1. Thinking that prices can stay constant throughout the year.
2. Believing that by having a high price, you attract higher-quality guests.

The reality of this industry is that large cities are seasonal in terms of tourism, and those who ignore this aspect risk not only losing bookings but also having reduced visibility on booking platforms.

Now, I need to make an important clarification about what “season” and “off-season” mean for Spain.

In Spain, the tourist season refers to the peak times when there are more visitors, typically during spring and summer, from late April to October. This is when the weather is warm, attractions are busy, and there are more events and festivals. The off-season is the period when fewer tourists visit, usually during the colder months, from November to March. During this time, destinations are quieter, prices may be lower, and some attractions might have limited hours or be closed.

Off-season: the remaining months – but a significant drop in bookings is mostly felt in January, February, and March.

Don’t enter this business if you are not mentally prepared to adjust prices in the off-season, sometimes even below the minimum threshold you would expect!

Reducing prices is not just a survival strategy for us, but a necessity to maintain a constant flow of bookings. An apartment that stays vacant for weeks on end will gradually lose visibility on booking platforms, and once it enters this vicious circle, recovery becomes extremely difficult.

Booking platforms like Booking.com or Airbnb, which we work with regularly, operate on algorithms that prioritize properties that generate income. It’s only natural: if you bring them money through commissions, they promote you; if you don’t, they push you further down.

If an apartment remains unbooked for a long period, the algorithm understands that it is not desired by guests, and therefore, it will no longer appear on the first pages of searches. Factors that influence this ranking include the frequency of bookings, conversion rate (how often visitors complete a booking after accessing the page), review score, cancellation policy, and the host’s response time. The longer a property stays vacant, the further down it is pushed in search results, and getting back to a good position becomes harder and harder.

A common mistake some owners make is keeping high prices during the off-season, thinking that this maintains the property’s standard or attracts higher-quality guests. In reality, this approach gradually leads to a drop in ranking, and the consequence is that when the season starts, the apartment no longer appears in the top search results. Even if demand returns, those places that maintained a steady flow of bookings throughout the year will be the first promoted by the algorithm. Apartments that stagnated and had no activity will be pushed toward the lower pages, where the chances of attracting bookings are considerably smaller.

To avoid this trap, there is only one solution: adapt your prices to the market average during the off-season. Lower them during weak periods, activate promotions and discounts, and offer deductions for long stays.

The short-term rental industry is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. I repeat this to all the property owners I meet to discuss this topic.

Success doesn’t come from keeping high rates at all costs, but from an intelligent strategy that maintains a steady flow of bookings.

The off-season should not be seen as a dead period, but as an important phase in which property owners who adapt will benefit. A property that does not adapt to market reality quickly disappears from the first pages of searches on Booking and Airbnb, and recovery is much more difficult than preventing this situation with the correct pricing strategy.

The post Off-season prices in short-term rentals – a topic we often encounter during this time of year appeared first on FLH Europe.

Have you thought that there must be ranking strategies that work, but you don’t have the time to dive deep into the topic?

Let me help you with a few ideas.

Both Booking and Airbnb want to make money from the apartments listed, right? If you were Booking or Airbnb, would you show the apartments that bring in money or the ones that don’t really bring anything?

Here are a few tips & tricks to keep both platforms happy and to make sure you have the best chances of getting bookings:

1. Make sure your calendar is always updated

Keep the calendars permanently synced to avoid double bookings.

I don’t recommend opening the calendar one month at a time. This way, you won’t provide predictability to the platforms and will miss bookings made in advance. Instead, I suggest keeping the availability window open for at least 6 months ahead.

2. Update your prices frequently. This is my favorite strategy, which ensures an average occupancy rate of over 80% annually for my apartments.

Specifically, I set base prices at the beginning of the year when I open the calendars, but I check and update them almost daily.

Don’t have a booking for the next 2 days? I’ll definitely do a promotion to get a booking.

3. Instant Book on Airbnb. Yes, it’s much more comfortable to review each booking request before accepting it, but there are solutions.

If you select the Instant Book option, Airbnb offers 2 settings that protect you from unpleasant situations or problem guests:

Good Track Record – this allows you to only receive guests with no negative reviews or complaints on record.

Pre-booking message – if you want guests to be aware of important rules for you.

Also, in any situation where you don’t feel comfortable accepting a guest, you can contact Airbnb’s call center.

4. Good reviews and the new “Guest Favorite” badge, which speak for themselves.

If you have good reviews, you’ve proven that you’re a trustworthy partner, and you’ll be displayed before other listings in search results.

