STR pacing reports: how to research your market with PriceLabs

If you manage a short-term rental, the question you're actually trying to answer every week is simple: are my bookings ahead of or behind where they should be right now? Pacing reports exist to answer exactly that. They compare your current bookings, rates, and occupancy against last year and against your local market, so you know whether to hold your pricing, push it, or pull back, before the booking window closes and it's too late to act.

What is a pacing report in short-term rentals?

A pacing report tracks how your listing's key metrics, typically occupancy, average daily rate (ADR), and revenue per available rental (RevPAR), are building up for a future date compared to a reference point. That reference point is usually one of two things: the same period last year, or the current local market.

Use PriceLabs pacing reports to understand your property's performance

"Pacing ahead" means your bookings for a given date are coming in faster than that reference point. "Pacing behind" means they're coming in slower. Neither is inherently good or bad on its own. Pacing ahead of last year during a period when the whole market is up isn't a signal you're doing anything differently; pacing ahead of the market when the market itself is flat is a much stronger sign your pricing or listing is working.

That distinction, between pacing against yourself and pacing against the market, is what makes the data useful for decisions rather than just a status update.

How to read a pacing curve

A pacing curve plots one of your key metrics (occupancy, ADR, or RevPAR) over the booking window leading up to a stay date, typically shown as a percentage compared to the same point last year or against the market.

Here's how to read one in practice. Say you're looking at your pacing curve for a set of dates 60 days out:

• If your occupancy curve sits above the same-period-last-year line and above the market line, you're in a strong position. This is usually a signal you can hold or nudge rates up without much risk to occupancy.
• If your curve sits below last year but in line with the market, the whole market is likely softer this year, not just your listing. The right response is usually to adjust with the market rather than panic-discount against a weak comparison year.
• If your curve sits below both last year and the market, that's the clearest signal to act: something specific to your listing, whether it's price, photos, or availability, is underperforming relative to demand that's actually there.

Booking curves work the same way but track how bookings accumulate over the lead time to a stay date (for example, at 60, 30, and 7 days out), which helps you see not just where you stand today but whether the gap is closing or widening as the date approaches.

How to access pacing data in PriceLabs

Pacing data shows up in three places, depending on what you're trying to see:

• Portfolio Analytics is where you track your own listings' pacing. The Pacing tab compares your current occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR to the same period last year, with separate views for individual listings or your whole portfolio. Our guide to using Portfolio Analytics walks through the rest of what the dashboard surfaces beyond pacing.
• Market Dashboards show local market-level pacing, so you can see whether your specific market is trending up or down for a given period, independent of your own listings' performance.
• Neighborhood Data surfaces pacing at the individual listing level within your comp set, letting you compare your pacing against specific comparable properties rather than the market as a whole.

Use Portfolio Analytics if you want to see your own pacing data before committing to anything else. If you're setting up regular reporting around these tools for the first time, our dynamic pricing reporting checklist covers how pacing fits alongside occupancy, ADR, and lead-time data in a routine review.

When to act on pacing signals

Pacing data is only useful if it changes what you do. A few practical triggers:

• Pacing meaningfully ahead of both last year and the market, sustained over more than a few days: consider raising rates for that window, since demand is outpacing typical patterns. If you manage multiple units, dynamic pricing automation can apply that adjustment across a portfolio rather than listing by listing.
• Pacing behind the market specifically, even if roughly in line with last year: check your pricing against your comp set first. This is usually a competitiveness issue, not a demand issue.
• Pacing behind both benchmarks close to the stay date: this is where last-minute pricing adjustments or a minimum-stay change can help fill remaining inventory before the date passes.
• Pacing ahead early, then flattening: don't assume the early trend holds. Recheck closer to the date rather than locking in a rate change based on early data alone. Building this kind of check into a recurring habit is really what separates seasonal planning that works from a one-time calendar review.

The pattern that matters isn't a single day's number. It's whether the gap between you and your benchmark is widening, holding steady, or closing as the booking window shortens, which is the same principle behind reading short-term rental analytics more broadly: a snapshot tells you less than a trend does.

FAQs: STR pacing reports

What is pacing in short-term rentals?

Pacing measures how your bookings, rates, or occupancy for a future date are building up compared to a reference point, usually last year or your local market, so you can catch demand shifts before the stay date arrives.

How do I know if my listing is underperforming the market?

Compare your pacing curve against Market Dashboards or Neighborhood Data for the same period. If your listing is behind while the broader market is flat or up, that points to something specific to your listing rather than a market-wide slowdown.

What is a pacing curve?

A pacing curve is a chart showing how a metric like occupancy or ADR builds up over the booking window for a given stay date, typically plotted against the same period last year or the market average.

Is pacing the same as forecasting?

No. Pacing shows how your current bookings compare to a real historical or market benchmark right now. Forecasting projects where you're likely to end up based on models. Pacing is what grounds a forecast in what's actually happening.

Do I need a paid plan to see pacing data?

No. Portfolio Analytics, which includes pacing reports, is available free, independent of a paid PriceLabs subscription.