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Key Data’s Sally Henry: Pricing is everything


Sally Henry Key Data

Sally Henry, Key Data’s Vice President of Business Development, is the special guest on this week’s #HCHPodcast. During the episode, Sally discussed her career in the short-term rentals (STR) industry, the market trends every host and property manager should be aware of, and why it will be vital to get your rates right in 2024.


Key Data is the global leader in market intelligence for the STR industry and recently released a report saying occupancy in the UK had softened in the early part of 2024, while supply had increased, and rates had flatlined. Click here for further details.


Sally said: “We’re seeing that Airbnb is still the largest platform – but they’ve lost market share to Booking.com. In the UK, there’s been a 2% shift [from Airbnb to Booking.com] and across Europe, it’s around 4%. Vrbo market share remains flat and direct bookings have dropped a little."


Hosts and property managers can optimise their performance on the various online travel agencies by being mystery shoppers.


Sally said: “I think you’ve got to keep looking at your listings with fresh eyes. The first thing to consider is your pricing and your competitors. If your rates are too high, your conversions will drop – so you’ll slip down the algorithm. Try to mystery shop yourself and see how you fit because the channels change all the time.”


And when it comes to keeping occupancy high, Sally advises to get your pricing right.


She added: “Pricing is everything. Even though we’re in a technical recession [in the UK], people are willing to travel. What we are seeing is that people are not staying as long – the average length of stay is coming down. This means that to fill your occupancy, to get your revenue on point, you’ve got to sell more breaks. Incentivising longer stays might help as people booking 90 days out tend to pay more, while as we get closer to arrival, people stay for shorter and spend less.”


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