5. Good response time

We strive to respond as quickly as possible to all messages, especially when we receive an inquiry. Also, a 100% response rate is very important, and we always respond even to thank-you messages after sending check-in instructions, for example.
I’m curious to hear more feedback from other apartment owners – what has worked for you?

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Those I work with, or have worked with so far, know that my firm recommendation is YES, we accept pets, but I believe an article that explains the reasons behind this is very useful.

The decision to have a pet-friendly apartment has two components:

• The emotional one (we love dogs and cats, we have pets ourselves, and we know how hard it is to find a pet-friendly property).
• The business one, which takes into account financial arguments, occupancy rates, and attracting a category of guests often left to the end.

I won’t talk today about the first component—I’ll leave a picture of Luna, our puppy, in its place

Instead, I’d like to discuss the business aspect today.

And I’ll start by leaving you with this sentence:

A simple search for properties on Booking.com, in a given city, gives hundreds of results out of which, maybe 10-15% are pet-friendly.

In this short-term rental business, identifying neglected or insufficiently represented niches on the market is vital, and this could be one of them.

After the pandemic, I’ve noticed a spectacular increase in the number of guests traveling with dogs or cats. Will we let this trend pass us by, or will we take advantage of it and offer guests what they need?

Over the more than 5 years I’ve been involved in short-term rental management, I’ve had hundreds of meetings with property owners and I’ve managed to identify a few fears they face when I suggest they go for the pet-friendly option:

1. More mess. I feel the need to debunk this myth because most pet owners are very conscientious in this regard and always clean up after their pets.
Additionally, an extra fee can always be added for pets to cover the extra cleaning that might be needed.

2. Damage or fear that the pet might chew something in the apartment. From my experience, all guests who travel with a pet are traveling with a trained pet. Damage can also occur when families with children or adults stay, and it is resolved the same way in the unlikely event it occurs.

3. Allergies to pet hair from future guests. I’ll speak intuitively, without relying on any statistics, but I’m quite sure that the number of people with allergies is smaller than the number of guests who travel with pets. A potential guest with allergies will make sure to uncheck the pet-friendly option when they search on Booking.com, so this is not really a genuine risk.

If this seemed like an interesting topic to you, I’d be curious to hear what your experiences have been so far and what motivated you to decide whether or not to accept pets in your properties.

The post Pet friendly – Yes or No appeared first on FLH Europe.

Of course, we like rules, we follow them, and we strive to make our lives easier in this business of apartment management. But…

People need to feel like they are interacting with other people, not with a robot.

People sometimes face problems, unexpected situations, which doesn’t necessarily make them irresponsible, and they need understanding.

People appreciate following the rules, but at the same time, they also value flexibility.

In short, how we understand customer care and what advice we have for any apartment owner starting out in the hotel rental business – 3 strategies that have brought us good reviews and loyal clients.

1. Flexibility in check-in and check-out times.

Of course, fixed check-in and check-out times provide predictability and help the cleaning companies we collaborate with to plan their activities so everything is ready on time.

At the same time, we understand special situations and try, as much as possible, to respond positively to most early check-in and late check-out requests.
Fortunately, we work with cleaning companies whose representatives are also extremely flexible and understand the importance of these exceptions in customer satisfaction (and we thank them for that).

Yes, we’ve been in situations where we were asked for both late check-out and early check-in on the same day, at the same property, and although we couldn’t always honor the request fully, each guest received an extra half hour or hour, and after explaining the situation, they understood and were grateful.

2. Refunding money in the case of unforeseen, justified situations.

The owners I work with know that I’m not a fan of the “non-refundable rate plan,” which gives a 10% discount to the guest but doesn’t allow them to cancel the reservation for free. Why? Simply because every time a guest contacted us with an important issue (health problems, accidents, canceled flights), we offered to cancel the reservation and refund the money in full, even if they had opted for the non-refundable booking.

Guests don’t forget, and most of the time, they return with a new booking at the same property later on.

3. Within reasonable limits, we try to resolve extra requests and assist guests outside our area of activity.

A few examples from recent situations:

• We offered a baby crib if they needed one, even though the property didn’t have one and it wasn’t listed in the ad.
• We made appointments for them at car services, clinics, etc.
• We recommended tourist tours, routes, sights, etc.
• We bought extra items they needed for the kitchen that solved a current need of theirs.
• We turned on the heating in August, upon request.

Our business is made with people, for people, and we are happy that our values are shared by the owners we work with.

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