Booking pace — are we ahead of last year?

What is this page?

Every row is a month people can stay with us. For each one we ask a single question: do we have more business booked for that month than we had at this exact point last year? If yes, we're "ahead." If no, we're "behind."

Why compare with "the same time last year"?

Here's the trap this page avoids. Say it's August and you look at October. October only looks 13% full — scary! But October isn't done filling up; most people haven't booked their October trip yet. Comparing today's October with how October finished last year is unfair — it's comparing a cake that's still baking with one that's done. The fair question is: last year, on this same date in August, how full was October then? If we're fuller now than we were then, we're genuinely winning, even if the number itself looks small.

What each column means

• Are we ahead? — Green ▲ means we're making more money per home per night than at this point last year. Red ▼ means less.
• How full is it booked so far? — Out of all the nights we could possibly rent that month (every home × every night), the percent already booked. The small gray number is where we stood at this same point last year.
• Average price per booked night — Of the nights that ARE booked, the average price guests are paying per night. This is the "rates" side: it mostly moves with the market and our pricing, not with team effort.
• Money per home, per night — Total booking money for the month, divided by every home and every night we have. This is the fairest single number: it can't be fooled by us adding or removing homes, and it captures both "how full" and "at what price." (Hotels call this RevPAR.)
• Where last year ended up — How full that month finally got last year once all the bookings were in. It shows how much filling usually happens late, so a small number today isn't alarming.
• New bookings, last 2 weeks — How many nights got booked for that month in just the past 14 days, next to the same 14-day window last year. This is our speed: even a month that's behind can be catching up fast.

How do I tell if it's the TEAM or just the MARKET?

Use the two middle columns together. "How full" is mostly people-driven — marketing bringing in leads and reservationists closing them. "Average price per booked night" is mostly market-driven. So:

• Fuller than last year AND prices held or up → the team and marketing are genuinely winning.
• Fuller than last year but prices down → good sign IF prices fell across the whole market too; a warning sign if we simply priced below everyone (then it's discounts doing the work, not people).
• Less full but prices way up → we may be priced ahead of the market; not the team's fault.
• Less full AND prices down → a real demand problem worth digging into.

The "Who's bringing in the bookings?" table is the most direct people-measure: reservationist-booked nights = the sales team, website bookings = our marketing, and booking-site nights = our listings on Airbnb/Vrbo. Each vs the same point last year.

Whose money is this?

The dollar figures are the homes' gross booking revenue — the full amount guests pay, most of which belongs to the homeowners. TideWatch's own income is our management commission (roughly a quarter of it) plus fees. We track the gross number here because it's the cleanest measure of demand coming in.

Things to keep in mind

• We divide by today's count of 157 active homes for both years. If our home count changed a lot since last year, the percentages shift a little — but the ahead/behind comparison stays fair because both years use the same divisor.
• Last year's "at this point" numbers are rebuilt from each booking's booked-on date. Bookings that existed then but cancelled later aren't counted, so last year may look slightly weaker than it really was.
• "Money" here is the guest's total booking price, including fees, spread evenly across the nights of the stay.
• This page refreshes automatically every morning.