Business seems to have fell after summer

Also, on how hard you work at it. If business has slowed, now it the time to use all your contacts, get in touch with regular clients and use social media to its fullest extent.

I’m in South Florida too.

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I don’t have a prime location so I’m trying to market for 3-6 month rentals until next summer. There seems to be demand for interim housing while the new home is being built.

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Actually Florida has really declined in Covid cases. There are 30 states with higher case rates than Florida right now. And there are only 16 states with a higher vaccination rate than Florida.
I’m not a huge Florida fan or anything, my point is that Covid is always changing. We cannot get so comfortable thinking that we know why because it will come back and bite us in our (vaccinated) butts.

I know Alaska is getting slammed right now but it’s still not as bad as my NE state was last year at this time. And Vermont and Maine are both in the top 5 of greatest increase in cases in the last 14 days. In fact, most of the Northeast have the largest increases in cases in the last 14 days. We’re expected to be worse this Fall than we were last Fall in my NE state and last Fall we had the most cases per 100,000 in the whole world. Most of the Southern states plus Texas have the greatest decrease in cases in the last 14 days. The greatest decrease in cases is in Florida and then LA, TN, GA, TX, MS, SC, AR and AL. It’s moving, just like a virus does. There is no way to make it personal, it’s a virus.

However, back to @Homespring . They said they just started renting in March 2021 so this would be the first Fall season for them. I kind of think they were asking whether or not Florida generally has a slower season in the Fall or not. Some of you FL hosts must know?

@Homespring , I don’t know the FL market at all, but I do know traveling to places with hurricanes. When I was young, I always traveled in hurricane season because it was so much cheaper, the cheapest time in Cancun, Cozumel, New Orleans, Galveston, etc. My young friends did the same. However you mentioned that your listing is pricey and we wouldn’t have been able to afford it, so it’s possible that FL also gets its budget travelers during hurricane season and that your listing is too pricey for them.

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Both are decreasing in Covid rates pretty quickly, though SC faster. I believe it’s going to move back to the NE and midwest like it did last Fall. It is already doing that. Maybe I should come down to the Carolinas for a break but you probably won’t want me there once we have the highest cases again :sleepy:

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Snowbirds passing through are my one-night bread and butter and I’m not booked either.

The folks down the street at $30 a night are booked solid.

I’m getting a local or two coming through for various reasons, but it’s ground to a halt here, too, in the booming South Shore area of Tampa. I usually get a lot of women or couples coming to stay to look in on their new construction homes or to look in the neighborhood.

Now it’s crickets.

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In the NE they are really talking it up, telling us it’s going to be worse than last year so that is the message some of your snowbirds are getting. And we all remember last year, I think people are tucking in for awhile. We are booked solid until the first weekend in Nov for university related stuff, because all of it was cancelled last year. I think most of my bookings will make it because they missed it last year but I am expecting crickets after that.

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Comments made by several posters in this topic describe similar scenarios to ourselves, one year ago here in Spain.

We had the worst Autumn ever, a few bookings here and there, and all exclusively domestic guests.

This year however, with a vaccination rate in Andalucía of around eighty percent (single dose only slightly less) things are very different. Our infection rate here locally is now 30 per 100k, and the schools have now been open (always a concern) for around three weeks.

We’ve kept a higher minimum stay than before and so far, it’s our best September ever, we’ve been rammed. October is around sixty five percent full and I fully expect that figure to rise

What is refreshing is that we’ve seen a good number of international guests over the past wee while, UK, Germany, Poland, Ireland and in situ just now, a Dutch couple.

Got bugger all for November, but that’s not unusual as it’s always a quiet month here. If the weather is bad, we might consider closing until the Xmas stuff starts first week in December.

JF

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I remember we were in similar situations last year.

Some of our states with the highest vaccination rates also have the highest increase in cases right now. Vermont has the highest vaccination rate and the 4th highest increase in cases. The vaccinations are helping with hospitalizations and deaths but not as much the spread of it.
Hopefully this time around, there won’t be so much carnage.

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Real estate agents are amongst the best contacts to cultivate. There are people who are coming for a week to house hunt in the area, plus those who are waiting for their homes to be finished. Sometimes a guest will come during the week to look at houses, then return the following week with their spouse to tour the short-list houses.

Although my Airbnb maximum is 21 days, I will rent for longer (off Airbnb) if the guests are vouched for by the agent. :slight_smile:

Another lucrative group to target are local people who are having work done on their homes or, as often happens here, having their homes tented.

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It’s not so much the number of cases in an area that would keep me away, it’s that I wouldn’t want to go to an area where there are so many anti-maskers and masks aren’t required to enter stores and public places. It’s the state policies that are a big factor, not the number of cases. Plus I’m not taking business to those states. Let them suffer financially. Sorry for the individuals who that effects, but those governors got elected by the majority of the populace. That has consequences.

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Reminded me of this from the Guardian:

I suppose this illustrates the difference in how countries/states handle things. Here, you can’t even get into a restaurant if you’re not wearing a mask. It is rigidly enforced.

JF

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We canceled a one wk condo booking in Sanibel, FL due to Delta concerns. I would book a private home with pool right now but those have minimum 28 night restrictions in Sanibel which I can’t do since kids are no longer attending school online.

We are avoiding resorts and condo complexes for awhile.

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Yes. I believe that the max is 28 days here so I leave seven days to get them out in the event of anything awkward happening. However, you said that you’re a new host so I want to assure you that I’ve never had any trouble with people not leaving. It was an extra precaution but I’ve never needed it.

I’m in Fort Lauderdale. I don’t know the Miami market but I imagine it’s similar to here with tourists, events, cruise passengers, businesses and so on.

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Ah! And there it is. This isn’t the forum to peddle your bullshit supplements vs covid

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@Homespring Supplements are not the answer, it’s being vaxxed, wearing a mask, social distancing and avoiding crowds inside. Please, get real.

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