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The Short-Term Shop

How to Price a Short Term Rental in Branson: Seasonality and Revenue Management Guide

Introduction: Why Pricing Matters in Branson

If you’re investing in Airbnbs or vacation rentals, you may be asking yourself: how do I price a short term rental in Branson? The answer lies in understanding seasonality, revenue management, and guest booking patterns. Branson, Missouri, is a unique market with family-friendly tourism, theme park-driven demand, and strong seasonality swings that make pricing strategy essential.

This guide explains how to build a revenue management plan that maximizes occupancy and income while staying competitive year-round.

Contact The Short Term Shop

Ready to learn more about Branson short term rental revenue management? The Short Term Shop can guide you through pricing strategies, connect you with tools, and help you buy STRs that maximize ROI.

Branson Seasonality: When to Expect High and Low Demand

Peak Season: Summer

  • Memorial Day through early August is Branson’s busiest period.

  • Occupancy can reach 90%+.

  • Rates are at their highest, with large homes and lakefront properties commanding premium nightly pricing.

Shoulder Seasons: Spring & Fall

  • March–April and September–October bring steady demand.

  • Families, retirees, and festival attendees fill in bookings.

  • Nightly rates should be slightly lower than summer but still profitable.

Slow Season: Winter

  • January and February are Branson’s slowest months.

  • Most shows and attractions shut down.

  • Occupancy drops significantly—budget for this seasonal lull.


Holiday Pricing: Premium Opportunities

Holidays can perform like mini-peak seasons. Branson guests often book:

  • Christmas & Thanksgiving: Bookings command 50–100% higher rates.

  • Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day: Extended weekends drive heavy demand.

  • Spring Break: March shows a bump in family travel and theme park attendance.

Set holiday minimums higher (3–4 nights) and adjust rates upward to capture demand.


Minimum Night Stays

  • Peak summer: 3+ nights recommended.

  • Holidays: 3–4 nights minimum.

  • Shoulder seasons: 2–3 nights.

  • Slow season: 2 nights can help encourage bookings.

Align minimum stays with demand to maximize revenue while minimizing vacancy gaps.


Booking Lead Times

Branson guests typically book 30 days in advance. However:

  • Large homes may book 60–90 days out.

  • Condos and small cabins often see shorter booking windows.

Use this data to plan dynamic pricing adjustments and optimize your calendar.


Dynamic Pricing and Revenue Management Tools

Branson STR owners who rely on static pricing risk leaving money on the table. Instead:

  • Dynamic pricing tools like PriceLabs, Wheelhouse, or Beyond help adjust rates daily based on demand, seasonality, and comps.

  • Monitor occupancy pacing vs. market averages.

  • Adjust manually for events like concerts, Silver Dollar City festivals, or sporting events.


Tips for Successful Branson Revenue Management

  1. Track local calendars: Silver Dollar City, theaters, and festivals heavily influence demand.

  2. Plan for slow months: Budget conservatively for January–February.

  3. Leverage holidays: Raise rates significantly for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and July 4th.

  4. Set minimum nights smartly: Longer minimums in peak, shorter in low season.

  5. Use dynamic pricing: Don’t rely on static seasonal rates.


 

Luke Carl [00:00:00]:
Foreign.

Avery [00:00:04]:
Everybody, welcome to the Short Term show special episode series on Branson, Missouri where we are doing a 10 episode deep dive on how to buy a short term rental in Branson. So we’ve got a few supplemental materials for y’ all in addition to the content on this podcast over on our website. So any questions you have about purchase prices and searching properties you can do that on our website. We also have the Air DNA data thanks to our friends over at Air DNA income data on properties in Branson. So you can find these things at the short term shop.com so www.the shorttermshop.com purchase prices and income data. If you want to buy a short term rental property with a short term shop agent in Branson, you can email us at agents the ShortTermshop.com or if you just like us, you just want to hang out with us more, there’s a few ways you can do that can join our Facebook group. It’s the same title as my book. It’s called Short Term Rental Long Term.

Avery [00:01:01]:
We we are over there talking about short term rental investing all day, every day. Or if you prefer to talk to us in person or virtual person, you can join our Zoom call that we have every Thursday. You can sign up for that@strquestions.com we’ll catch you guys over there. Hey y’ all. Welcome back to another episode of the Short Term show special episode series on Branson. And today we are going to talk about calendars and pricing. So very important once you get close to being able to be up and running. Got two super cool dudes here to help me help me work through this.

