The Rising Trend of Staycations: How Can We Profit From It?

The word Staycation has grown extremely popular over the past few years and is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as, “A holiday that someone spends in their own country or at home, rather than travelling somewhere else.”

The reality of it, is that it’s just a modern newfangled term that is beginning to be thrown around more following the massive coronavirus lock downs that have been perpetuated across the globe.

Seeing as how country borders are pretty much closed, it’s no surprise that this word is being used more and more with each passing day.

What can be said for certain though, is that people are definitely partaking in local holidays at an increasing rate.

The coronavirus has impacted a lot of things and even started having investors wonder whether their Airbnbs are still going to be a good option for their properties moving forward or not?

But people are slowly realizing that they may not be able to travel outside the country without facing significant travel problems, such as return lockdowns and expensive quarantine fees (RM2000 for locals and RM4000 for foreigners!).

Perhaps their only option at the moment is to indulge in a Staycation at local AirBnb?

Travel Platforms like Klook recently reported a surge in Staycation demand across Malaysia.

It would seem that the Staycation trend doesn’t just stop there.

The Malaysian Government is also pushing hard to promote local tourism activities or Staycations this year with many state level initiatives such as Penang’s “Jom! Experience Penang”, Melaka’s “Dream Now, Travel Later”, and Kelantan’s “Visit Kelantan 2020” to name a few.

If there is one good thing that is going to come out of the Coronavirus Recession, it’s that people are going to actually explore their own backyard and enjoy holidaying in states that they’ve never been to before.

The fact of the matter is that people are still going to go on holiday, and if they are unable to travel out of the country, they are going to on holiday wherever they can.

Malaysia has no shortage of amazing destinations to go to (it’s the reason why we have so many tourists coming over each year), but as we are all limited by the time we have, we have to make a choice.

With most of us working 9 – 5 jobs and having 14 days of leave, we tend to choose to go abroad for a completely different experience away from our regular lives.

We want to see Japan, or go on a tour around Europe, or even enjoy our South East Asian favorites, like Thailand or Vietnam!

Our limited time simply doesn’t allow us to enjoy the best of both worlds – getting to explore what we have in our own back yard or leaving Malaysia to experience what other countries have to offer.

Right now however, we are being forced into going on a Staycation – whether we like it or not.

Some prefer luxury condominiums while others may prefer a quiet shack near the beach, there’s really no shortage of Staycation options if we are just looking to just get away from it all and spend time with the family or our significant other.

What will initially feel forced, will soon turn into an extremely memorable experience and one that we will most definitely consider again in the future.

So, with all that being said, how does one profit from this growing trend?

There are 2 main ways to make money here:
1. Turning your previously used long-term rental into a short-term rental
2. Tying up your existing businesses with AirBnb operators

Turn Your Long-Term Rental into a Short-Term Rental

This is something that we’ve talked about before but it is something that highly depends on various factors such as location and the type of residence that you have.

The current property overhang seems to have exacerbated the negative effect on rental rates, with us hearing more and more stories of people who were renting out their units long-term, facing long periods of vacancies.

These problems however have not begun to fully burden them as the moratorium period granted by the banks is still in effect. This is going to change once the period ends in October, however.

Once the banks start opening their hands and asking for loan repayments again, a lot of people are going to either have to drop their long-term rates drastically to compete with everyone else facing vacancies or figure out some other creative way to rent out their units for some income.

The most creative method of doing this that we are suggesting to property owners as this Staycation wave washes over the country, is to not decide to go fully Short-Term or stay fully Long-Term…

It is to do both.

This is one time where can actually have the best of both worlds.

This hybrid style of rental is the best way to ride the Staycation Wave without forgoing on those long term bookings that come in.

With a some clever furnishing, you’ll realize that without having to spend much, you’ll be able to turn your long-term rental unit into an Airbnb that will generate you profits throughout the lockdown as you draw in the growing number of local tourists looking for a good Staycation destination.

To make sure that you don’t give up on your long term enquiries, you can always have your calendar open for anything ranging from 1 – 3 months ahead so that if you do happen to have any of these long term enquiries come in you can accept them as well.

Personally, I believe that this Staycation trend will not be something that is just a passing fad, I feel that even once borders do open up again, Malaysians will continue to be keen to look at holiday options in their own backyard as opposed to always looking abroad.

Staycations will be the ‘new-normal’.

And once the borders are open, there will be foreigners once again, looking for places to stay in Malaysia as well.

Tie up Your Existing Business with AirBnb Operators

In the current economic state it is not just the tourism sector that has been greatly affected by the lockdown but also almost every other industry out there.

Revenues have been slashed and only businesses with significant cash in the bank or those with clever ideas on how to supplement their income are going to survive.

And yes, the clever way, I’m proposing here, is to tie your business into the current trend – The Staycation.

Or at least to those running the Staycation units – The AirBnb Operators.

The holiday season is right around the corner and to increase sales, you’ll need new customers and new customers are going to be on Staycation, willing to spend their hard-earned ringgit while on holiday.

What sort of businesses can tie in well with AirBnb operators?

Almost any kind actually.

Boost your sales with vouchers or discount coupons that you can have operators leave in their units or even advertise on their listings.

As operators ourselves, we’d be more than happy to partner with any businesses that would like to market to our customer base.

Whether you have run a restaurant, a car rental, or even sell cosmetic products, you can work out a partnership with operators to promote your products or have them encourage their guests to pass through your establishment.

The idea here, is to further develop the ‘sharing economy’ by working together with a non-competing business where in this instance, it is the customer that is shared.

Besides just working with AirBnb Operators, you can also look to work with travel agencies and hotels. More often that not however, these kinds of businesses will be looking for larger kickbacks or referral fees to make it worth their while.

Conclusion

The Staycation trend is something that has been steadily growing over the past few years, even prior to the global lockdowns. Its sudden rise to extreme popularity, however, has been due to the forceful actions of governments in response to the coronavirus.

I believe that it will be a far more common thing even once the lockdowns are over.

In Malaysia’s Household Expenditure Survey Report 2019, it already showed that the third highest group for household expenditure by Malaysians was for Restaurants and Hotels at 13.9%, behind only Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels (23.6%) and Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (17.3%).

I expect to see the percentage of expenditure to rise in this group over the coming years as the Staycation becomes as common as eating out. It will become something that people will do take some time away from the stresses of life and get away from it all – even if just for a weekend.

Profit from the rise of this trend by switching to a hybrid rental style or partner up with an Airbnb operator today.

Our lines are always open.