As we all now know, the surge in demand the vacation rental market has enjoyed for the past two years is over, with Emerald Coast Occupancy for 2023 falling more in line with what we saw in 2019. The slowdown is a remarkably recent phenomenon. Last December, the outlook for Spring Break 2023 on 30A was looking a lot like 2022, with reservation activity off a mere 2%. Two months later, by February 1, it was off by 6%. If you’re interested in the details of the changing demand picture in our area and statewide, check out this article from Key Data Dashboard.

Our Revenue Management team has been hard at work mitigating the effects of the slowdown for our homeowners. To achieve this, they’ve had to thread a needle of sorts: Lowering rates to make up for the shortfall in demand—but not so much that homeowners won’t be able to gain enough booked nights to make up for those lower rates. The best metric to measure the results of our strategy is revenue per available rental night (RevPAR), which is the balance between Occupancy and Average Daily Rates.