Skift Take
Big events should bring some relief to the U.S. short-term rental market following a year dominated by global travel trends.
The solar eclipse on April 8, will be a celestial event. It will be visible from 15 states across the U.S., parts of Mexico and Canada.
The event is driving demand for short-term rentals. Skift reached out to PriceLabs, which sells revenue-management software, to look at price hikes in short-term rentals in U.S. cities along the eclipse path.
PriceLabs mapped 10 cities that fall into the eclipse path, as revealed by NASA, and analyzed pricing trends in those markets.
The top takeaway: Texas is the most booked U.S. state with short-term rental revenues surging 300%.
(See Skift’s Feature: “The Eclipse Is This Year’s Top Travel Phenomenon.”)
PriceLabs looked at counties during the solar eclipse period of April 5-9, 2024, and compared their prices with those in the same period last year, April 7-11, 2023. The dates correspond to the first weekend in April this year and last. The metrics analyzed were: occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (REVPar).
Short-Term Rental Data From Top 14 Locations Along the Eclipse Path
| April 5- April 9 2024 | Growth | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Occupancy | ADR | RevPAR | Occupancy | ADR | RevPAR |
| Indiana, IN | 47% | $178 | $84 | 236% | 76% | 460% |
| Waco, TX | 65% | $276 | $178 | 171% | 85% | 394% |
| Buffalo, NY | 64% | $157 | $101 | 191% | 54% | 339% |
| Little Rock, AK | 55% | $119 | $65 | 206% | 37% | 306% |
| Dallas, TX | 51% | $229 | $116 | 143% | 61% | 287% |
| Dayton, OH | 55% | $109 | $60 | 189% | 31% | 275% |
| Cleveland, OH | 59% | $134 | $79 | 146% | 47% | 259% |
| Burlington, VT | 60% | $252 | $151 | 114% | 57% | 236% |
| Toledo, OH | 55% | $90 | $49 | 189% | 11% | 206% |
| Austin, TX | 52% | $275 | $144 | 86% | 40% | 162% |
Events-Led Demand
Big events should bring some relief to the short-term rental market this year — 2023 was the year for global travel. This year, the Eras tour, eclipse among other events bode well for domestic travel.
Expedia noted that as of March, the North American destinations seeing the biggest year-over-year surges in hotel searches for the April event were Burlington, Vermont (+1,155%); Little Rock, Arkansas (+985%); and Dayton, Ohio (+705%).
It’s a similar story with short-term rentals.
Travelers booked early and paid higher than usual for rental accommodations. The Eras Tour coming to New Orleans this October saw ADRs rise to $884, compared to $329 on the corresponding dates in 2023.
Dallas, the largest city in the eclipse’s path, has seen a 941% rise in nights booked for April 8, AirDNA computed. It added that even smaller cities and rural areas throughout the U.S. saw a 150% increase in booked nights compared to the corresponding period last year.
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Tags: PriceLabs, short-term rentals, solar eclipse
Photo credit: Viewing the 2017 solar eclipse from Arlington Lawn, in Texas. Source: National Parks Service.