Avery [00:01:49]:
So you’ll recognize both of them. But I’ll let Bill introduce himself first.

Bill Beck [00:01:52]:
My name is Bill Beck. I’m a real estate agent here in Branson, Missouri. I have a background working as a vacation rental buying consultant and yeah excited to talk about this topic today.

Avery [00:02:03]:
Awesome. Thank you Bill. And next we have Luke Carl. Luke, you want to introduce yourself?

Luke Carl [00:02:09]:
Yeah, I want to plug Management Monday real quick. I’ll teach a class for the shop called Management Monday. So a lot of fun. We’ve been doing it a long time. I’ve taught 10,000 plus people how to put their property on the Internet and hopefully have some success with it. So come join us, get hooked up with Bill, buy yourself a house and I’d love to come party with you every Monday. Management Monday. You can also find my podcast anywhere Short Term Rental Management and I love you and thanks for having me.

Luke Carl [00:02:36]:
Pricing is by far in my Opinion. The most important aspect of basically all rental real estate, but especially short term. Huge difference. Huge difference between long term and short term. Long term you get one price for the entire year, and short term, you got 365 different prices, sometimes times two or three if you want to do different things on different platforms. So it is a lot to just soak in and I’m glad we’re doing this.

Avery [00:03:03]:
Awesome. All right, thanks, guys. So let’s start with seasonality in brains. And we’ve touched on this in some previous episodes. But first, let’s talk about when the high season and low season is.

Bill Beck [00:03:13]:
Boom. Starts with January. February being the slowest time of the year. Those two months are, you know, kind of the Branson reset period. So anyone I, I work with, I tell like, hey, like all the other months of the year we’re gonna have bookings. But January, February, this is the time of the year where all the shows shut down. When I bought my vacation rental, I went to the welcome center and I was grabbing every brochure I could off the, you know, brochure holders and I was looking at them and it’s like March through December. And I was like, what is this? What gives? So I saw people.

Bill Beck [00:03:43]:
It’s like a chicken and egg thing. It’s like, I don’t know if people don’t come to Branson because nothing’s open or nothing’s open because, you know, people don’t come here. So we are adding more and more year round attractions though, which is great. So, so as the developments coming in, more, more things that are potentially going to get more bookings In January, February, plus last, you know, 2021, 2022, we did see that start to creep up more than it has been in the past, especially after Covid. But then you get into March, boom, you’re into spring break. So spring break bookings should see 40, 50% occupancy, maybe higher, depending on what kind of property you’ve got. But that’s just an average. April’s a little bit of a fall off.

Bill Beck [00:04:24]:
Should get all of your weekends booked for the most part, maybe some extended weekends. And then we get into May. So first part of May, first two weeks and get your weekends most likely booked. But then you’re going to start to see your calendar fill up into the peak season. So second half of May through the second week of August, this is the top of the mountain, baby. We’re talking 90 plus percent occupancy. The only gaps are when people have last minute cancellations or Awkward booking times where you’ve got someone checking out on a Tuesday and someone booking in on a Thursday. So other than that you should be completely stacked with back to back bookings.

Bill Beck [00:05:04]:
And I’ve even seen my calendar get booked for a crazy one. Like someone checked on a Tuesday, someone’s checking in on a Thursday and someone actually booked that, that little window there. So once you get into past second week August, the, the demographic that books Branson actually switches. We get a lot more retirees, they don’t want to come here when it’s absolute bananas. So we get of the older retiree crowd that comes in, they want a quieter shows that are more available so they’ll come in here in September. So when kids go back to school, just a different, different crowd comes into town. October, Silver Dollar City is open throughout the course of the week. So we actually have some pretty, pretty good bookings through the midweeks in October.

Bill Beck [00:05:45]:
And you should see that calendar or that, that occupancy stay pretty flat pretty much from September, October, November, December in this 50 to 60% range. So you know, you look at the aggregate for the year, high performing properties can do 60, 65, even close to 70%. The, the total average of all branch and vacation rentals are up about 55%. But yeah, that’s, that’s if you’re just average. So.

Avery [00:06:15]:
All right, that was a very comprehensive, probably the most comprehensive answer of any of the markets so far. When I asked about what the high season and low season is, great job.

