The 2026 STR Revenue Playbook

Jasper Ribbers:

What’s up everybody. Welcome back to Get Paid For Your Pad. It’s Monday, which means another episode of RevUp, where we talk about revenue management.

Today is the last episode of 2025, so I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who has been listening and watching this year. Whether you follow us on YouTube or through the podcast, we really appreciate the support.

We’ve found a great rhythm with the podcast this year and we’ve invested heavily in improving the content. If you’ve watched our videos on the Freewyld Foundry YouTube channel, you’ve probably noticed the quality jump. We’ve also been publishing a lot more on Instagram, and we plan to continue doing this consistently in 2026.

With that, happy new year, and I wish you all the best going into 2026.

For today’s episode, I want to walk through five pieces of advice that will help you crush your revenue management in 2026. This episode is for anyone managing revenue for their own portfolio, as well as for professional revenue managers overseeing multiple portfolios for clients.

These are the five areas I believe deserve the most focus if you want to drive strong results next year.

Tip #1: Educate Yourself on Revenue Management

The first piece of advice is to continuously educate yourself on revenue management.

If you want to stay ahead of the market and drive the best possible results, learning has to be an ongoing process. One of the challenges in our industry is that there isn’t a lot of formal education around revenue management for short-term rentals. There’s plenty of material for hotels and airlines, but far less for STR operators.

That said, this podcast is a great place to start. We’ve published many RevUp episodes this year that go deep into revenue management concepts. If you haven’t listened to them all yet, I highly recommend going back and doing so.

We’ve also hosted multiple webinars and workshops, including sessions at VRMA. If you missed any of those and want access to the replays, you can email me at jasper@freewyld.com and I’ll send them over.

In addition, we offer a revenue management course called the Kessler Mastery Course. It’s still active and updated regularly. If you want to level up your skills in a structured way, that’s a great option. You can find more information at freewyldfoundry.com.

Beyond our content, there are other resources available as well. If you’re using PriceLabs, for example, they offer a strong training center with webinars and documentation. Many operators apply for our revenue management service without realizing how many PriceLabs features they aren’t using. It’s a very sophisticated tool, and learning how to use it properly can unlock meaningful gains.

So step one is to educate yourself on your pricing tool. Step two is to educate yourself on revenue management as a discipline.

Be intentional about where you learn from. Anyone can publish advice online, so do your due diligence. Make sure the people you’re listening to have real operating experience and proven results.

I recommend blocking off at least one hour per week in your calendar purely for education. Investing in yourself and your knowledge is one of the highest ROI activities you can do.

Tip #2: Control Your Pacing

The second tip is to control your pacing.

If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you know that pacing is the most important concept in revenue management. When you control pacing, you leverage the entire booking window instead of reacting at the last minute.

Many operators only look at pricing once or twice a week. They focus almost entirely on last-minute inventory and rarely analyze what’s happening earlier in the booking window. As a result, they don’t actually know what their booking window looks like.

Our favorite KPI for pacing is Market Penetration Index, or MPI. We look at forward occupancy across the full booking window and compare it to the market. If we see a portfolio pacing behind, we adjust prices further out to stimulate demand earlier.

Relying on last-minute bookings usually leads to lower ADR. By managing pacing, you reduce that dependency.

You should set pacing targets based on seasonality. Going into low season, you typically want to be ahead of the market. Going into high season, pacing with the market or even slightly behind can make sense, especially in markets that reliably sell out at premium rates.

One example comes from a client we onboarded early last year. They believed they were performing well because their occupancy was always high. What they didn’t realize was that most of their bookings were coming very late in the booking window at low prices.

They were overpriced far out, so they weren’t getting early bookings. They only focused on the final month, even though their booking window was five to six months long.

By correcting pacing and adjusting prices earlier, we increased their RevPAR by 35 percent. Nothing else changed. The setup was fine. Pacing was the issue.

That’s how powerful pacing control can be.

Tip #3: Establish Daily and Weekly Revenue Cadences

The third tip is to establish daily and weekly cadences for revenue management.

You need a process. Revenue management can’t be something you only look at when you have free time or when bookings slow down.

Carve out time every day to review bookings, inventory, pacing, and performance. Then carve out at least one longer weekly session to analyze trends and make bigger adjustments.

For small portfolios, 15 to 30 minutes per day may be enough. Larger portfolios require more time. The key is consistency.

Personally, I block off my mornings for revenue management. From 8 a.m. onward, I focus exclusively on the portfolios I manage. No meetings, no messages, no distractions.

That level of focus matters.

I dedicated an entire episode to revenue management cadence recently, and I highly recommend revisiting it if this is an area you struggle with.

Tip #4: Prepare for World Cup Demand in 2026

The fourth tip is to pay close attention to World Cup-related demand in 2026.

The World Cup will be one of the biggest demand drivers next year, especially in June and July. Millions of international travelers will be coming to the United States, and they won’t just stay in host cities.

If someone travels to Los Angeles for a match, they may also visit the Grand Canyon, Big Bear, the beach, or other destinations. Many travelers will stay for one to two weeks, not just a few days.

Major tourist destinations like Disney, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon will likely see increased demand even if they aren’t hosting games.

The tournament runs roughly from mid-June through mid-July, but demand will likely extend into the weeks before and after.

If you operate in or near these areas, don’t get booked too early at low rates. Keep prices elevated, monitor booking behavior, and track competitor pricing carefully.

International travelers, especially Europeans, heavily use Booking.com. If you’re not listed there, now is a good time to add that channel, particularly if you’re currently in a slower season.

Tip #5: Make It Easy for Guests to Book

The final tip is to make it easy for people to book your listings.

We don’t expect major demand growth in 2026 compared to 2025, outside of World Cup travel. That means revenue gains will come from reducing friction.

Start with Instant Book. Make sure your calendar is open at least nine to twelve months in advance. Closed calendars block visibility and demand.

Review minimum stay restrictions carefully. Long minimum stays used to work, but today they often restrict demand. Outside of specific peak weekends, flexibility usually leads to higher total revenue.

The same applies to cancellation policies. Flexible or moderate policies may feel risky, but they increase visibility and booking volume. You feel the pain of cancellations, but you don’t see the bookings that wouldn’t have happened with stricter policies.

For smaller units, moderate or limited policies tend to perform well. For larger homes, firm policies can make sense. Strict policies generally hurt visibility and are no longer favored by Airbnb.

Also review last-minute booking settings. We’ve seen portfolios unknowingly blocking same-day or next-day bookings due to lead time restrictions.

If you can support late bookings operationally, allowing them will improve revenue.

Overall, more flexibility usually leads to more revenue, as long as it’s applied intentionally.

To recap, the five focus areas for 2026 are:

1. Educate yourself.
   2. Control your pacing.
   3. Build daily and weekly revenue cadences.
   4. Prepare for World Cup demand.
   5. Make it easy for guests to book.

Thank you again for listening throughout 2025. If you haven’t yet, check out our YouTube channel and Instagram at Freewyld Foundry.

If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions, email me at jasper@freewyld.com. We always love hearing from our audience.

Happy new year, and we’ll see you in 2026.