US: High levels of summer travel and scarce supply are leading to higher rental prices, as new variant threats fail to stop demand for travel, according to short-term rental data and analytics provider, AirDNA.
July typically represents the peak season for short-term rentals in the United States, and 2021 did not disappoint.
AirDNA tracked more than 19.7 million nights sold in July 2021 — a 3.9 per cent increase over 2019 levels [+23.9 per cent vs 2020]. With 10.6 per cent fewer listings available for rent this summer compared to 2019, the supply / demand imbalance pushed US short-term rental occupancy to an all-time record high of 74.9 per cent in July 2021.
Occupancy was highest in coastal destination markets, where the average occupancy reached 81 per cent for the month of July. Mixing mountains and coast, the Maine market of Down East / Acadia Coastal had the highest market occupancy in the USA of 88.4 per cent.
Guests are paying more this summer
The average rate guests paid in July reached $294.23, which was 20.3 per cent higher than July 2019 and 8.8 per cent higher than July 2020.
Jamie Lane, VP of research at AirDNA, said: “The higher rates come from a variety of factors: guests are renting larger units, in more expensive cities like beach towns, and generally nicer units with more amenities. However, even after controlling for bedroom size and market, average daily rates [ADRs] have still significantly increased throughout the pandemic.”
ADRs are up in just about every market and room type, but the largest gains have been in the highest demand growth markets. Markets like Joshua Tree, California; Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Park City, Utah and Moab, Utah have all seen ADRs increase by more than 40 per cent over 2019 levels.
Delta impacting new bookings
As Covid-19 cases tick up, new short-term rental bookings have slowed.
AirDNA CEO Scott Shatford said: “For a second consecutive month, the rate of new booking was actively below that of 2019. In July, booked nights were 4.9 per cent lower than in July 2019 after exceeding 2019 levels from February – May 2021.”
Cancellations have begun to increase again, though at a much lower rate than in 2020 [20 per cent in July 2021, compared to 121 per cent in March 2020].
Even with demand starting to slow, the outlook for the rest of the summer and autumn / fall still looks promising. Demand is pacing an average of 17 per cent higher than 2019 levels in August and September and 23 per cent higher for the autumn / fall [October – December].
