Revenue management, answered

How do I work out my market's real low season and high season?

Pull your actual booking data and segment it by occupied nights, ADR, and RevPAR across a rolling 24-month period. Where those three metrics consistently compress together, that is your true low season, regardless of what the calendar or local tourism board says.

By Jack Murphy, Head of Revenue Management at UpRev. Running pricing for US vacation rental managers since 2017. Last updated August 25, 2026.

Why Calendar Assumptions Will Cost You

Most managers inherit assumptions about seasonality from property owners or regional marketing materials, and those assumptions are often wrong by several weeks in either direction. A ski market may have strong shoulder demand in late spring from hikers that owners never priced for. Run your occupancy curve month by month and look for the inflection points where demand actually shifts, not where you expect it to shift.

The Metrics That Define the Boundary

Look at the relationship between lead time and booking pace alongside occupancy. In true high season, properties fill well in advance and last-minute inventory is scarce. In true low season, booking windows compress and you are filling units within days of arrival. That behavioral shift in how guests book is as reliable a seasonal signal as the occupancy number itself.

Validate Against Your Competitive Set

Your internal data tells you what happened in your portfolio, but you also need to confirm whether that pattern holds across the market. Pull rate and availability data from comparable listings in your submarket over the same 24-month window. If your portfolio and your comp set both show the same compression periods, you have found your real low season and can price and policy around it with confidence.