Dynamic Revenue Management Is the Secret Vacation Rental Owners Need to Earn More

The travel industry is making a major comeback, with one exciting change: traveler demand for vacation rentals is skyrocketing like never before. 

In fact, a recent survey of over 8,000 travelers revealed a whopping 82% of participants plan to book a vacation rental in 2023.

For second home owners, dynamic revenue management is the key to capitalizing on all that interest.
 
Before deciding on the right revenue management option for your short-term rental (there are a lot available), here’s a look at the game-changing impacts it can have on your home’s performance (and, ahem, why we’ve got the best pricing tool you’ll find).

In This Article: 

How Does Revenue Management Change the Vacation Rental Game?

What to Know About Evolve’s Dynamic Pricing Tool

As traveler interest in vacation rentals picks up, owners have to reframe their rates-setting mentality. 

The ultimate goal is to have a competitive pricing model that gets your property seen, booked, and highly-reviewed on all major marketplaces. Historically, you may have done that by:

• Setting static year-round pricing
• Adjusting rates for peak- and off-seasons
• Occasionally looking at how your competition has shifted their rates and tweaking yours accordingly 

All of these are valid approaches that may have worked well in the past. But none of them will get you top dollar now.  

In today’s booming market, your pricing strategy needs to be nimble so you can maximize your home’s earning potential. A professional revenue management solution delivers on that by: 

1. Constantly Analyzing Your Vacation Rental Competition 

While you might think you should price your home the same as your neighbor with a similar-sized property and equal number of bedrooms, the reality is what’s going on inside their home could be very different from yours (like granite vs. formica countertops, or king- vs. full-size beds). This means your strategy should also look different. 

Same goes for listings with five-star reviews. Even if your listing looks nearly identical to theirs, the one with tons of glowing reviews commands higher rates than a new listing without any. 

Professional revenue management tools and teams can collect loads of data on rival properties and evaluate precisely where your home stands — in a fraction of the time it would take you as an individual owner. (Our Revenue Management team, for example, analyzes a minimum of 50 rival properties for Evolve owners.)

2. Keeping Up with Ever-Changing Vacation Rental Market Data

Market conditions can change daily — even hourly — depending on a host of variables. Competitor listings might get quickly booked, for example, or a bunch of similar properties might sit empty. 

Ideally, your rates should pivot just as quickly as those conditions. 

The best dynamic revenue management options help you do just that, as they utilize data and tools to stay on top of these constant shifts. 

Without both, it’s easy to default to over- or under-priced rate setting that can lower your earnings in the long run. 

Comparing your annual performance to the market is also just as crucial as intimately knowing the market itself. Ideal revenue management tools track spikes and dips in personal performance, so re-calibrating with the market becomes automatic.

3. Targeting Historical Vacation Rental Trends

Vacation rental trends often focus around holidays, popular travel seasons, and interest around annual local events. 

But you can get traveler intel that goes even deeper than that. There are not-as-obvious weekends that could pop in your property’s area, for example, warranting a price bump. Or there might be slight dips in vacationer interest — calling for a subtle price drop — at times you’d never think about. 

The right revenue management option can get you to that level of nuance.

It should have a sophisticated data collection model, along with experts who can point out predictive patterns based on years of historical information. This way you can get ahead of major income opportunities throughout the year and truly maximize your income potential.  

There are a ton of revenue management options on the market. But our SmartRates solution has been proven to go above and beyond, helping owners earn 36% more than traditional pricing methods. Here’s how. 

1. Our Exclusive Algorithm Captures Every Market Detail

Every day, SmartRates analyzes billions of data points (yes, billions) to make sure our owners lock in bookings from the right travelers at the right times. 

It detects changes in market trends and accounts for seasonal volume fluctuations, then automatically adjusts your rates to compete. 

When demand surges in your area, for example, we raise your rates to secure extra revenue from eager travelers. When it softens, our algorithm tweaks pricing to make sure you can beat out rival listings.  

SmartRates also assesses how homes with similar amenities and bedroom counts are priced each day to keep you right in line with the rest of the area.

2. Our Revenue Management Experts Are Hands-On (So You Can Be Hands-Off)

Plenty of dynamic pricing tools out there are simply that: tools. They’re software packages you need to learn to use.  

And while they might recommend pricing adjustments — or in some cases even automate them for you — you’re still the one ultimately responsible for having knowledge of the market, evaluating insights, and being able to apply the tool’s recommendations strategically. 

SmartRates takes that entire burden off your plate. Not only does our technology automatically adjust rates to keep your vacation rental ahead of the pack, but our team of revenue analysts also apply their industry expertise to get you to next-level revenue optimization. 

Having seasoned professionals — who are actually human! — means there’s always someone who can pull out key patterns, identify the why behind fluctuations in algorithm recommendations, and give your pricing strategy an expert touch. 

As Travel Surges, Earn More with Evolve  

SmartRates isn’t an isolated pricing solution, because we believe true vacation rental success requires a holistic approach. That’s why we have a whole team of experts dedicated to maximizing your income and optimizing every aspect of your property. 

From revenue analysts to marketing experts and a 24/7 customer support team, an Evolve partnership unlocks access to our exclusive SmartRates technology and a stacked roster of industry professionals — all of whom work tirelessly toward one simple goal: to make vacation rental success easy for every owner.

Don’t miss out on all the travelers booking vacation rentals. See if you qualify for a free consultation with one of our Vacation Rental Advisors to get a personal look at how we can help you start earning more today.