I always open only 2-3months for booking, but I am thinking of opening December now. I did a bit of research in my area and it seems hosts are not increasing any price for the holidays. Although there is no school or job vacation here for Christmas, I certainly think to stay home changing sheets and cleaning during holiday has got to be worth it. For locals makes no difference because they work as normal day, but for foreigners in vacation they would be getting a bargain. Not sure if I should raise the minimum stay for year end as I don’t know how many days people usually stay during Christmas and NYE. How do you guys do with prices and such?
Any holiday I raise prices, biggest ones coming up around here are Halloween and nye, usually Thanksgiving and Christmas aren’t able to command a rate increase at least for me.
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Great point, I haven’t thought of that. Indeed Christmas people wouldn’t want to spend apart from family , I guess. Thanks
The only caveat I might add to that statement is, if you are in a location where older people have downsized, family members might need a place to stay NEAR their parents for the holidays. Not the case in my area, but it is possible.
I have blocked off Thanksgiving week. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all. Just friends, family, and a lot of food. Preparations start on Monday making bread for the stuffing, and then continues, based on a well-defined timeline right up until the moment that everyone digs in.
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@Vera In my area prices for stays during Christmas and New Years’s Eve do increase, sometimes even 50% or more. Consequently my prices go up in December. Also, depending from your location it may be worth checking if there are any conferences scheduled to take place in your city or area. In my case, the mayor’s office gathers this data and can be easily checked on their website. If you happen to be located somewhere near the conference venues you can easily increase the prices 15-20% during the conference time and still remain competitive. Just my two cents.
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@anon67190644 i can already smell the dinner only by reading your post 
@Marko_Petkovic I think other hosts did increase for the NYE since we are close to a very famous NYE fireworks show ALL but the hosts in my area have those dates unavailable so I can’t see their price. I guess they are booked out because slightly earlier or later than that is available and normal price. Christmas is just another normal work/school day here so nothibg special. I think I will try to ramp up my prices 50 per cent for the year end.
I don’t really want guests for Thanksgiving, Christmas or NYE. So I set the prices to 4x my normal rate. That’s how much it would take for it to be worth it to downgrade my holiday (it’s not a holiday if I have to be fully dressed, at least partially sober, and pleasant to strangers. We all have our own ways to celebrate)
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I am in the New York area and I have a number of listings. I have only one apartment left available for the NYE period (I consider December 27-Jan 2). I increase my prices by 50% and one lucky guest booked so far in advance that she locked in at 2015 base rate for the 2016 NYE week. I won’t make that mistake again!
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So true. We have a lot of conferences in our area. Every November, there is a two week conference that is attended by at least 125,000 people. I double our prices (as hotels do) because I’d be crazy not to take advantage of that.
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I have changed my mind. Doubling the price now to try it out thanks to the pros here
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I am in Pasadena, CA. We have the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl football game which make New Years big for bookings here – every host raises their rates and the hotels price gouge with their rates. 
We also get out-of-towners visiting their families for holidays over Christmas and Thanksgiving because it is better weather in CA than in the Mid-West or East. So I do raise my rates slightly over these holidays and it works well for me to be available for bookings over Christmas and Thanksgiving because many hosts with families (either in or out of town) block their listings over these holidays.
— Lia
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We got booked for Thanksgiving (US property) in June. Last year was similar, people wanted to vacay as a family for the holiday, but still wanted a big kitchen to cook in. We block off Barcelona for all of Nov bc we are there, but I’m told its usually pretty busy with bookings. We don’t get many Xmas bookings in the US, but Barca is always booked and all of our props are booked for NYE. It works out for us bc we always take holidays during Xmas-NYE. We typically charge 3x for NYE, and low season ‘high’ price for Xmas and Turkey day.
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I opened the NYE period and I am getting a lot of inquiries with double the price. I am tempted to raise more 
Oooh. Thanks for the reminder. I just remembered there is actually a NYE event here in my town with a well-known DJ (My town is not usually a tourist town). I’m going to go jack up the price on my calendar right now.
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Partially sober ? I like your style
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