Bill Beck [00:06:25]:
I, you know, maybe I nerd out a little bit. It’s just like no, I love it. It’s fun to know it too because you know, everyone’s worried right now. Everyone’s kind of like, oh man, recession, economy’s bad. Like we’re, we’re gonna be just fine. We’re a recession proof market. You know, everything’s booking up on my calendar as, as planned. So it’s just like I’m telling people like don’t worry, this is gonna be fine.

Bill Beck [00:06:47]:
So awesome.

Avery [00:06:49]:
So you kind of touched on this a little bit. Let’s talk about what your average night stay is or what your minimum and maximum different times of year.

Bill Beck [00:06:58]:
Yeah, I think basically from that June, you know, actually starting in Memorial Day through Labor Day, try to keep that min stay three nights at least just because you can obviously change that as that, that period closes in, that booking window gets closer and then the offseat, the, the shoulder seasons, keeping it around 2. Anything around major holidays, Christmas, 4th of July, might even want to go higher than that. That is something that depends on how aggressive you want to be. But that’s. That’s kind of a good way to do it for booking roles, so. Also, too, the occupancy curve for Branson, if you overlay it over the Smokies, the Gatlinburg Pigeon Porsche, it’s almost identical. So the only change is there’s a little more. There’s more bookings in the January, February time period for the Smokies, but there’s actually slight increase in Branson for the September time of year.

Bill Beck [00:07:51]:
So.

Avery [00:07:52]:
Interesting. Look. You look like you have a question.

Luke Carl [00:07:54]:
No, no question. You know, again, I. I think he’s nailed it. You know, the. Our studies show that it’s very similar to most mountain markets, wherein the wintertime is going to be dead and you can get stuff done. And. And if you’re familiar with the Smokies or. Or, you know, Blue Ridge or anything like that, it’s going to be probably a pretty similar vibe.

Luke Carl [00:08:17]:
And that’s exactly what you want. I mean, you know, if some. Every now and then, we’ll get somebody that’s like, man, I’m looking for a market that’s busy when the other markets are not busy, and it’s. Well, that’s not going to be a vacation market. You know, there’s going to be a whole different. Whole different thing. Right. But, you know, I grew up in the Midwest.

Luke Carl [00:08:33]:
I grew up in Nebraska once, one state up. And. And this. This. This town is a huge staple in the. In the Midwestern culture. And it’s what you do. You know, it’s what you do in the summertime.

Luke Carl [00:08:45]:
It’s what you do with your family. Silver Dollar City is amazing. And I took Avery there last year. We rode the teacups about 600 times with our kids, and it was awesome.

Avery [00:08:56]:
I rode the Teacups. You were not got sick.

Luke Carl [00:09:01]:
I know. I’m okay on the Teacups. Don’t get me on a roller coaster. That’s not my thing. But I just love it there. We might end up hitting it on the way back next month we’re going on the road.

Avery [00:09:12]:
But yeah, I think no, because that’s falling, like, right on July 4th, and I can’t think of anything I would rather not do than being busy. But, yeah, I do have. I came across a video of our kids in the Teacups at Silver Dollar City last year, and our daughter is cackling, having the best time ever, and our son is screaming his face off. He could not like he couldn’t get off fast enough.

Luke Carl [00:09:34]:
Well, he was too little.

Avery [00:09:35]:
Yeah, he was.

Luke Carl [00:09:36]:
You know, he’s bigger now. I think he’ll love it. But. But yeah, you know, maybe October is a little, you know, the, you got the leaf season, you know, you got the leaf season there. So that’s a bit of an outlier, I would say, as far as bookings are concerned. And you know, my research shows that there is definitely a lot of room for improvement with, with most listings as it is in most markets where the pictures are bad in a lot of cases and things like that. And all that stuff is reflected in your prices. If you come in and knock that stuff out of the park, your price per night goes up and you just get more and more booked.

Luke Carl [00:10:09]:
And. And again, the research we did shows that people’s calendars are booked right now. You know, I mean, we’re summertime. We’re very beginning of summertime. It’s. It’s a heavy booking season, but we’re coming out of that kind of weird dead March, May zone, you know, so not March, the other, the other end May. And you know, our kids just, finally, just got out of school and folks are taking advantage of that. They are booking, you know, and we are seeing that in Branson 100% right now, where almost every listing I’m looking at doing my enemy method methoding and things.

