Revenue management, answered

What can I do to fill last-minute vacancies and calendar gaps over peak holiday periods?

Drop your minimum stay requirements first. Over peak holiday periods, a 2-night gap between bookings is dead revenue. Open those nights to 1 or 2-night stays, reprice them at a slight premium, and push them through your OTA channels immediately.

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

Minimum Stay Adjustments Are Your Fastest Lever

Most managers set minimum stays for peak periods and forget them. When you have orphan nights sitting between bookings, those restrictions are actively blocking revenue. Identify every 1 to 3-night gap across your portfolio, lift the minimums on those specific dates only, and reprice to reflect the shorter stay premium guests expect to pay for flexibility. Do this as a manual sweep at least twice per week during the final 3 weeks before a holiday.

Channel Mix and Visibility Tactics

Last-minute holiday inventory moves fastest on channels with strong mobile and impulse-booking behavior, so make sure your listings are fully optimized with updated photos, accurate calendars, and no stale rate caps that could suppress visibility. Work directly with your OTA market managers if you have that access, as they can flag your properties for last-minute promotions or featured placement. Avoid blanket discounting across the whole portfolio since some units will fill at rate and you should only cut where the gap risk is real.

Rate Strategy for Perishable Peak Nights

The closer you get to the check-in date, the more your pricing strategy shifts from yield maximization to gap elimination. For nights within 7 days, price to compete on value relative to comparable available inventory, not against your original peak rate targets. If a unit has sat vacant for more than 3 days inside that window, it is time to move the rate decisively rather than incrementally. A booked night at a reduced rate always outperforms a vacant night on your owner statements.