October 2024 Holiday Letting Pulse Report

This report dives into the numbers behind the UK holiday let market in September 2024, and what has changed since the school summer holidays came to an end.

We have analysed key data trends including customer searching and booking behaviours in October compared to previous months and years. We also cover the best performing locations across the month.

Key takeaways

Below are the key findings from our research into the performance of the UK holiday let market in October 2024:

• Sykes website searches for Christmas/New Year breaks were 56% up on last month

• Average booking lead time was 10% shorter year-on-year, with almost a quarter of all Sykes website searches seeking a break in the same month

• Average length of stay was 8% shorter year-on-year, despite owner revenue per holiday being +3%

• The Peak District, Lake District and Cotswolds were the top 3 regions to own a holiday let

Customer behaviours in October 2024

This graph shows the dates that people were searching for on the Sykes website last month. Shaded areas represent key holiday periods such as Christmas, New Year and school holidays.

October Half Term was the most-searched for time period during October (24% of all searches), showing that UK holidaymakers are still willing to leave it later to book a getaway.

The above graph also shows that people are clearly thinking more towards Christmas and New Year. 15% of searches were looking for a break in this period, which is a 56% increase compared to searches performed in September. If you’re looking to prepare for the festive season, take a look at our guide to decorating your holiday let for Christmas.

As mentioned above, there has recently been a clear trend in holidaymakers booking much closer to their date of departure. This pattern became clear from June 2024, and since then the average booking lead time has been 9% shorter compared to 2023. As for October itself, the average lead time was almost 10% shorter year-on-year.

It seems that some of the most likely reasons for this behaviour shift were as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. Despite this, a break of some sort seems to be one of the last things the UK want to give up completely. People are perhaps willing to wait longer to book to be more assured of their finances, and try and wait for the best deal possible.

Although lead times have reduced compared to 2023, the above graph shows that overall lead times generally increase in the colder months. In the winter, the average lead time is 60% longer than in the summer. The likely main reason for this is the warmer weather inspiring people to book a last-minute staycation in the sun.

Another way that people are still managing to enjoy a UK holiday at a lower cost is by reducing the length of their break.

As you can see, the average length of stay has been consistently lower in 2024 compared to 2023. This is another shift in in recent times.

In October, the average holiday was almost 8% shorter than last year. Despite this, owners welcomed an average of 3% more revenue per holiday.

The best performing regions for holiday lets in October

Despite the Lake District consistently securing the most bookings, it has been overtaken this month by the Peak District, which was also the region with the biggest increase in position. The latter performed better on net occupancy, bookings per property and average booking value.

Other regions that saw big increases were Southern Scotland and the Yorkshire Dales, who jumped by 4 and 3 places respectively. The Yorkshire Dales' 3-place increase was due to improvements in bookings per property and average booking value.

The Scottish Highlands and Islands and North Wales saw the biggest drops, falling by 6 and 7 spots respectively.

Previous Holiday Letting Pulse Reports

August 2024

September 2024

Methodology

• The 'ranked' charts are calculated using Sykes' internal data. It takes into account; net occupancy rate (of the time a property is available to be booked, the percentage that is occupied by guests), total number of bookings, average bookings per property and average value per booking.

• 'Booking value' refers to the amount that a property is booked for, prior to any deductions/expenses etc.