With summer holidays just around the corner, vaccinations being widely distributed and countries reopening their borders, everything is looking peachy for a busy summer of vacation rental bookings.
To make sure you get a slice of the cake, it’s imperative to target the right travellers at the right time. It all begins with picking the appropriate mix of distribution channels (booking sites). Your distribution strategy will determine whether you manage to get your listings in front of your audience and successfully convert them into guests.
To give you a helping hand, we’ve taken eight counties – Spain, United Kingdom, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, USA and Australia – and analysed them in terms of booking window, where guests are coming from, and which niche channels performed best for properties located in these counties.
If you see a top-performing channel in your region that you haven’t listed your properties on yet, it’s time to add it to your marketing mix. You can easily do that with the Rentals United vacation rental channel manager. If your country isn’t featured, please contact us here – we have all the data you need to optimise your distribution for the summer.
Jump to: Spain | United Kingdom | France | Greece | Italy | Portugal | USA | Australia
1. Spain
Vacation rental property managers in Spain look forward to a busy summer.
Data from bookings created over the last week (May 26 – June 2) shows that most nights (64.29%) were booked 15-90 days in advance, with one-third of them booked 61-90 days out.
This means that travellers have regained confidence in booking early. There’s a clear interest in vacation rentals for dates ranging from mid-June to the end of August and mid-September.
As to be expected, travellers who book more in advance are staying longer. The average length of stay (not shown in the graph above) for last-minute bookings is 3.4 days, while it’s 4.3 days for bookings made 15-30 days out and 5.5 days for bookings made 61-90 days prior to check-in.
| Booking windows (Spain) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3.4 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 4.3 days |
| Booking window: 61-90 days | 5.5 days |
According to Rentals United internal data, vacation rentals in Spain are especially popular among travellers from the UK, France and Italy.
Some of the best-performing distribution channels for vacation rentals in Spain include:
If you’d like to learn more, see our in-depth analysis of Spain’s travel recovery.
2. United Kingdom
Travellers in the UK are clearly eager to quench their thirst for travel.
In the last week, the UK saw a fairly high percentage of last-minute bookings, with almost a tenth of nights booked 0-2 days before check-in.
However, most nights were booked at least 15 days out, with the 15-30 and the 91-180-day booking windows being the most popular.
Last-minute reservations were made for an average of 3 days. For early bird bookings, the average length of stay was higher: 3.7 days for bookings made 15-30 before arrival, and 4.2 days for bookings made 91-180 days in advance.
| Booking windows (United Kingdom) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 3.7 days |
| Booking window: 91-180 days | 4.2 days |
Vacation rentals in the UK are especially popular among travellers from the USA.
Some of the best-performing distribution channels for vacation rentals in the UK include:
3. France
In France, travellers appear confident to book up to 90 days before arrival. However, less than 10% of nights were booked more than 90 days prior to check-in, suggesting that – unlike in the UK – guests are hesitant to book more than 3 months in advance.
Interestingly, the average length of stay for bookings made 61-90 days prior to arrival is 7.7 days, quite a bit longer than in the UK and Spain. The average length of stay for bookings made 15-30 days in advance was 4.2 days, and 3 days for last-minute booking.
| Booking windows (France) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 4.2 days |
| Booking window: 61-90 days | 7.7 days |
According to Rentals United internal data, vacation rentals in France are especially popular among travellers from Spain and Italy.
Some of the best-performing distribution channels for vacation rentals in France include:
4. Greece
Demand for vacation rentals in Greece is picking up for the summer.
During the last week, most nights processed through Rentals United (nearly 65%) were booked between 15 and 90 days in advance.
However, the percentage of last-minute bookings (10.22%) was slightly higher than in most other countries, with an average length of stay of 3 days.
For bookings made 15-30 days out, the average length of stay was 4.3 days, and 5.5 days for bookings made 61-90 days in advance.
| Booking windows (Greece) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3.6 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 4.3 days |
| Booking window: 61-90 days | 5.5 days |
Vacation rentals in Greece are especially popular among travellers from Spain, France and Italy.