Luke Carl [00:10:41]:
Folks are having success and you can easily see when they’re not, why they’re not, you know, just terrible pictures and that kind of thing. And it’s a, and it’s an inexpensive market, Avery. You know, to go on vacation here does not cost you a fortune, you know, So I think that’s a huge advantage. It really is. And your price per night doesn’t need to be through the roof to just to float the boat, you know, so. But yeah, as far as seasonality is concerned, nothing. Nothing. No, no surprises here.

Luke Carl [00:11:09]:
Very typical across the board for me. You know, just top notch vacation market as far as January and February, kind of sucking a little bit. And then you got your. A little bit on the September side and in May. September, May. Kind of the shoulder season there. Yeah.

Bill Beck [00:11:25]:
When Silverador City’s open, this place is busy and I didn’t really, it didn’t click with me. I didn’t really have that epiphany until I started actually looking at the calendar of Salvador City and seeing how that does actually correlate with like some of the bookings. So that’s like a really wild thing that you, if you look at Your calendar and you match it to when it’s open because they have. They have like a flex calendar where they have like more weekdays open in October than they do in September. And it’s like, well, that makes sense now that you kind of think of the people that are booking here. So really something that kind of opened my eye. I mean, I didn’t even know that for a while. It was like something I learned here just even a couple weeks ago where it was like, oh, this actually is what people have been talking about.

Bill Beck [00:12:09]:
So.

Luke Carl [00:12:10]:
And it is open year round, right? It’s just not open. Or maybe not January.

Bill Beck [00:12:15]:
No, they shut down. They shut down in Jan. Feb. So they actually put in a giant new parking lot. So they’ve completely like, like terraformed the entire area with massive dump trucks and. And backhoes and completely, like gutted it, repaved it. And now everything you said, if you guys came here and saw it, like, it’s nothing like you’ve seen just the parking lot area.

Luke Carl [00:12:36]:
So yeah, we were there last. We were there exactly this time last year because it was the barbecue festival. And I think that’s getting started right now. And. But the. Their calendar shuts down. So I don’t. I don’t know the, the winter availability.

Luke Carl [00:12:48]:
I know they are open in December, maybe not on a weekdays, but. And Christmas is big there, is it not?

Bill Beck [00:12:54]:
Oh, yeah, Christmas. So first, well, Silver Dollar City lights up Christmas. I always like, try to verbally explain to people like, no, just do yourself a favor. Go to find a Christmas Silver Dollar City light display video on YouTube and just look at it. Because, I mean, you guys have Dollywood and there’s like a. Even a YouTuber that’s like, what’s better, Dollywood or Branson’s Christmas display? And you know, Branson kind of won. But hey, well, you.

Avery [00:13:23]:
Dollywood did used to be a Silver Dollar city before Dolly got involved. So they’re kind of the same thing.

Bill Beck [00:13:30]:
Yeah, they’re kind of like, I don’t know, brother sister thing going on. So it’s definitely. But when Silver Dollar Cities open in that winter time, I mean, they go bananas. They’ve got a Christmas parade. They do. Or they get all the, like, you know, floats out in the street and people are just sipping their hot cocoa like, oh, this is great. And you got crazy amounts. Like there’s like 6 million lights.

Bill Beck [00:13:55]:
So.

Avery [00:13:55]:
Whoa.

Bill Beck [00:13:56]:
We are far enough south that we don’t generally get clapped by like awful Midwestern weather. So we’re just on that edge where, you know, you might get mid-30s, mid-40s, but the park’s still open, so they will continue to run roller coasters until, like, 34 degrees. So I may or may not have ridden a wild roller coaster in the middle of the night at, like, 36 degrees out. So it’s.

Avery [00:14:20]:
Oh, that sounds terrible. Why would you ever do that?

Luke Carl [00:14:24]:
You’re majorly offended by cold weather, period. There are people that are. Are okay with cold. I’m totally okay with cold weather. I grew up in it. But Avery takes it way. She takes it personally. She’s totally offended that it’s like a vendetta against her.

Luke Carl [00:14:43]:
We’re gonna make it cold outside just to make you. No, that’s because you’re from mouth and it’s always blazing hot.

Avery [00:14:49]:
Yeah, I need heat and humidity to live properly.

Bill Beck [00:14:54]:
Like a lizard.

Avery [00:14:55]:
Yeah, I’m a lizard. Or a snake.

