A guest asks for the week of the 14th. You multiply your nightly rate by seven, send the number, and hear nothing back. The same thing happens twice more, and you start to wonder whether your rate is wrong.
Your rate is probably fine. The multiplication is the problem.
Why seven nights and a week are different products
A nightly rate has to carry the cost of the changeover: the clean, the linen, the gap you cannot sell, the hour you spend on messages and keys. On a two-night booking that cost is spread across two nights, which is why short stays look expensive per night and why most lets set a minimum.
A week spreads the same changeover across seven nights. It is genuinely cheaper for you to sell, and not by a little:
- One clean instead of three or four.
- One set of arrival messages, one key handover, one set of questions about the wifi.
- No unsellable Tuesday left between two weekend bookings.
So a weekly rate is not a favour you are doing the guest. It is you pricing the work you are not doing. Charging the full nightly rate seven times over means charging for four changeovers while performing one, and the market has noticed.
What the discount is really for
Set the weekly discount against the changeover cost, not against a feeling about what sounds generous.
Work out what a turnaround actually costs you - the cleaner, the laundry, the consumables, your own time at whatever you think an hour of it is worth. That figure, multiplied by the turnarounds a week saves you, is the honest ceiling for the discount. Anything beyond it is you buying occupancy, which is a legitimate choice but a different one, and worth making deliberately.
For most small lets the number lands somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent off the nightly total. Below 10 and a week stops being obviously better value than two short stays. Above 25 and you are usually either over-estimating your turnaround cost or quietly discounting because the calendar is empty, which is a seasonal problem rather than a weekly one. That one belongs in seasonal pricing.
Monthly is a different business
A month is not four weeks with a bigger discount. It changes what you are selling.
- The guest is living there, not holidaying. They will want a desk, laundry, and somewhere to put their own food.
- Wear goes up and changeover goes to almost nothing.
- Your cashflow improves and your flexibility disappears, because one cancellation now costs you a month.
- Depending on where you are, a long stay can cross into tenancy rules rather than holiday letting. That is a question for someone local, and worth asking before you advertise the rate rather than after.
Webkio keeps weekly and monthly discounts as separate settings for exactly this reason. They are not the same lever at two strengths.
Make the week the obvious thing to book
Pricing is only half of it. The other half is that the guest can see the week is better without doing arithmetic:
- Show the weekly total, not just a per-night figure with a note underneath.
- Let the availability calendar show which weeks are clear, since a guest looking for a week does not want to test seven dates one at a time.
- Line the week up with your changeover day, so a Saturday-to-Saturday property is not quoting Wednesday starts it cannot clean for. Minimum stays and changeover days goes into that properly.
The sum that matters
Owners tend to defend the nightly rate because it is the bigger number. The one worth defending is revenue per available night across the season, and a week at 15 per cent off beats two weekend bookings with an unsellable gap between them most of the time.
FAQ
Should a weekly rate be cheaper than seven nights at the nightly rate?
Yes, and not as a favour. A nightly rate carries the cost of the changeover - the clean, the linen, the messages, the gap you cannot sell. A week spreads one changeover across seven nights instead of three or four across the same period. Charging the full nightly rate seven times means charging for work you are not doing.
How big should the weekly discount be?
Work out what one turnaround actually costs you, multiply by the turnarounds a week saves, and that is the honest ceiling. For most small lets it lands between 10 and 20 per cent. Below 10 a week stops looking better than two short stays. Above 25 you are usually buying occupancy, which is a seasonal decision rather than a weekly one.
Is a monthly rate just four weekly rates?
No, it is a different product. The guest is living there rather than holidaying, wear goes up, changeover goes to almost nothing, your cashflow improves and your flexibility disappears. Depending on where you are, a long stay can also cross from holiday letting into tenancy rules, which is worth asking someone local about before you advertise the rate.
Can I run weekly and seasonal pricing at the same time?
Yes, and they answer different questions. Seasonal pricing sets what a night is worth in August against February. The weekly discount sets what a week is worth against seven of those nights. They are separate settings because they are separate decisions.
If you want to put your own figures through it rather than take ours, the seasonal rate calculator does the comparison. And if you are moving off a listing site, the holiday rental website builder holds weekly and seasonal rates on your own property pages, where no commission comes off the top.