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More earnings · 25 September 2026
5 reasons your peak season earns less than it could
Your highest-demand dates fill easily, which makes it easy to miss that they could earn more. Here are the five things holding them back, and the setting that fixes each.
Every year has a handful of dates that guests want more than any others: school holidays, long weekends, the weeks around big local events. They often book months ahead, and because they fill so easily, it's easy to miss that they could earn more.
This article covers the five things that hold those dates back, from your price level to your discounts, and the setting that fixes each one.
Your price level is based on a guess
We asked 300 hosts at our pricing webinars in France and Italy how they set their prices. 14% still charge the prices they started with. Another 17% check what similar homes ask on other booking sites.
But what other homes ask isn't what guests actually pay. The guided setup of dynamic pricing looks at what they pay: completed bookings of homes like yours in your region, refreshed every week. From those, it builds a price curve for the next 14 months. You then decide where your prices sit on it:
- Your category: Budget (among the cheapest similar homes), Comfort (around the average) or Premium (among the most expensive). If Holidu has enough data, it recommends the one that fits your home best.
- Your price level: a control that moves your whole curve lower or higher within that category.
It's worth getting right: hosts using dynamic pricing earn on average more than 20% more than comparable properties that haven't set it up.
Your high season isn't priced high enough
Getting your price level right is one part. The other is the gap between your seasons.
Compare your most expensive week with your cheapest. If the prices are close, your most wanted dates earn almost the same as your quietest ones, even when guests would pay more.
In the setup, the seasonal difference control sets that gap. All the way left gives you the same price all year. Further right makes your busy dates cost more than your quiet ones. A small gap can feel safer, but it means your best dates earn less than they could.
Your year has more than two seasons
The most common answer in our poll, at 43%, was one summer price and one winter price. But two prices a year means two seasons, and local demand has more. A single summer price gives the week everyone wants and the week nobody wants the same rate.
The guided setup groups your next 14 months into four season types – Peak, High, Mid and Low – based on when guests actually book in your area. Each season is made of different periods (identified by colour). Some periods are very short, others are longer.
- For each season type, you set the minimum stay, the weekend markup and the check-in and check-out days. The setup suggests them for you (as you can see in the example below).
- After you apply it, individual dates stay editable in your calendar manually.
Your discounts run on your best nights
A weekly discount is meant to win longer stays in quiet months. But it applies to every stay of seven nights or more, including a week in August, when guests book whole weeks at full price anyway.
Peak night protection keeps the discount off your highest-demand nights and leaves it working in quieter periods.
- It works only on your weekly, early bird and mobile discounts. Switch it on for each one, under "Exclude high-demand nights".
- You can choose between two levels of protection: Peak Demand, which excludes only the absolute busiest nights, or Peak + High Demand, which also excludes other nights with consistently high demand.
- You don't pick the dates: Holidu identifies them automatically using local market data, but you see them clearly displayed and they update as demand in your market changes.
Your maximum stops your prices too early
Your maximum price is the highest price Holidu can set for a night.
When automatic price optimization is on, Holidu can raise your prices when demand is high, but never above this maximum.
For example, if your highest price is €269 and demand increases, Holidu could raise it further if you allow it. If your maximum is set to €269, it will stay at €269. Even if guests would have paid more.
- Set your maximum above the highest price you'd normally charge, or leave it empty.
- Only use a maximum if there's a price you never want to exceed.
How it all fits together
Three layers decide what a guest pays for a night:
- Dynamic pricing recommends your base price for every night of the next 14 months, grouped into four season types: Peak, High, Mid and Low. With automatic price optimization on, Holidu adjusts those prices as demand changes, within the minimum and maximum you set.
- Peak night protection sits on top. It doesn't change your base price, but keeps your weekly, early bird and mobile discounts off your highest-demand nights. Holidu picks those nights from local market data.
- Your discounts help win bookings on quieter nights. How several combine depends on the booking site: most stack them all except the new listing discount, and some allow only one discount per group.
Where to start
Open the guided setup and look at the curve it suggests for your home. Nothing changes until you apply.
In the setup:
- Choose your category. Take the recommended one if it's shown.
- Set your price level and seasonal difference.
- (Optional) Switch on automatic price optimization and set your maximum well above your highest price, or leave it open.
- Set the season rules, then review every period next to your current prices.
- Apply the suggestion. This replaces your current prices and season settings, including changes you made to individual days.
Once your curve is live, go to your discounts and switch on "Exclude high-demand nights" for your weekly, early bird and mobile discounts.
Start there, and your best nights stop selling at a quiet-week price.
Frequently asked questions
Will higher prices cost me bookings?
The aim is to earn you more across the season, not to push every night to its highest price. Hosts using dynamic pricing earn on average more than 20% more than comparable properties that haven't set it up. And you can test it first: apply the recommendations yourself for a few weeks and watch how your bookings respond.
My home is better than most around here. Does the setup take that into account?
You can tell it. Choose Premium to be compared with the top-priced homes like yours, then use the price level control to move your curve higher.
What happens to the bookings I already have?
Nothing at all. They keep the price they were booked at.
How does automatic price optimization work?
Holidu adjusts your prices for you as demand changes, within the limits you set. You switch it on in the setup, on the same screen as your price level, or at any time later. The first adjustments come about 4 weeks after you switch it on, and every change appears in your price history.
Do I need to set a maximum price?
No, it's optional. If you set one, put it well above the highest price in your curve, so your best nights have room to earn more.
Do I need to set a minimum price?
No, it's optional. It's the lowest base rate Holidu will set, so keep it realistic for your quiet weeks. It applies before discounts, so with discounts on, a guest can pay less than your minimum.
How does peak night protection work?
It keeps your weekly, early bird and mobile discounts off the nights when demand in your area is highest, so guests pay full price on those dates. You switch it on for each of those discounts, under "Exclude high-demand nights". Holidu picks the nights for you and shows you the corresponding list. On all other nights, your discounts work as usual.
Your best dates, priced for what they're worth
Your price curve is built from what guests pay for homes like yours. You see every price before the setup applies it and every automatic change afterwards, and you can go back to pricing by hand at any time.
Properties → Pricing → Get started
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