Escapia Blog - Vacation Rental News and Trends

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

By Bill Furlong, CEO

Final data posting of the day...and an appropriate one as we await the first snow of the year here in Seattle.  I swapped emails today with a vacation rental manager in Oregon thrilled that they are expecting 3+ feet of snow in the next few days.  Our local ski areas are also one big snow dump away from opening the slopes.  So we're all hoping this storm does it for us.

For vacation rental managers located in ski destinations, there are two big things impacting how their season is going.  The economy makes this year like none other in recent memory.  But the thing that everyone in a ski resort lives with every year is the variability in the weather.

While I know a lot of ski areas are still waiting for that first big snow, there is actually a lot of snow on the ground out there.  Here's what the nation's snow coverage looks like according to Intellicast:

 

So, there's snow out there...even if it isn't always in the right places. 

Our data indicates that vacation rental managers in ski areas are seeing booking declines this year roughly in line with overall averages or maybe just a little bit better.  From November 1 to December 10, vacation rental managers from Killington to Lake Tahoe and many places in between have seen an 18% decline in bookings compared to a year ago.  While that might not warm your heart to hear, and while it might take the economy a while to turn around...there's always hope for more snow!

Regional trends in vacation rental bookings

By Bill Furlong, CEO

A visitor to the blog had asked whether we could share regional variations to the bookings data.  I've put that analysis together.  A couple of notes on the data below:

• The data reflects bookings from November 1 - December 10 2007 versus 2008.

• The units included is not identical to the numbers in previous posts.  Where I didn't feel like there was enough data to provide reliable numbers, I haven't provided any info for that region.  And in some regions where there is less data, I have eliminated data from managers who have especially big year over year changes.

With that, here is the regional data:

 

Updated tracking data on vacation rental bookings

By Bill Furlong, CEO

We've updated our data on the year over year change in vacation rental bookings.  As you can see below, last week was a bit stronger than recent weeks with vacation rental bookings running 11% below a year ago.

Video Demos Now Live!

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager


With so many new features coming out each quarter here at Escapia, we understand that it can be difficult to keep on top of all the latest features.  So we've been busy putting together focused video demo overviews of our latest and greatest features to give you an idea of what these features can mean to you and your business.

Check out our latest videos on:

Escapia Intellirate Dynamic Pricing

EscapiaNET Online Distribution


Escapia Custom Reporting

For a full library of Escapia videos, visit our YouTube site at www.youtube.com/Escapia.  

Tracking weekly vacation rental bookings

By Bill Furlong, CEO

With many vacation rental managers tracking their business closely, I thought it would be helpful to give managers context by showing what is happening more broadly in the vacation rental industry.

The chart below outlines the dollar volume of vacation rental bookings by week since the market downturn this fall.  We have analyzed the data for the same set of vacation rental managers for both years and covers many millions of dollars of bookings each week for agencies across the country.

 

The next chart outlines the weekly year-over-year change in bookings.

Keep in mind that the timing of Thanksgiving (a week later in 2008 than in 2007) impact the weekly data shifting bookings across weeks.  So while the week of November 30th looks particularly weak (and the week of November 23rd, particularly strong), it is probably best to net out the two weeks to neutralize the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday.