Last updated on January 3rd, 2024
Navigating VRBO Occupancy Rates: A 2024 Guide
If you’re playing in the field of vacation rentals, you might also list your properties in VRBO, not just in Airbnb. This article will guide you in accessing both Airbnb and VRBO Occupancy Rate.
- Last updated January 3, 2024
Navigating VRBO Occupancy Rate: A 2024 Guide
Success in the world of vacation rentals demands a keen understanding of occupancy rates (OR), a key metric that directly influences the success of your investment. In this in-depth exploration, we’ll delve into the intricacies of Airbnb & VRBO occupancy rates, unraveling the methods to obtain this critical data, and providing actionable tips to maximize your occupancy rates.
What’s a Good Airbnb & VRBO Occupancy Rates?
In vacation rentals, an occupancy rate is a good indicator of whether your rental business is succeeding or failing. When occupancy rates are good, you know that you’ll get high profit from your business. I assumed you already know what an occupancy rate is–it simply answers the question, “How many days is a listing occupied during its available time?”
Another important question is, how would you know if the OR is good? What’s a good VRBO occupancy rate? Understanding the baseline for a good VRBO occupancy rate is the first step in optimizing your vacation rental business.
In the US, the average Airbnb occupancy rate is 48%. Using this benchmark, you can consider anything higher or closer as a good occupancy rate for VRBO. For instance, Washington has the highest Airbnb OR in the US with 77%. Although this applies to the US, just keep in mind that the average occupancy rate varies depending on the region.
How to Get Airbnb and VRBO Occupancy Rates?
There are two major approaches to getting the OR from these two platforms: the practical approach through accessing availability on calendars and the automated one using a market research tool.
Accessing Availability Calendars
Start by navigating the VRBO platform and accessing the listings of properties in your area. After that, utilize the search filters to narrow down your focus based on property specifications such as property type, size, amenities, etc.
Another way to do that is to dive into the detailed listings of the properties identified as comparable to your prospective investment. VRBO listings often furnish comprehensive information about the property, accompanied by a visual representation of the availability calendar.
1. Visualizing Booked and Available Dates:
VRBO typically presents availability calendars in a user-friendly visual format to distinguish between booked and available dates. Each property’s calendar displays a color-coded system, enabling users to quickly discern the status of specific dates.
Source: CabinKey
Next is to analyze booking patterns and trends by scrutinizing the booking frequency of these comparable properties. Pay attention to periods of high demand, marked by clusters of booked dates, and identify any seasonal variations that may influence occupancy rates.
2. Identifying Peak Periods and Assessing Gaps
Take note of peak periods when properties exhibit higher booking rates. This insight is crucial for understanding the seasonal dynamics of the market and adjusting your strategy accordingly.
More importantly, evaluate gaps in bookings to identify potential opportunities or challenges. Understanding periods of lower occupancy allows you to devise targeted strategies to attract guests during these times.
3. Refining Your Strategy
Now that you’re armed with insights from the availability calendars, refine your investment strategy. Consider adjusting pricing, promotional efforts, or the overall guest experience based on the observed booking patterns.
Keep in mind that the vacation rental market is dynamic, and trends can evolve. Continuously monitor availability calendars to stay informed about changes in demand. This allows you to adapt and optimize your property’s performance.
Pros & Cons
This practical approach will give you the most important information you need to know to strategize your bookings and increase your revenue in the VRBO platform. However, this alone would take you time to finish and see results. In doing business, you need to know which task to prioritize and which gives you more returns.
The market research step is for sure the most vital in getting started or maximizing your portfolio and profit, however, this step shouldn’t be tedious as I have shared above.
Using a Market Research Tool
To speed up your process, there are a few market research tools for vacation rentals that you can use. With this tool, you can easily get the data in just seconds after typing your location. Isn’t it great? You can cross out the three steps in accessing available calendars of VRBO, and just jump into a vacation rental market research tool!
The leading tools that you can trust to check the occupancy rates of your vacation rental listings are AirDNA and Airbtics. AirDNA covers VRBO and Airbnb data, while Airbtics covers Airbnb data with a data accuracy rate of 97%.
If you haven’t listed your properties yet on Airbnb, here’s a definitive guide to do that!
