July 10, 2009 —As the summer vacation rental season on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket is now in full throttle, booking rates continue to make a strong comeback. July 2009 bookings are now up 47% over same time last year—holding even more promise for the remainder of the season.
Website Traffic
Website traffic on WeNeedaVacation.com continues to spike—with Wednesday, July 8th, 2009, being the single most highly trafficked day in our 11-year history. In the last 30 days, vacationer inquiries to homeowners were up 18% over this same time in 2008.
2009 vs. 2008 Booking Rates
Month to month bookings have steadily picked up since January 2009, as compared to the same months last year. The table below shows the changes:
| January | -20% |
| February | -24% |
| March | -3% |
| April | 1% |
| May | 30% |
| June | 55% |
| July | 47% |
Overall for the 2009 season, Cape and Islands bookings are down only 8%. Specifically, the Cape is down 7%; Martha’s Vineyard is down 8% and Nantucket is down 16%. Currently, bookings for the first three weeks of the fall off-season (beginning August 22, 2009) have increased by 1% over 2008.
Pricing
Prices on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard have returned virtually to last year's levels. Nantucket prices continue to fall and are now 6% below 2008.