Some of the best-performing distribution channels for vacation rentals in Greece include:
5. Italy
Italy shows a similar pattern as Spain, with most nights booked either 15-30 or 61-90 days in advance.
For the latter, the average length of stay is slightly longer than in most other countries (but not quite as long as in France), coming in at 6.8 days. Bookings made 15-30 days had an average stay of 4.8 days, and last-minute bookings 3 days, which appears to be the standard across all countries.
| Booking windows (Italy) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 4.8 days |
| Booking window: 61-90 days | 7 days |
According to Rentals United internal data, vacation rentals in Italy are especially popular among travellers from France.
Some of the best-performing distribution channels for vacation rentals in Italy include:
6. Portugal
Out of the eight countries we analysed, Portugal saw the highest percentage of last-minute bookings (12.46%), which may be due to the country recently opening its border to travellers from the EU and the UK.
Data from Rentals United Data Studio shows that booking windows were distributed fairly evenly, indicating demand for both early and late bookings.
In Portugal, the average length of stay seems to be longer than in most other countries, with 3.3 days for last-minute stays, 5 days for bookings made 15-30 days out, 6.7 days for bookings made 61-90 days out and 8.2 days for bookings made 91-180 days out.
| Booking windows (Portugal) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3.3 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 5 days |
| Booking window: 61-90 days | 6.7 days |
| Booking window: 91-180 days | 8.2 days |
Vacation rentals in Portugal are especially popular among travellers from Spain and the UK.
Some of the best-performing distribution channels for vacation rentals in Portugal include:
7. USA
In the USA, the booking window looks rather different to Europe. Data from Rentals United Data Studio shows that last week, over 15% of vacation rental nights were booked 15-30 days out. About the same percentage of nights were booked 31-45 days, 46-60 days, 61-90 days and 91-180 days in advance.
This is great to see as it means that travellers have regained confidence in booking earlier. There’s a clear interest in vacation rentals for the summer and up until the end of September.
Unsurprisingly, travellers who book more in advance are staying longer. The average length
of stay for last-minute bookings is 3.5 days, while it’s 4.1 days for bookings made 15-30 days out, 5.1 days for bookings made 61-90 days in advance, and 5.3 days for bookings made 91-180 days prior to check-in.
| Booking windows (USA) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 3.5 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 4.1 days |
| Booking window: 61-90 days | 5.1 days |
| Booking window: 91-180 days | 5.3 days |
Some of the top-performing channels for vacation rentals in the USA include:
- FloridaRentals
- Glamping Hub
- TravelStaytion
- HomeToGo
- Holidu
- Marriott (read about our Marriott partnership here )
8. Australia
Vacation rental property managers in Australia look to have a positive winter.
The pattern is similar to that of the UK, with over 30% of nights booked either 15-30 or 91-180 days out. In fact, Australia has one of the highest percentages of nights booked 91-180 days in advance, second only to the UK.
Interestingly, the average length of stay for travellers booking last-minute is one day longer than in other countries, at 4 days. For bookings made 15-30 days out, the average length of stay is 3.4 days, and 4.6 days for bookings made 91-180 days prior to check-in.
| Booking windows (Australia) | Average length of stay |
| Last-minute bookings | 4 days |
| Booking window: 15-30 days | 3.4 days |
| Booking window: 91-180 days | 4.6 days |
Some of the top performing channels for vacation rentals in the Australia include:
What nationalities are booking vacation rentals in your country?
| Rental location | Guests from |
| France | Spain, Italy |
| Greece | Spain, France, Italy |
| Portugal | Spain, UK |
| Italy | France |
| Spain | UK, France, Italy |
| USA | UK |
| UK | USA |
| Australia | USA |
| Canada | USA |
If you’d like to know more about Rentals United Data Studio, or if you would like to get more information about the country your vacation rentals are located. Please feel free to reach out.
