is in the Arctic. She said "You are so busted". They were Americans telling everyone that they were Canadaians, even had Canadian flag stickers on their backpacks. Because most of the world likes Canadians, not so much Americans. There are lots of great Americans, but too many American travelers give the US a bad name. As per #5.

#2- You can always tell in the summer months who are the locals and who are the tourists. The locals know that it's far too hot to go out in the sun, so they may be relatively pale. The tourists slap on some sunscreen in the morning, then go to the beach all day, sometimes fall asleep. They are beet red and in 30 years will be dealing with skin cancer. I've always thought that a good event here would be a "Best Sunburn" contest.