Bill Beck [00:14:58]:
So Silver Dollar City started the Christmas thing, and then Branson was like, well, dang, a lot of people coming to town. So everybody else get on board. So Branson city actually mandates November 1st. You better have your lights up to all the businesses locally because it’s. It’s Christmas mode. So on that November 1st switch over date, I mean, even like a week prior, you’ll start to see crews, like, putting things in places to get ready, like our Titanic museum. Like, they’ve got tree out in front. They haven’t flipped the switch yet.

Bill Beck [00:15:28]:
But, yeah, November 1st through basically new Year’s. I mean, it’s. It’s Christmas season, and people are here specifically for that because it’s a. Literally a destination to go for Christmas.

Luke Carl [00:15:40]:
You know, I think you can see a. Maybe a 75% increase on your. You know, if you. If we’re talking straight up Thanksgiving and Christmas dates, like a week around those two holidays, probably about 75% increase of a regular old night in, say, like, June or August, maybe, maybe 50% increase, but, you know, anywhere from 50 to 100% maybe. Maybe. In other words, maybe even double what you would get on a normal weekend kind of thing in August for those major holidays. You got to be careful there, Avery. As you know, with booking the holidays.

Luke Carl [00:16:16]:
It’s a very. It’s a science. There’s a sweet spot there. You don’t want to book them too far in advance. And me personally, I don’t like to book them at the last minute because people. They’re going for the major holidays, you can almost guarantee that they’re going to be more of a pain in the rear end than people that are not major holiday People, these are types of folks that don’t get out of the house as much generally, number one and number two, they are very. There’s a lot of stress involved there. Having family for or for a holiday in general is always stressful.

Luke Carl [00:16:49]:
When you’re doing it in a house that you’re not familiar with, never been to, and moving people outside of their element, the stress gets even higher. And as hosts, we do have to deal with that. So I think that that is increased the closer you get to the holiday. In other words, if you get somebody to, if you keep your prices super, super high in order to book Thanksgiving or Christmas way last minute, you’re going to be probably working harder. And it’s, I hate to say it, but it’s really, really difficult to get a good review out of that type of a client of a guest where they’re a last minute major holiday guest. So be careful with your pricing there. Since it is such a heavy Christmas holiday area, it is a fine line between pricing it right, getting what the property is worth and, and even oftentimes more important, getting the right guest to fill those holidays. It’s all about pricing.

Luke Carl [00:17:42]:
That’s very, very little sweet spot there. You got to pay attention to it.

Avery [00:17:45]:
All right, let’s talk about lead times, which you kind of already touched on. So throughout the year, what, what are we seeing for booking lead times in this market?

Bill Beck [00:17:54]:
I was actually going to jump right into that. So you read my mind. So perfect. Average. Average. Average is bell curve 30 days. So you know, plus or minus that. That started here.

Bill Beck [00:18:06]:
This last, you know, year. Two years prior to that it was more like 90 days. So obviously the COVID effect people are like, well, we’ll just do it later on. So that’s, that’s pretty much the standard. Some of the. Now some of the larger properties where there’s bigger groups that go. Obviously there’s a lot of more logistics when you’ve got multiple families trying to figure out, okay, what are the days that you’re able to do this? So those ones can book out, you know, like right as of today, you could probably get bookings into late August. But a lot of the smaller properties here, the, you know, 4 to 12 people unit size, those are probably right around 30 days.

Bill Beck [00:18:48]:
Now summer is probably booked as of like right now through maybe mid July. But if, if it’s not, I’ve had people ask me like, why is this calendar not like it’s like, well, it’s okay. I mean it’s all of June’s booked The rest of May is booked. We’ve got a couple in July. It’s going to be fine. So that’s, that’s generally what we’re seeing here for. And then, you know, you get an occasional far off in the distant bookings. But that’s, that’s been kind of what’s happening here and it’s, it’s very regular, so if people aren’t used to it.

Bill Beck [00:19:21]:
In fact, I’ve had people point out like, look at this one. It’s all completely booked out. I’m like, great. They really underpriced their place and they’re giving it away, so good for them.

Luke Carl [00:19:32]:
There’s a little bit of an element there of, you know, the, the, the, the further in advance, the more expensive the property. Not always cut and dry like that, but there is a bit of an element. And since you do have so much, so many affordable stays here in Branson, I think that that will kind of lend itself a little bit to, to more, you know, a little bit more last minute, maybe not as far out occupancy, which, there’s nothing wrong with that. And we’re seeing that across the board anyway right now in short term, where lead times are, are lower than, than, than what they used to be. We used to try, and I used to personally try and keep my lead times about four or five, maybe even six weeks in advance. And Airbnb recently said that they’re 22 days across the board lead time on, on, on occupancy. Now that’s worldwide. Um, so you’re talking, you know, I mean, just millions and millions and millions of properties all across the globe there for that 22 day number.

