In most years we work to drive both extended-stays and short-stays as we move into the fall/winter. While we all prefer the short-stays, historically, extended stays help to consume long periods of availability throughout the Perdido Key inventory while providing predictable revenue for property owners. This reduction of supply helps to drive short stays into the remaining calendars; basic supply and demand rules. This year, however, extended stay rentals will be more difficult to secure for the entire area. Our otherwise large audience of military renters who complete their flight training at the naval air station, and stay in Perdido Key properties during the fall/winter, recently was all but eliminated for this season. A stop movement order was issued for the service members that were scheduled to arrive on or after September 2nd due to a backlog among those training as pilots at the nearby navy base. They're expecting it to take at least 4-6 months to clear up, which means that we won't see a lot of requests for extended-stay bookings from the military audience. Additionally, some of those who had reported to the base before September 2nd are receiving order changes for now and planning to return when the backlog clears up. As a result, we have been bolstering our efforts to generate short stays throughout the fall/winter which are harder to come by in our area during the shoulder and off-peak seasons. What's the takeaway? More inventory in the area + less demand means that we'll likely have to be more aggressive on our pricing strategy and leverage our Keys2Fun program in order to secure bookings. 

A silver lining. Once we're back to the spring, demand will sharply pick up with our spring season because it will be shorter (approx 5 weeks) than 2022 (approx 7-8 weeks). It's condensed next year because Mardi Gras (Feb 21) will be too early to compel Louisiana and Mississippi travelers, whose kids are off of school for Mardi Gras, to come to the beach unless we have an unusually warm February. An early Mardi Gras comes hand-in-hand with an early Easter which is on the 9th of April this year; in 2022 Mardi Gras was on 3/1 and Easter was on 4/24. The short spring will ideally allow us to capture good occupancy comprised of short-term stays for those dates.

HVMI by Marriott: We've completed the initial onboarding with Marriott and have already received bookings through this new channel. This is exciting because in being selected to partner with Marriott we're reaching an entirely new audience that most local property management firms are not able to reach. This new audience will include more travelers who previously only considered hotels. Additionally, their loyalty program members will be able to use their Bonvoy points to reserve our properties. While not all of the properties have qualified to be included on this channel during the first round of onboarding, we're working get with everyone and will assist in making necessary updates to ensure that the property can be included should you wish to be on this new marketplace.

Guaranteed Revenue: Recently I spoke with several owners about a new rental opportunity. Travel networks purchase lodging in bulk and, historically, have only worked with hoteliers. One of these travel groups has approached us requesting to purchase blocks of weeks in 2023. This is in the works and I'm hopeful it will provide yet another way to meet owner revenue goals!

European Audiences: We have begun the onboarding process with HomeToGo to expand our reach further into European audiences. Founded in Germany in 2014, HomeToGo operates local apps & websites in 25 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and Asia-Pacific. HomeToGo also operates brands such as Agriturismo.it, AMIVAC, Casamundo, CaseVacanza.it, e-domizil, EscapadaRural, Tripping.com and Wimdu; altogether they operate more than 25 travel websites. This effort is to reach out to the European audience which has been largely disallowed from US travel for 2+ years and they are eager to return.

Event Group Sales: We were asked to assist with providing lodging for the SEC Women’s Soccer Tournament which took place from October 30-November 6. Pensacola is scheduled to host this event for 2 years with a possible 3-year extension. Sports tourism is a growing source of revenue for our area and we’re hopeful that Pensacola Sports Association continue to attract quality events. Currently, we are actively working with lodging coordinators for this and future events that are scheduled for our shoulder seasons.

Short-notice (and more Loyalty/Rewards Program) Audiences: As we’re seeing more and more reservations come in on short notice, we sought out a platform that focuses specifically on a short-notice booking window. Hopper, as the number one travel app in North America, excels in generating short-notice bookings and functions as a partner for Capital One, Amadeus, Kayak, Trip.com, and MakeMyTrip. This, along with the Marriott connection above, will bring fantastic exposure not otherwise seen by most vacation rental properties in our area.