How Compass Excelled in a Low-Demand Market

Experiencing the decrease in demand for vacation rental properties in 2023, Compass knew they had to take action to attract travelers. Since more guests have an increased price consciousness in 2023, Compass shifted away from their previous focus on weeklong stays to reduce the minimum night stay requirements. The goal was to create a more accessible vacation experience for travelers on a budget in order to maximize their summer season performance. 

CHALLENGES

Compass faced several challenges in updating their booking strategy: 

  • Create a new pricing strategy to drive bookings
  • Shorten stay requirements without decreasing revenue 
  • React to live market feedback quickly

With a new pricing approach, Compass was in need of an updated strategy that matched the shorter stay requirements. By turning away from their traditional Saturday-to-Saturday standards, they also needed the ability to stay agile and monitor key feeder markets for quick adaptations. As the summer season drew closer, Compass knew that every day and even every hour counted. To avoid mispricing and missing potential bookings, they needed to be able to update pricing according to live market feedback and understand why the pricing changes were making an impact. 

SOLUTION

To maximize summer bookings, Compass utilized a multi-faceted approach for their pricing strategy. 

  • Use Beyond to run dynamic pricing based on the local market
  • Utilize ProData to monitor performance and market demand 
  • Create a repeatable process with Beyond and Key Data to optimize and adjust pricing

Compass created a cadence that suited their team’s busy schedule while maximizing performance. Two to three times per week, staff members analyzed performance with the most recent price and required night changes. With the ProData dashboard, Compass ran pickup reports to see which individual units were booking too fast or too slow. Then, they used Demand IQ® to understand which searches were trending. Based on those two insights, adjustments were made in Beyond. 

“With Key Data in my pocket, I can see what happened before, what’s happening now, and, with Demand IQ, what’s happening in the future. So instead of having to go all in on a single number of roulette with my pricing strategy, I can take some smarter risks”

RESULTS

With this new process in play, Compass experienced some incredible results. They outperformed both the local market and their own year-over-year performance heading into 2023 summer. In addition to the success of the summer bookings, they also gained a repeatable process to continue maximizing both bookings and rates in the future.

“Heading into the summer, we’re not stressed about Memorial Day weekend or early June. We’re really just looking at July and feel confident that our bets are paying off”

Customer
Compass Resorts
Location
Destin, FL
Industry
Vacation Rentals
Properties
350+

Experiencing the decrease in demand for vacation rental properties in 2023, Compass knew they had to take action to attract travelers. Since more guests have an increased price consciousness in 2023, Compass shifted away from their previous focus on weeklong stays to reduce the minimum night stay requirements. The goal was to create a more accessible vacation experience for travelers on a budget in order to maximize their summer season performance. 

CHALLENGES

Compass faced several challenges in updating their booking strategy: 

  • Create a new pricing strategy to drive bookings
  • Shorten stay requirements without decreasing revenue 
  • React to live market feedback quickly

With a new pricing approach, Compass was in need of an updated strategy that matched the shorter stay requirements. By turning away from their traditional Saturday-to-Saturday standards, they also needed the ability to stay agile and monitor key feeder markets for quick adaptations. As the summer season drew closer, Compass knew that every day and even every hour counted. To avoid mispricing and missing potential bookings, they needed to be able to update pricing according to live market feedback and understand why the pricing changes were making an impact. 

SOLUTION

To maximize summer bookings, Compass utilized a multi-faceted approach for their pricing strategy. 

  • Use Beyond to run dynamic pricing based on the local market
  • Utilize ProData to monitor performance and market demand 
  • Create a repeatable process with Beyond and Key Data to optimize and adjust pricing

Compass created a cadence that suited their team’s busy schedule while maximizing performance. Two to three times per week, staff members analyzed performance with the most recent price and required night changes. With the ProData dashboard, Compass ran pickup reports to see which individual units were booking too fast or too slow. Then, they used Demand IQ® to understand which searches were trending. Based on those two insights, adjustments were made in Beyond. 

“With Key Data in my pocket, I can see what happened before, what’s happening now, and, with Demand IQ, what’s happening in the future. So instead of having to go all in on a single number of roulette with my pricing strategy, I can take some smarter risks”

RESULTS

With this new process in play, Compass experienced some incredible results. They outperformed both the local market and their own year-over-year performance heading into 2023 summer. In addition to the success of the summer bookings, they also gained a repeatable process to continue maximizing both bookings and rates in the future.

“Heading into the summer, we’re not stressed about Memorial Day weekend or early June. We’re really just looking at July and feel confident that our bets are paying off”