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Short Term Let licensing is also likely to have an affect on prices. Anecdotally, some self catering owners have chosen to close and sell up rather than apply for a licence. Great for communities that need housing for locals.
Article in the guardian about struggling holiday let owners - Downturn
It has been obvious to me where I live that there is an oversupply of holiday lets. Many owners grumbling about not having the same rate of occupancy as the last few years. Basic supply and demand should tell you to drop your prices then.
Indeed it's pricing not just oversupply imo.
I've said it before, and been criticised for saying it, but some prices are just daft.
Next week my in-laws stay in a hotel at FtWilliam. I had recommended the hotel, having stayed for work in 2019 and it was below our £80 expenses limit. Next week my in-laws are paying £230 a night....
I agree it’s the supply and demand which will reset the market. I still like a Premier Inn or a Travelodge. Tried to book for the half term long weekend in May. Oban was £200 a night Fort Bill was similar but mostly sold out. I ended up booking a Bearsden Premier Inn for £360 for 4 nights for a family of 4. Idea being good biking out west from Glasgow and good transport links for family shopping and eating out.
The popular spots seem to sell out quick even at expensive rates. I don’t mind paying the going rate if it’s reasonable but sometimes folk take the pinkle. The semi detached house across from me is £2k for a week in summer on air BNB. Mental.
For the last 10 years I've had a week in March in various holiday cottages. Prices have gone from easy to find at ~£300 to a limited choice at ~£600.
We stayed in a geodesic dome/glamping pod (it was actually very nice!) at a place on the IoW 4 summers ago. Double bed, bunk beds for kids, mini kitchen, sofa, log burner. Nice shower block and pizza oven next door.
Anyway, in 2020 it was £600 for 4 nights in August. The kids have been going on about staying again, so I looked...
...£1800 for 4 nights! Nope!
Basic supply and demand should tell you to drop your prices then.
I think the problem is once you've had a taste of money that was about a year or two ago its hard to wean yourself off if. There was a period where there was an uptick in demand but covid had also made a lot of people 'accidental savers' as they hadn't been able to do a lot of the things they spend money on for a while. So they both had no choice but to book in the UK but also if they were being overcharged they could actually pay it. Now they can't
But venue owners will have either have flattered themselves that their property is actually worth the inflated price or figured those prices into their planning and won't be ready to admit yet what the real value of their offering is.
I think it’s hard to set a real value for holiday accommodation. It’s not just about the costs for the week you’re there. If it was I reckon it would be about £500 for a week for a 3 bed house. The peak periods pay for the quiet times when the property may be empty. It’s like most things the price is based on what the market will stand. If it’s overpriced compared to similar places it will get less bookings, I’d have thought unless it has a unique selling point.
I was talking to a friend last week - their holiday let (near Old Hunstanton in Norfolk) has seen an alarming downturn in bookings – only a couple of paid-for bookings this year (one of them was my family at Easter). They didn't even have any other bookings for Easter and the summer holidays is still partially available.
We used to go for a week to a cottage in Northumberland. Didn't book this year due to jump in prices. We are going to York in May for 3 nights in a Travelodge for £203. Seems good value compared to some of the prices quoted elsewhere upthread.
A quick google shows lots of availability in Northumberland and a lot of price reductions for early May. Maybe supply and demand kicking in. We may look to book something in June a week or two out. If the price is right.
We have been looking at options for the summer too – the best price I can find for a nice, close-to-the-sea, cottage in Cornwall is around £3k for two weeks. Add on top of that fuel costs (from Yorkshire) then the cost of food and drink for four people and the inevitable cost of entertainment, then it makes an all-inclusive in the Med at around £6k seem a good option. I have even found two weeks in Thialand (all-inclusive in a highly-rated 5 star hotel) for £7k. Fair enough, it's rainy season, but I'd rather get wet in Thailand than in Cornwall.
The big hotel chains are probably the best belweather to the true value of accomodation - travelodges are probably 80%+ full any night of the year, like Ryanair they just use very dynamic pricing to achieve that. So if a premier inn is charging £200/night, you're probably in a peak, if it's £29/night, there's likely space everywhere
Pure anecdote this but it's happened to me a couple of times- was trying to throw together a last minute fort william trip a few weeks back. Plenty of availability, but noticably expensive compared with previous trips, the places I'd stayed in before all at least 50% higher for the same thing, some way more than that. Didn't go in the end, still lots of availability on the day, no real sense of discounting or pricematching to demand. Obviously there's a level below which there's no point in letting a room out as it's below cost, but when it's hotels that level is really pretty low.
(single room lets skew things mind, that's a whole different business model. Lots of airbnb places really aren't thrashing for occupancy, when you're running it yourself the cost/hassle is way higher and I totally get why "we have a spare room we let out, it's not worth doing if I don't get £60 a night, as long as I fill it for half the year it works out and it gives me days off". So that definitely has an effect, there are businesses where empty capacity is a loss and there are businesses where empty capacity is just a shrug and they're in the exact same market
travelodges are probably 80%+ full any night of the year, like Ryanair they just use very dynamic pricing to achieve that.
Unlike other accommodation providers that are using hotel / holiday bookings to fund a property portfolio - travelodge doesn't own any of its hotels - their business is all about the booking system / website.
Pure anecdote this but it’s happened to me a couple of times- was trying to throw together a last minute fort william trip a few weeks back.
Something that is skewing the market in highlands and the islands is many hotels are getting block booked by foreign travel companies often a year to more in in advance - but without any penalty for cancellation. Then a few weeks or even days before the booking if they haven't got any bookings themselves they are releasing the rooms again. The (perceived) lack of availably this creates pushes prices up for longer term bookings and makes it seem like you're lucky to get a last minute booking, so prices stay high, even though rooms are in fact in plentiful supply.
Something that is skewing the market in highlands and the islands is many hotels are getting block booked by foreign travel companies often a year to more in in advance – but without any penalty for cancellation.
Surely the hoteliers need to change T&C's for this.
We've booked a family meal recently at a pub we've used before - they said due to so many no-shows last year they now take a £10 a head deposit on bookings. Yet last year on the North Coast and Orkney we sat and watched half empty restaurants or cafes and listened to owners bemoan no-shows...time to change business model.
Anecdotally, I know some folk are exiting the holiday let/AirBnB arena due to rising costs and/or unavailability of changeover cleaners. Long term, it would be nice to think that property values will drop a bit so that it becomes more affordable for the low paid workers that are also likely to be those same changeover cleaners. It might take a few years for a new balance point to be found though.
England is becoming a theme park for rich overseas tourists. Was fun travelling to SE Asia as a youngun. I now understand how they must have felt.
Even in the west some countries have been doing dual pricing for a while so they can cater to locals.