Holiday Bookings Minimum Nights

[Brian G.]

Currently we own a cabin near the Smoky Mountains and have our current booking minimum at two night. What holidays if any do you increase your minimum booking nights for? We just got a 4th of July booking for Fri/Sat nights only. I'm wondering if I should of required a 4 night booking (ie Wed-Sat) and what our strategy should be for Thanksgiving and Christmas. STR owners, what is your holiday booking strategy?

[Luke Carl]

Depends on the number of bedrooms and the number of days until the booking. The closer it gets the lower the min stay. Pricelabs can automate this for you. 

Christmas per bedroom based on today’s date 5/24 

1-2 Ned 3 night

2-3 Bed 4 night  

3-4 Bed 4-5 night 

4-5 Bed 5 night 

Give or take 

Holiday booking sweet spot is 4-5 weeks prior. Therefore Christmas should ideally get booked around or just before Thanksgiving. Then you know you nailed the price. 4th is July should be booking this week. Etc. Of course there’s nothing wrong with someone booking Christmas in July as long as you’re not selling yourself short. Christmas is a bad example for this rule as it is likely to get booked further in advance than any other holiday. 

NOTE: The lower your min night stay the more searches your property will appear in. [A 2 night min property will show up for a guest searching for 5 nights but not the other way around]