Christmas Week 2025 — The Booking Window Is Closing Fast

Six days out from Christmas, most of the SoCal STR inventory is already booked. What remains — and what you do with it in these final five days — matters more than any other booking window in December.

What's still available (and what it's worth)

Across our portfolio right now:

Mountain properties (Big Bear, Mammoth, Arrowhead): roughly 94% booked. Remaining inventory is commanding 1.4-1.7× list rate.
Desert properties (Palm Springs, Joshua Tree): 88% booked. Premium demand from colder-weather travelers picking up.
Coastal/urban (LA, SD): 82% booked. More last-minute flexibility here; slight rate softening expected Dec 23-24.
Multi-gen inland (Pasadena, Glendale, Claremont): near 100% booked for multi-gen traveling families.

The final-five-days playbook

Don't drop prices on remaining peak nights. If your 2-bed Big Bear is still open on Dec 26-29, that's because the market hasn't found you yet — not because it doesn't exist. Hold rate. Make search work harder for the listing.
Fill shoulder nights (Dec 20-22, Dec 29-31) with flexible stays. Move minimum nights down, update instant-book settings, target last-minute travelers.
Proactively message existing guests about extensions. Guests already booked for 3 nights often extend to 5-6 if invited. Cost of asking is zero.
Snap holiday photos. Wreath on the door, small tree in a corner, lit pathway. Update your listing photo primary with one of these. Small signal, meaningful conversion lift during the final search days.

The NYE / post-Christmas pivot

Dec 29 onwards begins a completely different booking pattern — NYE-focused 3-night bookings. If you haven't raised your 3-night minimum for Dec 29-Jan 1 yet, do it today. Single-night NYE bookings are the lowest-yield reservations possible, and the highest-turnover cost.