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Cancun is a popular beach destination for tourists all over the world. Because of this, visitors should expect expensive flights and hotel rooms due to the demand.
However, several hotel and resort properties in Cancun surprisingly announced recently that they plan to cut their average daily rate up to 20 percent.
It was a direct response to the inroads that vacation rental properties are making in taking travelers away from the traditional hotels and resorts in Cancun.
Room Rate Competition Heats Up
Hotels and resorts in Cancun are reporting that they have lost more than 50% of the available tourist room nights to vacation rental properties in the area.
In response, they plan to cut their average room rate by about 20 percent to ensure that the industry is competitive and has enough rooms full for the upcoming traditionally busy winter holiday season.
Traditionally, the vacation rental market was only a major concern to the downtown hotels in Cancun, where most of them are concentrated.
However, now they are competing in most residential areas of the city, offering tourists to Cancun up to 50% off the given rates for many of the hotels in the same area.
The Vacation Rental Market
According to market research, there are approximately 41,000 vacation rental properties available in the greater Cancun area.
The research estimates that the occupancy rates for those properties were about 67 percent full during the recent summer period.
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Most of those properties are actually concentrated in the Playa del Carmen area with more than 13,500 units.
Coming in second was Cancun with almost 11,000 units. That was followed by Tulum with a little over 9,000 vacation rental units available for tourists.
Cost Conscious Tourists
For tourists, a little competition is a good thing.
Especially when it comes to saving money on a vacation to Cancun in a financial environment with high-interest rates and an expected slowing worldwide economy.
Nonetheless, the hotels and resorts in Cancun complain that the competition with vacation rental properties is not fair and equal.
They claim that the vacation rentals do not have to pay the same destination marketing fees and occupancy taxes faced by the hotels and resorts in the area.
They also don’t have to invest in local workers to provide the key services and amenities desired by hotel and resort guests in Cancun.
How to Leverage Hotel Prices
There are several ways that travelers to Cancun can leverage the competition to their advantage and get the best room prices for their beach vacation.
The first way is to competitively shop all of the different options for Cancun accommodations. Check websites that feature not only hotels and resorts but also those that feature vacation rental properties.
If booking a package deal to Cancun, ensure that the travel provider is also looking for vacation rentals in addition to traditional hotels and resorts.
If a traveler finds a good deal on a similarly priced accommodation to one they already booked, they should not be afraid to ask if the other property is willing to match the price.
In a very competitive marketplace for tourist room nights, like the one currently evolving in Cancun, visitors may be surprised at the response they get to the competitive price.
They may also be willing to add additional amenities and features to the hotel, resort or vacation rental property to make up for the value to the traveler without adjusting the price.
Guests visiting Cancun should also remember that unless they booked a non-refundable accommodation reservation, tourists can still shop for better deals.
This can be the case weeks or even months out from a vacation stay.
Often, hotels, resorts, and vacation rental properties may adjust their price as the date gets closer to the vacation stay.
That rate adjustment could be down just as easily as up.
So, be sure to continue to monitor deals for drops in room rates even after booking a refundable vacation stay in Cancun.
You might just save some money to make your Cancun vacation even more enjoyable.
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D Morgan
Friday 25th of August 2023
The biggest reason for tourists trying to save is the strong peso is making their money worth a lot less. It will only get worse until the peso goes back close to $18-$19 per USD