Managing short-term rentals is tricky. You have to set the right prices, attract guests, and keep things running smoothly. Most hosts already understand how dynamic pricing helps them earn more. But there’s another big opportunity that’s often overlooked: optimizing minimum stay rules.
That’s why we’re introducing Dynamic Min Stay—a completely new feature from PriceLabs designed to help you automatically optimize your minimum stay settings, earn more revenue, and save you from constant calendar updates.
Just like dynamic pricing transformed how hosts set nightly rates, Dynamic Min Stay is transforming minimum stay management.
What’s the problem with traditional minimum stays?
Traditionally, minimum stay rules are rigid, set once, and rarely changed. You might have rules like:
- Minimum 7-night stays in peak summer.
- Minimum 3-night stays for weekends.
- Minimum 2-night stays for weekdays.
These fixed rules often leave money on the table. Imagine your beach house usually rents for seven-night stays in July. But one week has an awkward three-night gap between two bookings. With a rigid minimum stay, those nights go unsold. That’s lost revenue.
Why Dynamic Min Stay is different—and better
Dynamic Min Stay automatically adjusts your minimum stays based on booking patterns, seasonal demand, and your property’s past and future bookings. You don’t need to hire an external consultant or constantly update rules yourself.
How does it work? Here’s exactly what you do:
- Go to Customizations and select Minimum Stay Settings.
- Turn on the toggle and from the dropdown, select PriceLabs Recommended (Short-Term Rental).
- Enter your Lowest Minimum Stay for weekday and weekend stays. Optionally, set a Highest Minimum Stay if desired.
- Click on Review Recommended Stay Settings.
You’ll immediately see our recommended minimum stays clearly outlined for each of the next 12 months, grouped by:
- Default stays: Typical stays within your usual booking window.
- Last-minute stays: Short-notice bookings to fill empty nights, usually recommending shorter stays.
- Far-out stays: Bookings months ahead; longer minimum stays recommended.
- Orphan gaps: Small gaps between existing bookings; shorter stays recommended to maximize occupancy.
For each of these categories, recommendations specify both weekday and weekend stays.
Keeping you in control, every step of the way
We understand automation can be daunting. Dynamic Min Stay ensures you maintain full control with two critical features:
- Core minimums: When you toggle Dynamic Min Stay on, you’re invited to set your lowest minimum stays for weekdays and weekends. Whatever happens, the tool will never recommend length-of-stays shorter than these limits.
- Date-specific overrides (best practice): After activating Dynamic Min Stay, you might still want longer stays for specific periods—for example, the recommended stay in December might be four nights, but for Christmas week, you prefer seven nights. You can easily adjust this directly on your calendar by setting an override for those specific dates. This ensures you get the best combination of automated optimization and your personal preferences.
- Works with your custom strategies: If you’re already using specific strategies, for example, Custom Seasonal Profiles (CSPs), those settings remain in place. Dynamic Min Stay will only apply to dates outside the seasons you’ve defined, giving you optimization where you want it and consistency where you need it.
How the 90-day Adaptive Occupancy Adjustment works
Dynamic Min Stay continuously monitors your property’s occupancy compared to similar properties in your local market for the next 90 days, adapting recommendations to reflect your actual performance:
- If your occupancy is 10-20% lower than the market, we automatically reduce your recommended minimum stay by 1 night.
- If it’s more than 20% lower, we reduce it by 2 nights.
This adaptive adjustment specifically refines your Default and last-minute minimum stay settings, keeping them responsive to changing market conditions.
Monthly recommendations, based on seasonal and historical patterns, remain relatively stable; however, the 90-day Adaptive Occupancy Adjustment ensures that recommendations reflect both stable market trends and your property’s performance. This dual-layered approach makes Dynamic Min Stay not only automated but also intelligently responsive.
The proof: Why Dynamic Min Stay boosts revenue — without the chaos
We simulated real-world booking patterns across 300+ markets to see what really works:
- A flat 1-night minimum stay outperformed longer fixed rules (2–4 nights) on revenue, but it came at a cost: constant turnovers, added labor, and logistical headaches.
- Dynamic Min Stay delivered even higher revenue, without the operational pain. It smartly adapts stay lengths based on demand patterns, booking gaps, and your listing’s performance.
- The result? More booked nights, more revenue, and fewer short-stay headaches.
It’s not just more bookings. It’s smarter bookings.
Why you can trust Dynamic Min Stay
Dynamic Min Stay is built on PriceLabs’ deep experience helping thousands of hosts optimize their pricing and bookings over the past decade. We’ve spent years refining our approach based on real data. This expertise is now effortlessly available to you.
Get started: Activate Dynamic Min Stay today
Dynamic Min Stay strategically increases your revenue while simplifying your life. Less busywork, more results. Learn more here.