The Southeastern U.S. has often been in the spotlight throughout the past eight months because of the way local and state officials have handled the pandemic. What has the turmoil meant for vacation rental performance?
Southeastern vacation rentals are fairly dependent on spring break revenues (with the exception of some North Carolina markets) and thus many were harmed by the swift reduction in travel during March. Alternatively, some markets remained open later and benefited from travelers booking last-minute spring stays after cruises and European travel were cancelled.
These states also tended to reopen to visitors earlier than other regions of the country. Upon doing so, they saw large spikes in bookings and revenue exceeded last year. At the time, those in the industry were unsure of whether the momentum would be sustained for the rest of the year. Now, at the end of November, it’s clear that it was. In fact, many rentals made up for lost spring revenue with more summer and fall stays.
Florida is the only state pictured here to have Adjusted RevPAR lower than last year. However, there is significant regional variation within the state. Northwest Florida broke even and Central East Florida came out ahead. Much of the decline in the state’s average can be attributed to Central Florida (Orlando) and Southeast Florida (Miami), two areas that are more urban and also depend more heavily on air travel.