How to charge DOUBLE your nightly rate

There are three primary ways rental operators can make more money:

• Fill more nights

• Charge more per night

• Get more properties

No matter what industry I've worked in, I always preferred charging more. Aka, going premium or boutique.

Here’s why:

In order to increase occupancy, you must always be selling nights using:

• Giveaways

• Discounts

• Expensive “be everywhere” campaigns

• and more

Positioning a brand to charge premium rates is different. Filling nights isn't the core goal.

Instead, you want to:

• Positively change how guests see you

• Become desired by most

• Yet, feel hard to access

• Charge more per night

And the best way to do this is through media.

If you bought your dream property but don't make as much money as you deserve, this is for you.

Here's how to use media to charge premium rates:

Step 1: Make media quality better

• If content bad, people think experience bad.

• If content good, people think experience good.

Make your content so interesting to look at, most people enjoy it.

This includes listing and website photos + social media.

This is crucial to doubling rates. People must view your content and think highly of your stay. Otherwise the plan won't work.

Hack: Don't make HGTV style content and focus on the shower tiles. The best content focuses on humans living the experience.

Step 2: Create a pool of demand

Create demand by chasing two metrics:

• Followers

• Leads

This is audience building. The idea is to become the kid everyone wants to hang out with.

If people don't feel like there's competition to book, they won't.

But, if people see you have a large following, they'll become worried about missing out.

And whether they book immediately or not, they'll remember you longer. The emotional stimulus of feeling FOMO is much stronger than "oh, this is cute place."

Yet, followers are worthless if you aren't driving them to become a lead.

4-9x more bookings come from email vs. social media.

Build the email list.

Step 3: Use occupancy as your trigger

This is where most operators go wrong.

• They get excited

• Raise rates too fast

• End up with empty nights

Here's our rule of thumb for raising rates:

If the next 60-90 days is more booked than not, raise rates for what remains.

Go with like 5% at a time.

Then, continue until the rule of thumb is no longer true.

Over time, you’ll stair-step your way into premium pricing without scaring off demand.

How to charge DOUBLE your nightly rate

If you want to charge DOUBLE your nightly rate in 6-12 months, do this:

1. Create content so interesting, people can't help but think you're expensive. Focus on the experience of your stay to do this well.

2. Create demand by building a large following that drives leads. Email is your best friend to get bookings.

3. Once you're booked more than not in the next 60-90 days, increase rates by 5% at a time.

In 2025 & 2026, guests want to book:

• New, premium, one-of-a-kind stays that they will pay more for

• Or, lowest rate wins

Everyone in the middle will become forced to pick a side.

If going cheap doesn't pay your bills, try premium.

That's all for today. I'll see you in the next article.

P.S. Writing this from Boston. Went on a late run last night with a buddy. It was interval day. Which means we go fast. What you see is the skyline from across the river in Cambridge. What you don’t see is both of us leaning over the railing with our legs about to give out. Running is better with friends.

Before you go

I spend about 10 hours writing this newsletter each week. The rest of my time is spent running Lodge Social.

Our marketing team will help you get more guests to like, share and book.

Work with me and my team here.

Links you might like:

1. How to get bookings with Instagram (YouTube)

2. Four marketing options that work. Pick 1 (Instagram)

3. Hiring a “social media person” won’t save your marketing (The Unique Stays Guy)

4. Owner achieves 71% direct bookings through TikTok marketing (Podcast)