Coronavirus is uncharted territory for all of us. The spread of the virus is being felt around the globe, but people are experiencing the impacts in different ways. For those of us in the vacation rental industry, the uncertainty we are faced with daily can be exhausting -- not to mention the real and immediate impact cancellations are having on our bottom lines.
We hear you, we are here for you, and we will continue to be here for you.
Let's navigate this together. If there’s anything we can do to help your business,
please reach out.
As we all know, changes in demand mean changes in prices.
Beyond Pricing responds to the changes in demand, but it takes time before cancelled reservations are finalized by Property Managers and therefore the entire market. This is increasingly true since travelers will continue to cancel over the coming days and weeks.
But we're here for you, too. Our revenue management team has combed through the data and adjusted pricing in line with the impact we're expecting for your market. You can see the impact of lowered demand by hovering over a date in your Calendar, like you would to view dollar amount changes to your daily price due to Seasonality or Day of the Week.
We're aware that some of you have manually decreased rates as well. Please note that this adjustment (and all other changes in demand) will not impact dates that have been manually overridden (either using Bulk Actions or the tool in your Calendar). If you would like to clear these manual overrides, you can do so using the Bulk Actions tool.
Additionally, there are many tools at your disposal within the Beyond Pricing tool in order to counteract the impacts this virus is having that is specific to your business if you are receiving cancellations.
While there are many factors to consider when updating your overall revenue management strategy, pricing strategy in the short term can have an immediate impact on your business. Here are some tips and tricks you can use in Beyond Pricing specifically to help you maximize the performance of your listing.
Pricing isn’t the only lever that you can pull as a part of your overall revenue management and marketing strategy. If people aren’t traveling, then pricing alone will not be enough. However, addressing some of the core concerns that people have can play a key role in putting your customers at ease, and stimulating demand for your vacation rental business.
Remember:
With more news developing every day about Coronavirus, it’s important to stay on top of how it will realistically impact your business. Be sure to utilize every tool in your revenue management toolbox (not just pricing) to maximize your strategy during periods of low demand in your market.
Rest assured we do not charge for cancellations and will definitely not start in these challenging times. Any bookings that are cancelled are refunded in the form of a credit to your Beyond Pricing account. You can monitor charges for bookings and credit for cancellations on your Statements Page. Click on the black triangle on the left hand side to expand your Statement.
Remember, we will pick up cancellation data daily from your connected account. If you aren’t seeing a recent cancellation reflected in your Beyond Pricing account, try refreshing the connection on your Accounts Page.
See more here: How does Beyond Pricing handle cancellations?
Everybody has different strategies behind how they set their Minimum Price. For some people, it’s the price at which they break even. Or the price that auto-populated when they signed up. For others, it's set to $1. With this in mind, we believe that a percentage-based decrease is more effective than reducing all prices to a potentially arbitrarily set Minimum Price. This also allows our suggested pricing to be more agile and shift alongside changing demand trends.
Have a question that isn’t addressed here? Reach out to us at support@beyondpricing.com, we’re here to help.
The Health Score is based on your listing’s upcoming occupancy versus the ideal upcoming occupancy for your market, which is typically a good starting point for measuring performance. However, as we find ourselves in a unique situation with unprecedented demand trends, your Health Score is not necessarily the best indicator of how your listing is performing at the moment.
Instead, we recommend examining other indicators of performance, including the number of bookings you’ve received in the past few weeks and the percentage of days hitting your Minimum Price in the next 90 days. You can always surface the latest statistics by clicking the “Refresh” button on your Beyond Pricing Dashboard.
That said, having the lowest price won’t convince guests to book if they do not want to travel. To address the diminished demand, the Beyond Pricing Revenue Management team has combed through the data and adjusted pricing according to the impact we're expecting for your market. You can see the impact of lowered demand by hovering over a date in your Calendar, like you would to view dollar amount changes to your daily price due to Seasonality or Day of the Week.
If you would like to make additional adjustments for the short term, we recommend sticking to short term fixes outlined above: using more aggressive Last Minute Discounts, implementing Manual Overrides, and adjusting your broader strategy, to name a few.
Guests Taking it Day by Day in the Big City
Another key metric that has shifted dramatically is booking lead times, and larger cities have seen the greatest deviation by far. We took a look at the data and focused on the median booking lead time for reservations before and after March 14 in the largest cities in the US and around the world.
Dynamic COVID-19 Discount Extended Through June
Our Revenue Management and Data Science teams have been working to analyze and publicize the data around how our industry is changing in these uncertain times. We have made available up-to-date local data on the majority of popular destinations and have extended the 'COVID-19 Discount' through June.
From the front line: How Casiola is navigating uncertain times
For many property managers, hearing how peers are trying to navigate through the very choppy waters of the coronavirus pandemic can be hugely reassuring. In a live web chat Emily Pattillo, revenue manager at Casiola, shared how she and her company are charting these uncertain times.
How travel restrictions are impacting your ADRs
We’ve examined some of the cancellation trends we've seen as a result of travel bans, but what about the bookings that are still coming in? What can the data tell us about those?
Six strategies to capture demand in the face of Coronavirus
As the impact of coronavirus deepens across the vacation rental industry we are hearing from property managers that a key area of focus is to capture the demand that is still out there. Here are six strategies that you can adopt.
Navigating Coronavirus with Beyond Pricing
We hear you, we are here for you, and we will continue to be here for you. We take pride in being on the same team as property managers. That’s why we’ve always aligned our revenue with our customers’s revenue; we make money when you do.
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Coronavirus and cancellations: Emerging trends in the vacation rental industry
While there are concerns about a downturn for the market in general, property managers are most acutely feeling the impacts in the short term due to widespread cancellations.
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