Accessing Occupancy Rates through Airbtics
Since we are automating the long process of manual data gathering and analysis, accessing OR through Airbtics will simply take you seconds! Here are 3 steps on how you can fully utilize the Airbnb analyzer:
1. Typing in your preferred area
You can start for free with the Airbtics app. All you need to do is go to Airbtics.com to type in the location you want to check the OR. If you have several locations that you want to check, don’t worry as searching won’t cost you anything!
After that, you’ll be redirected to our Airbtics dashboard, and in just a matter of seconds, you can see the potential revenue, occupancy rates, and nightly rates of your area without paying a cent.
2. Analyze Potential Revenue per Property Size
Now, you will be able to get a general overview of your target market. But don’t stop there, go ahead and try the filters that will help you find what type of property generates a higher profit in the area. You may also see the seasonality and historical performance of your chosen market!
As you will see, Airbtics provides dynamic data. This means that while you move and zoom in and out of your map, the data will also change accordingly to deliver more specific results.
3. Maximize the Advanced Filter and View the Top VRMs
Feel free to discover more in-depth insights with the advanced filters. Do not hesitate and include specific amenities such as pools, parking, hot tubs, and more to get a better understanding of the area.
vrbo occupancy rate
Additionally, you will also discover the details of your potential competitors like the amount of listings they’re managing and their revenue.
4. Find out How Much You can Earn in your Property
Go ahead and repeat this process as much as you want until you find which property type and amenities are the best investment options in your target area. By comparing data across various property types, you can pinpoint the option that aligns best with your preferences and goals.
Airbtics Dashboard allows users to explore a city, neighborhood or suburb, providing valuable insights to simplify their investment research!
Pros and Cons
Although online tools could be a game-changer in your business, there can be some discrepancy in the data for both AirDNA and Airbtics, even though both of these tools have the highest data accuracy among all market research dashboards.
If you’re in doubt, you can always validate the OR with some local market knowledge and a little bit of research in the area. After all, both platforms have helped many users who could attest to the success of using automated tools.
Top Secrets to Increase Occupancy Rates in Airbnb and VRBO
Are you looking for hacks to increase your OR for both platforms? Let’s share some game-changing tips that could lead you to a more profitable business and prosperous life in the next few years!
1. Increase Positive Reviews
Put yourself in the guest’s shoes, which one will you look at first when browsing a vacation rental listing? Note that they haven’t been in your property. Their senses haven’t filled in by the unique experience your listing can offer them.
So what could be a key factor they will consider before hitting the “book now” button? Increasing positive reviews and gaining a 5-star rating is the first thing you should do to boost your OR. Here’s a full vacation rental checklist on how to get a perfect 5-star score in your rating!
vrbo occupancy rate
2. Create a Unique Guest Experience
In any type of business, you need to stand out from the crowd to survive. A vacation rental business isn’t different from the typical business out there. Think about the uniqueness of your offer. Do you have a better sea view than your competitors? Is your listing more accessible than others? Does your property give this cozy, relaxed vibe with amazing amenities that your guests could enjoy?
By identifying your unique value proposition (UVP), you can heighten your occupancy rate and showcase this on your listing. Once you have identified, take a photo of your amenity to pique the interest of the viewers and mention it in the listing description.
3. Considering regulations and property values
Boosting occupancy rates isn’t just about the guest experience. It’s also about the legal capacity of your property in your area. For instance, some cities aren’t allowing Airbnb listings to have more than 180 available dates in a year. If this is the case, how high is the possibility that you’ll gain profit if you only have a limited number of dates to host guests annually?
It’s frustrating, I know. That’s why regulations can be a major factor in improving your Airbnb and VRBO occupancy rates. Checking first which cities have lenient and strict rules can help you navigate the profitability of your vacation rental business.
Final Takeaways
Occasionally tracking occupancy rates is as crucial as tracking your monthly to annual business expenses. It’s a good indicator to measure the temp of your vacation rental business. Although Airbnb and VRBO occupancy rates are trackable with manual steps, you can also maximize an Airbnb analyzer to speed up the process.
Airbtics is the leading market research tool in the vacation rental industry! It has helped several investors, hosts, and vacation rental managers augment their profits by making smart decisions through vacation rental data.
vrbo occupancy rate
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