Why is there a 21+ nightly stay restrictions? Or, How will you ensure occupancy until STRA renews.
In order to optimise the use of the 180-day STRA allowance throughout the year, our Revenue Management team needs to put in place 21+ night minimum stay restrictions across the year. By leveraging pricing strategies to attract longer bookings of 21+ nights over low seasonal periods (usually winter) and shorter bookings with higher value nightly rates during peak months, we can maximise annual income and maintain occupancy whilst complying with the NSW STRA limits.
Just to highlight below the strategy Revenue Management team have outlined in terms of balancing the short stays and 21-night restrictions across the year:
January-March (peak period) - short stays with high value nightly rates
April-May - generally short stays but possible for 21-night overrides depending on the accrued short bookings at this time
June (low period) - 21-night stays
July (low period) - 21-night stays
August - 21-night stays
September - 21-night stays
October - a possible combination of short stays and 21-night
November/December (peak period) - short stays with high value nightly rates
We completely understand any concerns you have regarding the 180-day allowance. Our Revenue Management team closely monitor this to work within the limits of STRA to achieve the best possible results for your property. These slower months have been strategically allocated for the 21-night minimum stay as we have identified that the winter months (and some shoulder months before and after this period) would make more sense for longer stays to be booked. Additionally, as part of this, Revenue Management has assigned promotions in Airbnb specifically in these months in order to attract more long-stay bookings.
For Airbnb, we currently have a 15% rule set discount in place for long-stay bookings of 21 nights and up. Applying this rule set discount in Airbnb also helps boost the listing search visibility rather than just decreasing prices from our system. We will monitor the take-up and adjust the promotions if necessary. We also have the 20% monthly discount in place which apply to reservations that are 28 days or longer as a further incentive.