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Unrealistic Expectations in Full SUPPLY For Super Bowl 2023 (Before the Game Even Starts)

February 10, 2023

Even though the Phoenix short-term rental market didn’t fare well for Super Bowl LVII, Beyond’s Dynamic Pricing led to a win for its vacation rental hosts & managers.

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Right now thousands of fans are flooding into Phoenix for the PGA Tour, Phoenix Open, and of course the Super Bowl. This perfect storm of events and potential gold mine for all those in hospitality has the city buzzing – except for the fact that very few short-term rentals (STRs) are actually having their doorbells buzzed by guests arriving.

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So what is going on in the realm of STR in what should be a windfall for hosts and property managers? At Beyond, we rely on data to drive our decisions. Our unparalleled access to and analysis of real-time, global short-term rental data powers our ability to unlock, inform, and automate action. Our extensive database full of vacation rental market data and insights allows us to get a clear picture of what is happening in the Phoenix STR market ahead of this buzzy, sport-filled weekend.

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Let’s take a look at the data. From there, we’ll break down how vacation rental hosts and managers leveraged dynamic pricing from Beyond to get a win this weekend.

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@beyond_pricing 🏈 Going into Super Bowl Weekend, we noticed unrealistic expectations are in full SUPPLY for Phoenix vacation rental hosts. However, hosts leveraging Beyond still got the win 💸 this weekend. Airbnb supply is increasing in some markets around the U.S. How are you adjusting your strategy to keep up? #airbnbhost #vrbohost #airbnbbust #airbnbtips #vacationrentals #vacationrentalhost #beyondpricing #shorttermrentals #shorttermrentaladvice #vacationrentalmanagers ♬ original sound - What about football

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The Story in Numbers

In a quick numerical synopsis, the asked rates for Super Bowl weekend in Phoenix are up 214% over the same time last year, with achieved rates being just 50% higher year-over-year (YoY) at $1084. The reality is clearly not matching expectations.

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What is more, the occupancy rate has dropped from 75% to 57%, making the increase in RevPAN only 21% higher, for the Super Bowl! This is not what we would expect from one of the largest sporting events in the world.

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The main culprit for this disappointing weekend, and what most hosts participate in but aren’t paying attention to, is that supply YoY has increased 109% to over 23K listings and soaked all that demand!
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How Beyond Users Won Super Bowl Bookings and Revenue

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While the overall performance of STRs in Phoenix had discouraging RevPAN results, not all fared the same. When we reviewed listings using Beyond’s Dynamic Pricing, we found that they had 4.8% higher occupancy and also 19% higher average daily rates (ADRs), resulting in 24.7% more in RevPAN than the rest of the market!

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How did this happen? Pricing unique events are no simple challenge, but our Data Science team is full of seasoned experts with the knowledge and expertise to price these events accordingly. At a high level, it boils down to:

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At Beyond, we spend an exorbitant amount of time tracking and monitoring events – meaning our clients could have their calendars open longer which increases the chance to book (years and years).
We were aggressive with price, but not greedy. We didn’t quote unrealistic rates which would discourage lookers during the peak booking period, and result in fire sales towards the end to get someone in the door. Our higher achieved ADR proves this strategy.
We followed how the market was booking up and could pull data from Super Bowls back to 2014 to compare demand and local STR density.
We actively monitored the supply of listings for this specific weekend and saw the competition coming early on.
For unique properties, our team of revenue consultants worked with partners on custom data-driven strategies using a wide array of features.

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To learn more about Beyond’s strategies for events or every other day of the year please reach out, and for those in Las Vegas let this be a lesson on how to navigate pricing in February 2024!

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