Travel Trends: A Return To Normal

In late 2020 and 2021, we saw an incredible comeback for vacation rentals, as pent-up travel demand was released, working remotely became the norm, and travelers had stimulus money to burn. Many markets saw increased occupancy not only during peak seasons but also during shoulder and off-seasons. And increased demand meant higher rates. Nightly rates steadily increased from 2019 to 2021, and from 2021 to 2022. The question has always been whether the higher-than-usual occupancy and rates would be sustained.

For many areas, spring break is the first major travel period of the year. In popular spring break destinations, most saw decreases in occupancy in 2022 compared to last year’s spring travel season. The trends in our beach markets mirror those across the United States: occupancy rates are decreasing after a surge in demand last year. Adjusted paid occupancy for spring break was down 16% over 2021 and down 5% over 2019. In addition, RevPAR (revenue per available night) was down $18 over 2021 and 31% of bookings were made within 30 days of the travel date, which is much more in line with booking trends in 2019.

After a couple of unprecedented years, 2022 seems to be returning to the seasonality and occupancy trends we saw in 2019, the last “normal” rental season we had prior to the unprecedented and unpredictable seasons of 2020 and 2021.