Villa cos set for a happy holiday season

As the year ends, villa rental companies are gearing up for a busy season, buoyed by extended travel plans with two midweek holidays—Christmas is on a Wednesday and New Year's Eve on a Tuesday.

- Varuni Khosla

"It has had a bit of a positive impact. Because both Christmas and New Year fall on a weekday, it has actually become a longer stay for us. People are staying on from Saturday to Tuesday or Sunday to Wednesday night, which, unlike other years when the average stay would be for about two nights on these dates, we have noticed people have increased their itinerary by one day. Occupancies at this time are at the year's best," said Devendra Parulekar, co-founder of Saffron Stays.

The mid-week holidays could help villa companies recover from a lean period in October.

Ritwik Khare, the founder and CEO of Elivaas, a vacation rental company, said occupancy in October was low due to the festive season but numbers in November were strong, mainly due to pent-up demand from travellers based in Gujarat, who tend to holiday all over the country after Diwali. Elivaas has 43 of its 79 luxury villas in Goa.

"December is looking good in terms of demand. But there has been a huge growth in the number of villas available for rent in Goa that is suppressing business a bit as supply has grown as much as 60-70% in the last year or so. This is also leading to some reduction in nightly rates," he said.