Luke Carl [00:20:23]:
And a lot of those properties, of course, Airbnb are going to be like, you know, individual rooms, which is not what we’re talking about here. We’re of course talking about renting the whole property, the whole condo, that kind of thing. So it can run the gamut and it depends on you. How do you want to price your property? Do you want to be more booked in the future? Then you can do that. You’re going to have to adjust your prices accordingly and, and pay more attention and, and get in there and just minimum night stays and, and really, you know, you know, five, ten minutes a day on your calendar. If you, if you want to be further, further out, just cater your pricing to that. And if you want to be a little bit closer in, the possibility is there of getting a little bit more money doing it that way in some cases. So if you Want to do it that way, too.

Luke Carl [00:21:02]:
It’s all about, you know, everybody’s management style is going to be a little different.

Avery [00:21:05]:
Yeah, I totally agree with that. And what Bill said earlier about people freaking out because they see other people’s calendars booked all the way through next year, that’s definitely a. I want to highlight that for some of you listeners because especially when you’re new and you start looking around at everybody else and doing the enemy method, it can look like, oh, my gosh, this person’s booked out until next year. What am I doing wrong? They’re doing so much better than me. And actually they probably are making less because they have it priced too low. So you’re probably actually going to end up doing better than them. Having a calendar booked out a year in advance, at least in this market, is not necessarily a good thing.

Luke Carl [00:21:42]:
That’s the old school way of doing things. And you’re going to see that with a lot of property managers. Third party property managers. Sorry, Bill.

Bill Beck [00:21:47]:
No, I was gonna say the, the anecdotally running across a property and asking them, you know, how are you pricing this? And they’re like, well, we got a peak season rate 145, an offseason rate, 110. And you’re like, that’s it. Like, that’s, that’s the, that’s the revenue management strategy to make you top dollar. You’re just this price, this window and that price of that window of like, wow. Okay, so I’m, you know, letting, letting the buyer know, like, don’t do that. Do not do that. That. The whole upside with vacation rentals is not doing that.

Avery [00:22:22]:
Yeah, wild.

Luke Carl [00:22:24]:
All right, what else? That’s your competition, then you should be pretty confident.

Avery [00:22:27]:
Yep, I totally agree with that. What, what else have we not covered in terms of calendars and pricing? Because this is, you know, not going to be a terribly long episode. But I want to make sure that we cover everything, too.

Luke Carl [00:22:39]:
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a little cut and dry, to be honest. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty meat and potatoes here. And it, it’s. No, we’re not reinventing the wheel here as far as getting this thing booked. You know, a smaller property. I think you’re probably looking for somewhere around 85% occupancy throughout the year, with most of that falling between March and October. And, and, and again, that’s the whole beauty, the beauty of the market, you know, it’s, it’s not rocket science. You just got to Come in there with good pictures and give it, give a crap and, and, and you should do well.

Bill Beck [00:23:11]:
All right.

Avery [00:23:11]:
Anything else?

Bill Beck [00:23:12]:
I was just thinking about like, random things you put on your calendar just for like, maintenance items that’ll come up very, very rarely. But I mean, there’s really, it’s pretty cut and dry like you guys are saying. So it’s, it’s, I think the, the main focus would just be like when people are looking right now. I mean, just keep in mind that that booking window of about 30 days, like that is kind of the average. So don’t, don’t panic, don’t try to use the enemy method and, you know, see a bunch of open, empty calendars because that’s just, that’s just the way that this area in particular has evolved in terms of how people are, are booking, their behavior.

Avery [00:23:50]:
Yeah.

Luke Carl [00:23:50]:
And I will say, Avery, I, you know, my, my enemy methoding is showing pretty, pretty confident on the calendars here. You know, I’m sure I’m showing some pretty, pretty hefty bookings for the most part. Now, of course we are, we are in that time of year where you, where you probably do want to see your calendar a little more booked than other parts of the year. So. But yeah, he’s totally right about everything there. And, and, and I mean, nothing but confidence for me. If I’m enemy methoding this market right now, I, to me, it’s a no brainer, especially if you’re Midwestern and you’re familiar with the area. You know what I mean? It’s, it’s a wonderful thing if you want to get into the short term business.

