Hey all, this is my first December having STR's in the Phoenix area. I'm a little surprised that we aren't fully booked for the most part. Is anyone else seeing some slowness in the market or would have some ideas as to why bookings might be slow right now?

Check your competition on Vrbo and Airbnb. See if everyone else is fully booked. If they are then check your pricing. Also if you are new and don't have many reviews that could be the problem. Also maybe this market books way in advance of when you went live. This could be a market where repeat guests come back to the same property every year and you just need to hook those people.

Once you dig around to what is going on with your competition you should get a picture of what is going on.

The economy in my market is down the toilet.  Not sure what it's like in Phoenix or where your potential renters come from.

The flights to phoenix from the northeast aren't as full or as frequent as normal so people may not be traveling from the northeast as much. That means newer properties might not see as much traffic from air travelers. Possibly you are be seeing the effects of quarantines and such at the moment. 

I haven't seen as many out of state license plates as usual by this time of year.  Also, Canada is requiring a 14 day quarantine when residents go back to Canada.  Which is cutting down on those visitors wanting to leave Canada.

Slow season here in FL currently

@George Mevawala Just hint George, what do you see for your STR houses?

@Mitchel Foster , I have two STR's in Old Town Scottsdale and our occupancy is down about 65% this December compared to December of last year. This time last year we were booked solid through April with snowbirds and people coming for Cards games, Spring Training, the Open, Barrett Jackson, Culinary Festival, etc. This year we have one STR currently rented to a traveling nurse, and for the other one we only have 3 bookings for December, 2 for February, and 2 for March so far. Much different than last year. We are seeing that people are booking days to weeks in advance instead of months in advance like we saw last year, and we are having cancelations go back up again as well (we have had 3 cancelations so far for December).

It's all COVID related.  People just aren't traveling like they were pre-COVID (at least not to AZ at this time).  With fans not able to go to Cardinals or Sun Devil games, and with the uncertainty surrounding all other of our local events, we just aren't seeing the same demand as we would have in a "normal" year. 

Hopefully everything returns to normal next year.  If it does, and your properties are in desirable locations, you will be inundated with booking requests this time next year!

@Vincent Chen I am currently at 82% occupancy on my portfolio in Scottsdale, versus this time last year I was at 91%. I am definitely feeling it as well, but 5 minutes before posting this I just got a last minute 2 week booking at one of my properties, and this just goes to show that you have to be prepared for a little bit of a slow down, but there will always be travelers that are looking to book last minute, especially this time of year and factoring in the coronavirus and other states having stricter lockdowns which contribute to their spontaneous decision to pack up and head for the southwest.

George