A new AirDNA report, Higher Rates, Fewer Nights, presented by chief economist Jamie Lane at the VRWS conference in Lyon this month, maps a European short-term rental market where occupancy is falling and rate is carrying the year. It is Airbnb and OTA data, not hotels, so read is useful for those that set prices.
“Europe has the software, not the pricing.”
AirDNA, Higher Rates, Fewer Nights
About a third of European listings are now connected to a property management system, slightly more than in North America. Connection climbs from 7% of single-unit hosts to 48% at six to ten units and 98% above 250. The infrastructure is not the problem.
Almost everyone above a certain size runs a PMS and has a revenue management system within reach. Owning the system has become table stakes and no longer provides and advantage on the market.
“Most operators still use them to sync calendars, not to change prices.”
AirDNA
Europe prices dynamically on only 12% of listings, against 31% in the US. Germany connects 48% of its listings and prices just 9% of them dynamically. The tool is used for the silly job, keeping availability in sync, instead of moving the rate to meet demand.
This is like having a revenue manager or the GM who has the system but prices everything off last year’s grid and a feel for the market. Connected is not the same as pricing.
“Europe’s highest earners price like the median US listing.”
AirDNA
Listings that price dynamically earn 8% to 26% more RevPAR depending on the market: 26% in Germany, around 18% in Spain, about 10% in Croatia. The operators already doing it are the ones making the most money, because dynamic pricing climbs steeply with revenue, so the top earners are precisely the ones pricing actively.
For a hotel in a flat year, this is where the next point of profit comes now that is no longer coming from guests.
In a year when occupancy fell across most of Europe, revenue held wherever rate did the work. Closing the gap between owning a pricing system and actually pricing with it is, according to the data in this report, worth up to a quarter of your RevPAR.
That is a conversations we are bringing to Best Stay 2027, 18-19 February, Sheraton Zagreb.
Photo credists: Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI)