Perdido Key Resort Management - Seasonal Insights

Perdido Key Seasonal Insights

Seasonal Update

In most years we work to drive both extended-stays and short-stays as we move into the fall/winter. While we all prefer the short-stays, historically, extended stays help to consume long periods of availability throughout the Perdido Key inventory while providing predictable revenue for property owners. This reduction of supply helps to drive short stays into the remaining calendars; basic supply and demand rules. This year, however, extended stay rentals will be more difficult to secure for the entire area. Our otherwise large audience of military renters who complete their flight training at the naval air station, and stay in Perdido Key properties during the fall/winter, recently was all but eliminated for this season. A stop movement order was issued for the service members that were scheduled to arrive on or after September 2nd due to a backlog among those training as pilots at the nearby navy base. They're expecting it to take at least 4-6 months to clear up, which means that we won't see a lot of requests for extended-stay bookings from the military audience. Additionally, some of those who had reported to the base before September 2nd are receiving order changes for now and planning to return when the backlog clears up. As a result, we have been bolstering our efforts to generate short stays throughout the fall/winter which are harder to come by in our area during the shoulder and off-peak seasons. What's the takeaway? More inventory in the area + less demand means that we'll likely have to be more aggressive on our pricing strategy and leverage our Keys2Fun program in order to secure bookings. 

A silver lining. Once we're back to the spring, demand will sharply pick up with our spring season because it will be shorter (approx 5 weeks) than 2022 (approx 7-8 weeks). It's condensed next year because Mardi Gras (Feb 21) will be too early to compel Louisiana and Mississippi travelers, whose kids are off of school for Mardi Gras, to come to the beach unless we have an unusually warm February. An early Mardi Gras comes hand-in-hand with an early Easter which is on the 9th of April this year; in 2022 Mardi Gras was on 3/1 and Easter was on 4/24. The short spring will ideally allow us to capture good occupancy comprised of short-term stays for those dates.

JD Hallam
GM - Perdido Key Resort Management
Broker/Owner - Perdido Key Resort Realty