2021 is an exciting year for vacation rentals. The industry is going through a period of rapid change, and we still don’t know what it’s going to look like when we come out the other side.
But there’s good news. By the end of the first quarter, we started seeing encouraging booking trends in many different parts of the world. While there are still mobility restrictions in place, trends like nearby travel and last-minute bookings are continually on the rise.
Spain, in particular, is a country where we’re starting to see signs of renewed interest as guests start to regain their travel confidence and 1) splurge on last-minute trips 2) plan their summer and winter holidays.
To help property managers in Spain prepare for the anticipated increase in demand, we looked at booking data from RU Data Studio, a new product by Rentals United. We analysed booking trends from Q1 2021 and broke our findings down by region, so you can get valuable insights no matter where your properties are located within Spain.
In this article, we dive into:
- Booking window per region
- Top-performing channels per region
- Building the perfect tech stack for properties in Spain
Spain’s travel recovery: Booking window per region
We analysed the booking window as a percentage of the total nights booked in Q1 2021 across five of Spain’s most popular regions: Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.
>> Key takeaways: Highest percentage of last-minute bookings (within 30 days): Madrid
>> Highest percentage of early bookings (90+ days in advance): Balearic Islands
>> Even split between early and late bookings: Andalusia
>> The highest Average Daily Rates (ADR) are for bookings made 90+ days in advance across all regions (Note: The ADR includes all types of inventory from high-end luxury to shared rooms in hostels.)
Read on to find out more details about each region’s booking window trends.
1. Catalonia
Most guests booking vacation rentals in Catalonia waited until the last minute to make their reservations.
61.1% of nights were booked within 30 days, with a large portion (17.52%) of the total nights booked as late as 0-2 days before arrival.
However, there were quite a few far-out bookings for the summer and beyond, with 33.71% of the total nights being booked more than 90 days in advance.
2. Madrid
In Madrid, last-minute bookings were the overwhelming trend – more so than in any other region.
51.03% of nights were booked within 7 days and 78.99% were booked within 30 days of arrival.
Only 1.15% of nights were booked in the 181-270-day window and just 0.63% were booked more than 270 days in advance.
3. Andalusia
Andalusia saw an almost even split between late and early bookings.
46.71% of bookings were made within 30 days, while 51.33% were made more than 30 days ahead of check-in.
At the same time, the most common booking window was 91-180 days, with nearly 27% of all bookings falling into this category.
4. Canary Islands
Most vacation rental nights in the Canary Islands were booked within a month of arrival.
Almost one-third (28.76%) of all nights were booked within a week of check-in, and more than half (56.42%) were booked less than 31 days in advance.
However, we do see quite a few far-out bookings from guests planning to spend their summer and winter holidays in the Canary Islands. Nearly 30% of the total nights booked in the region were booked over 90 days in advance.
5. Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands saw the highest percentage of early bookings out of all the Spanish regions, with 71.28% of nights booked more than 90 days before arrival.
44.45% of all nights were booked in the 91-180-day window and 26.83% were booked more than 181 days in advance, suggesting that guests are planning ahead not only for the summer but also for the winter of 2021.
Last-minute bookings were rare, with only 8.68% of nights booked within a week of check-in.
What channels are performing best in the region your property is located?
Have you noticed that lately, channels that invest heavily in their marketing are performing better than those that don’t?
With some channels investing less in marketing, it has opened up space for niche channels to take more of the market share.
Looking at channel statistics in RU Data Studio, it’s clear that, while there’s definitely a strong overlap, the top-performing channels aren’t exactly the same in each region.
This proves that to get the best results, property managers should be looking at how channels are performing regionally rather than looking at Spain as a whole.
In RU Data Studio, you can see which of your channels are performing the strongest in each region, and use that information to update your marketing mix accordingly.
We’ve taken the five regions we analysed before in terms of booking window – Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands – and analysed which channels performed best for properties located in these regions.
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 do it easily with the Rentals United vacation rental channel manager.
Here are the top-performing channels per region, in alphabetical order:
| Catalonia | Madrid | Andalusia | Canary Islands | Balearic Islands | |
| Airbnb | Airbnb | Agoda | Airbnb | Airbnb | |
| Booking.com | Booking.com | Airbnb | Booking.com | Booking.com | |
| Edomizil | Expedia | Booking.com | Edomizil | Expedia | |
| Expedia | Expedia | Expedia | Holidu | ||
| Holidu | HomeToGo | ||||
| Holidu | Homelike | Holidu | Holidu | Travelstaytion | |
| Homelike | Vrbo | HomeToGo | HomeToGo | TUI Villas | |
| HomeToGo | Tripadvisor | Travelstaytion | Vrbo | ||
| Hostelworld | TUI Villas | Tripadvisor | |||
| Locasun | Vrbo | TUI Villas | |||
| Plum Guide | Vrbo | ||||
| Travelstaytion | |||||
| Vrbo |
Advertise on all of the above websites with Rentals United- see all our connections here!
Building the perfect tech stack for managing and distributing properties in Spain
Every vacation rental market has its own unique characteristics. That’s why it’s important for property managers in Spain to work with software partners who know the Spanish market and can cater to their specific needs.
Fortunately, there are some great vacation rental software companies based in Spain that can help you streamline your operations and optimise your channel distribution.
Here’s our recommendation:
Turisoft: Online property management system for the Spanish market
Turisoft is an online booking management system for the Spanish market. They specialise in developing vacation rental software for professional property managers located in Spain.
Turisoft makes difficult easy by allowing you to perform a multitude of actions from the same platform.
Its features include:
- Reservation system
- Task management
- Website builder
- Invoicing tool
- Reporting tool
As a result, Turisoft lets you effectively manage your entire vacation rental business: streamline your day-to-day operations, save time and transform the way you work.
See our list of the 54 PMS’s worldwide in the Who’s Who of Property Management Systems, containing detailed information on each one.
Rentals United: Channel manager for vacation rentals
With local, leisure and last-minute travel on the increase, property managers need to make sure they are staying ahead of the growing competition through diversifying their channel distribution.
The Rentals United channel manager has all the tools you need to successfully distribute your properties across a variety of local and leisure channels. Thanks to our integration with 50+ PMS Providers, including specialist software Turisoft, you can upload your properties quickly and start distributing your listings easily.
With more than 60 connected channels and several Preferred Partner badges, we have the best channel connections on the market. This means you can advertise on multiple channels without having to worry about getting double bookings.
Don’t take our word for it. Read the story of Valcambre, a Spanish property manager with 100 properties located across Andalusia, who has been able to increase their occupancy by 60% with the help of Rentals United channel manager.
“We wanted to expand our portfolio and strengthen our brand name in Seville – we succeeded in both and hosted 20k travellers last year.”
Ignacio Rodriguex, Co-Founder of Valcambre
Rentals United Data Studio
Rentals United not only offers top-notch channel connections, but we recently launched RU data Studio.
We understand that revenue management and channel management go hand-in-hand and are intricately tied to one another. Our new product enables property managers to fully understand the health of a business through the most important metrics from a revenue management perspective.
This new revenue management tool is fully integrated with the Rentals United vacation rental channel manager, and anyone that is a customer of Rentals United will receive the basic version.
How can this tool assist property managers:
- Increase their reporting efficiency and cross-company communication.
- Measure performance on a market, property and channel level in real-time.
- Increase the speed of reactive and proactive revenue actions on each distribution channel.
To find out more about what RU Data studio has to offer, check out our article on Vacation Rental Revenue Management: How to Optimise Your Strategy in 2021.
Ready to start distributing your listings with Rentals United? Our pricing adapts to your growth. Choose the right plan for your business:
