Shampoo & Booze 46: How to Deal with the Off-Season Slump

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We live in a part of the country where people like to go on vacation. The big attractions are hiking in the Shenandoah National Park and floating down the Shenandoah River. The popular season starts around March when Spring is creeping in and ends around November when the beautiful Fall leaves finally all disappear. December, January, and February are usually pretty quiet.

In this episode, we brainstorm ways to attract people to our rental during these quiet months. While we can't imagine being fully booked, our goal is to at least attract the people who want to escape the city and have a quiet winter weekend. We will take advantage of the quiet time to do maintenance and some heavy cleaning, but letting our asset go empty for any length of time just feels wrong! Please share any suggestions if you also live in an area where bookings drop during a certain period of the year.

By the way, here's the link to that article we mention about ocean front property on the East Coast being a dangerous bargain because of future flooding from Climate Change. (Or a great deal if you don't believe in it.)

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3 comments:

  1. Thanks for another great podcast. On the hunting topic, my dad is a building contractor in Southwest Virginia, for years he had painters (two brothers) who he contracted to paint his houses. They had an understanding that for 2 weeks every fall they would not work because they would be hunting. For us this seems strange but for them it meant meat on the table for the year, food they couldn't afford otherwise and was worth way more than what they made in those two weeks. They would also give us a deer every year as a thank you. Which was awesome. Then they had a falling out because my dad was closing on a house and it had to be finished so he used another painter while they were on their 2 week break. They refused to work for him again! Anyway thought you might enjoy that perspective. Thanks again!

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    1. Good story. I understand that hunting is both an important pastime for many guys, and sometimes a way to fill up the freezer. But I certainly would never run a business where I wouldn't even return phone calls to potential clients because I was hunting every morning. I;d just call people back in the evening.

      Those same guys are crying about not having work come January and February!

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    2. right, i totally get why hunting is important for people. but we've had to use other workers to get this done, so we just bypass the people who won't call us back. not matter what the reason.

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