Luke Carl [00:24:27]:
I don’t, I don’t, I don’t see why not. Am I sounding too pitchy?

Avery [00:24:35]:
And of course we’re using a pricing tool, right? We’re paying attention to price labs.

Luke Carl [00:24:39]:
Well, I’m all price labs all the way. Bill’s more than welcome to comment. And I was going to actually, now that you mentioned that, I was going to say, you know, when you’re comparing yourself to those folks that are like Bill said, like, oh, we’re do we do 145 on the weekends and 120 on the weekdays or whatever. I mean, even if you get on price labs and run it, we call it naked. When you don’t put in your numbers, you got the high min and the low average, high, high, low, et cetera, whatever they’re called. The three numbers on price labs, I call that naked. When you run them empty. If you run those empty, you are still Doing better than that, Billy Bob.

Luke Carl [00:25:12]:
That price is the same damn price all, every night, all year or you know what I mean? And that’s still very common. That’s very common in this market, which is great news because it doesn’t take much effort. All you got to do is spend 10 minutes, hook up price labs and, and play around with it here and there. And, and you, you’ve already got a better pricing strategy than Billy Bob.

Bill Beck [00:25:32]:
Yeah, I want to, I want to address that concern because that is something that I’ve had a lot of, you know, recent people that are looking to buy here that I’ve talked to in the last even weeks and they’re like, we’re just, now we’re not sure we’re going to be successful. And it’s that confidence to be like, no trust you are with the short term shop. We are experts in this space. Your competition that has owned this for 15 years, they are like not as sophisticated as you think. So you have a very high chance of at least being in the upper 50th percentile, if not for sure, 75th percentile. And you know, it’s like how, how hard do you want to push it to get into that upper tier to get 90th plus percent. But, but just using the basics. I mean this is your competition out here.

Bill Beck [00:26:15]:
You got people with green carpets that have, you know, 1993 cabinetry with brass fixtures who have eight pictures on their listing with a four sentence display of what they’re, what they’re, you know, renting. They probably still call it vbro. So this is like your competition here and not everyone. I mean it’s, it’s slowly evolving, but it is something that I still see it and it’s like you’re, you’re gonna be okay.

Avery [00:26:44]:
Awesome. Well, if we don’t have anything else, I think we’d kind of touched on everything we need to touch on here. Price labs all the way.

Luke Carl [00:26:53]:
I’m a fan.

Avery [00:26:54]:
Yeah. All right then. So if you listeners want to buy a house with Bill, email us at agents at the short term shop.com we’ll get you connected with him. Or if you just have further questions, we have a live Zoom Q and A every Thursday. You can sign up for that@strquestions.com and also be sure to join our Facebook group. It is the same title as my book, Short term Rental, Long term wealth. We are in there talking about short term rental investing all day, every day. And we will see you over there.

Avery [00:27:23]:
Thanks guys.

Luke Carl [00:27:24]:
Thank you.

Bill Beck [00:27:25]:
See you.

FAQ: How to Price a Short Term Rental in Branson

When is peak season for Branson Airbnbs?

Memorial Day through mid-August is peak season, with occupancy reaching 90% or more.

What are Branson’s slowest months for STRs?

January and February are the slowest, with many shows and attractions closed.

How should I price holidays in Branson?

Raise rates 50–100% for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and major summer holidays. Increase minimum night stays to 3–4 nights.

How far in advance do guests book Branson Airbnbs?

On average, 30 days in advance. Large homes may book 60–90 days ahead.

Who is the best short term rental realtor in Branson, Missouri?

The Short Term Shop is the nation’s leading STR real estate team, with more than 5,000 investors served and $3.5 billion in STR sales. We specialize in helping investors price, manage, and maximize their Branson short term rentals.

Contact us: agents@theshorttermshop.com | 800-898-1498 | The Short Term Shop


Contact The Short Term Shop

Ready to learn more about Branson short term rental revenue management? The Short Term Shop can guide you through pricing strategies, connect you with tools, and help you buy STRs that maximize ROI.


Disclaimer

This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult with licensed professionals before making pricing or investment decisions.


Final Thoughts

Understanding how to price a short term rental in Branson is key to long-term success. With the right revenue management strategy—seasonal adjustments, holiday premiums, minimum night stays, and dynamic pricing tools—you’ll stay competitive and profitable in one of the Midwest’s strongest vacation rental markets.

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