By Bill Furlong, CEO
During our recent vacation rental breakfast seminars in Oahu and Maui, we presented a summary of vacation rental trends for bookings done in 2009. The past 12 months have been rough ones in Hawaiian travel business. More than anywhere else in the country, bookings have been incredibly slow in Hawaii since the country entered the recession. A few of the takeaways from our recent analysis:
- Bookings have been on a steady recovery from the lows of early 2009.
- The recovery has been broad-based rather than narrow. In other words, the steady improvement through the year isn't drive by a few management companies doing well. It is a trend being felt by many of the companies in our survey.
- Most managers reduced rent in 2009 versus 2008. Discounting accelerated as the year progressed, probably because more and more managers turned to pricing as a way to fill empty homes. In July 2009, 93% of managers in our survey averaged a lower rent per booking than a year earlier.
- Lead times, which have shrunk in recent years, have shrunk even faster in the past 12 months. The average booking lead time is up to 25% shorter than it was a year ago, averaging roughly 80-90 days.
- Weekend bookings appear to be smaller dollar value bookings. And Monday and Tuesday appears to be when the long-range vacation planners book.
The slides below have all the details. In a few weeks, we'll be publishing our 3rd quarter 2009 vacation rental trends for the whole country.