Your thoughts on rates for part weeks

[Gary2604]

We have now got an agent on board who will be marketing our property exclusively. We have fixed on a Sat to Sat week but in our area there are several event long weekends throughout the season. My question is how do you think these weekends could be priced? Our agent is suggesting we just charge a high season week rate for these long weekends but of course accepting these bookings means you eat into your weeks either side of the event weekend and.......if you managed to fill all the odd periods you would have three cleanings over a two week period rather than two. Hope this is understandable? So does anyone have similar situation?

[Essar]

If you can fill the full weeks in the peak season, why break them up just for a weekend event. In Bournemouth we have a 4-days long Air Festival (finishes on a Sunday) in mid-August; I put the price up for the "week" it falls in! It's the first week to go each year.

[newtimber]

A decent agent should know how to price your property - especially if they are exclusive - that's what their job is. Normally, you would agree the rates before you appointed them.

If you don't trust their judgement, then perhaps you ought to find another agent.

[greenbarn]

IF you want to go down the road of short breaks (there's a big discussion in itself - some owners would be crazy to do it, others would be crazy not to do it; know your market!) there's a typical rate for a weekend (3 nights arrive Fri pm depart by Mon am) or midweek (Mon- Fri) of around 70-75% of the full week rate.

It does of course mean that you need to completely change how you operate so that you're offering a Friday or Monday changeover, not a Saturday.

+1 to both newtimber and Essar's comments.

[Gary2604]

Thanks for the replys.

We don't want to offer short breaks and want to keep our Sat to Sat offerings. The agent says that for certain events they would charge one weeks peak rate for a long weekend over a low rate period due to the 'special event' . Still I was not convinced that we could not get more sticking to our regular week bookings. If someone wants the short break over the two weeks then they need to pay for the two whole weeks.

new timber - we have agreed rates it's just this one issue I was not sure about. An agent working on commission and not having to pay for the changeover cleaning may have a slightly different view than we as owners may have.......just seeking some opinion as it must be common occurance.

[zebedee]

You are right, Gary. Agents will often have a booking fee(which may be hidden from guests) plus a percentage of the total cost of the holiday plus VAT, all taken from the total cost of the booking.

When we started out we had an agent who encouraged us to take short breaks out of season. They took a booking fee which the guest were unaware of, but it was the same fee for a week as a short break, plus the commission and VAT.
This meant that as owners we received considerably less in proportion for a 3 night short break than when a full week was booked.

However, one advantage of taking short breaks is that it helps to get your property known, and in particular, if a short break is booked in the winter etc, guests may be encouraged to book a full week in the summer.
We did not agree to short breaks in peak season, unless we were within 3 weeks of a void and that way we hoped to get something of a booking. However, it became apparent that any week with a short break in it no longer came up on availability searches on the agents site, so a short break over a weekend would in fact take us off the market for the remainder of the two weeks. The agent often would ring us though, to have the final say in taking a short break. At that point I wished for a crystal ball to know if I was at risk of giving up an opportunity or losing out on a much better booking.

As others say above, you need to know your market in order to make the correct decision, and this may well be a trial and error lesson - it certainly has been for me.

Have you asked your agent how many bookings you should expect to achieve with them in your first year? This may help you decide.

Hope I have given you some food for thought and wish you every success.

[charles cawley]

Hiding a booking fee from guests is, arguably, illegal because they are being charged and need to know this to agree to that contract. The vat people would also take exception.

A long weekend followed by a mid week break at, say 80%, which is common in our area, will raise 160% of a standard week's revenue. This can be quite welcome.

For new holiday lets, we suggest people go in a little low and ratchet up the rates to meet the market whilst garnering feedback. Good recent feedback is almost as important as pictures and will also enable higher rates at an earlier stage.

This system can take over a year to reach top rates which will be higher than if you managed to guess the proper rate, without any feedback, at the start.

Big agencies are not geared up to ratcheting up rates in this way and tend to band holiday lets, which usually means they are either over priced or under priced. In the former case, they do not take business from other lets the agent has but the owner suffers from lack of regular rentals and, in the latter, owners can feel that they are busy fools.

The rate ratchet system works well and prevents this from happening. We also have a tool on Excel to systematically set rates which can be sent out free of charge, if anyone wants it.

It is a useful bit of kit.

[greenbarn]

A long weekend followed by a mid week break at, say 80%, which is common in our area, will raise 160% of a standard week's revenue. This can be quite welcome.

Hi Charles
Memory's not what it was as far as I can recall, but I'm not sure I've seen you mention a short break rate of 80% before? 75% yes, but not as high as 80%? I may be completely wrong, but either way it's set me wondering about my own rate of 70%.
Do you find the short break market getting stronger and willing to pay that percentage, and is that just in low season, or at peak times as well when 80% of a lot is, well, a lot?
As ever, I'm interested in your experience.

[charles cawley]

Yes. 80% is not uncommon in this area. For larger lets, where it is often quite difficult to fill mid week breaks, this can go even higher.

We've experimented in conjunction with owners with rates between 70% and 80% but the results were unclear and were, certainly, not dramatic. I think it depends on where your demand comes from and its proximity as well, perhaps, as the time of year. The size of let is relevant.
(We have not experimented with seasonal percentage adjustments and it could get quite complicated)

Some owners have tried digital pricing like in many BnB operations and, in most cases, have paid a price losing out.

[greenbarn]

Thanks Charles - more food for thought as ever!

Short breaks are a good chunk of our market. I publish a short break rate which covers a weekend "any period between arrival Friday pm and departure Monday am" and mid week same wording Monday to Friday am. Currently 70% so maybe I need to tickle that and see.

Our sleeps six tends to attract groups of walking friends so typically it's not one or two people footing the bill, and that might be the one that could most comfortably run with a higher rate.

Inevitably the answer to my question was the same as most answers in this business - "It depends..........." The trick seems to be understanding the dependencies and their relative impacts, then making a lucky guess!

[charles cawley]

My gut feeling is that you could get away with 75%.

You are more remote from our more central position re: the centre of England / Scotland / Wales but with sleep 6 and above it could be a good move... particularly if it is in favour of higher or any rate rise.

Just a thought.

Charles.