If this is your first fall as a vacation home owner in Corpus Christi, you may be a little surprised and a lot concerned as you begin to notice your bookings are beginning to slow down. Autumn is the off-season in our coastal town, and although it may be a bit of a relief that things aren’t as hectic as they are in the summer months, you still need to pay that mortgage, and you don’t want your bookings to stop altogether, something we at On Island Time can help you avoid! This guide to keeping your Corpus Christi rental booked through the fall months will have you celebrating a most successful off peak tourist season!
Specifically Target Fall Travelers
There is a demographic of travelers that actually prefer to travel in the fall, knowing that off peak seasons offer a variety of benefits, including lower prices, fewer crowds, and a more authentic vacation experience. Those are the travelers you want in your spaces, but since they are probably already looking in your direction, you need to convince summer travelers that fall is really the best time to visit. You can do this through blogging, through emails sent to former guests, and by adding photos that represent what you are trying to “sell” them, perhaps added to your listing.
Offer Lower Prices
The human race loves a bargain, and although you may be cringing a bit at offering cheaper prices during the slower rental season, isn’t some money better than none? You may not make as much as you do during the summer months, but we can almost guarantee that by offering a discount, you will have far fewer open nights, perhaps keeping you from having to dig into your personal account to pay the mortgage.
Update Your Listing
You don’t want to keep the same old pictures up year after year anyway, your vacation home has evolved over the years, morphing into a space that welcomes guests and invites them to relax as they would at home. But we think you should change out some of the pictures, the details in the listings, every season, showing potential guests all that makes your property cozy and comfortable during every season. In the fall you might want to focus your attention on bookshelves loaded with books, perhaps with a cup of coffee sitting on a nearby table, steam visibly rising from its dark depths, both located near a comfy chair that might have a blanket tossed across its back for added coziness. Maybe you could put a pumpkin on the doorstep, a bouquet of fall flowers on the dining room table, or a pumpkin pie “cooling” on the counter of your cozy kitchen!
Create a Guide to Some of Your Favorite Fall Events
As the summer heat subsides, we Texans start to bring the good times back outside and there are a lot of wonderful fall festivals that help celebrate the season, so why not point them out to your potential guests? The Conquer the Coast Century ride held on or close to the first day of fall, the celebration of flight, otherwise known as HawkWatch, thrills visitors that come in from all over the world, and the hawk merch is most popular. There are fall festivals with pick your own pumpkins, Pride Parade and Block Party in October, music festivals, and our particular favorite, Surftoberfest, blending surfing and beer in the most wonderful of ways. Your guide should cover all the fall festivals, however, not just the ones you love, because everyone is different, and just because you are too afraid of sharks to fish for one, it doesn’t mean that someone somewhere will be your guests simply because of the Sharkathon held just before Halloween every year!
Hire On Island Time for Your Vacation Property Needs
We get a little overwhelmed ourselves when we read on these hints and tips, and this is what we do, so we can imagine that by now, you may be thinking that it’s ok if you don’t make any money this fall! It’s not, though, and the easiest way to ensure that your fall bookings are fantastic is by partnering with a vacation property management company, and we at On Island Time are volunteering for the job!
We do the hard work so you can relax, no matter what the season, and as you relax, the bookings will be adding up, perhaps ensuring that you don’t skip a beat during fall season, sliding smoothly and profitably into the winter months when tourist travel begins to pick up the pace once again. Life is better when your Corpus Christi vacation rental is in good hands. Give us a call today and discover just how much better it can really be!
