Seasonality is the most predictable force in the vacation rental business and, oddly, one of the least planned for. Owners know summer is busy and January is quiet. Fewer know how much quieter, or how early the season really starts in their city, and so they set prices, minimum stays and maintenance work by habit rather than by evidence.
A proxy for the seasonal curve
Booking data is private, but reviews are public, and guests generally leave them within a few days of checking out. Counting reviews by calendar month over two full years therefore gives a reasonable picture of when stays actually happen. The table below shows, for five cities, the share of all reviews left in each month. In a perfectly flat year, each month would hold about 8.3% of the total.
| Month | Brussels | Antwerp | Ghent | London | Dublin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 5.9% | 5.7% | 4.9% | 5.6% | 3.7% |
| February | 6.4% | 6.4% | 6.3% | 5.5% | 4.1% |
| March | 8.1% | 7.7% | 7.2% | 6.8% | 7.6% |
| April | 9.4% | 9.2% | 9.8% | 8.1% | 8.1% |
| May | 9.9% | 10.0% | 10.2% | 9.4% | 11.2% |
| June | 9.7% | 9.3% | 8.5% | 10.9% | 11.6% |
| July | 10.0% | 10.7% | 11.6% | 12.6% | 11.4% |
| August | 9.6% | 11.3% | 12.0% | 11.0% | 13.5% |
| September | 6.9% | 6.6% | 7.5% | 7.3% | 10.2% |
| October | 8.3% | 8.5% | 7.7% | 7.7% | 7.9% |
| November | 7.3% | 7.1% | 6.7% | 7.1% | 6.0% |
| December | 8.5% | 7.6% | 7.6% | 7.9% | 4.6% |
| Reviews counted | 163,433 | 61,108 | 46,784 | 1,007,868 | 166,373 |
| Busiest ÷ quietest month | 1.7× | 2.0× | 2.4× | 2.3× | 3.7× |
Source: Inside Airbnb review files, September 2026 snapshots (London and Dublin: 17 September 2026), CC BY 4.0. All reviews of listings in each city. See sources and method.
What the curves suggest
The pattern differs more than many owners assume. In a city with a strong business and short-break demand spread across the year, the gap between the busiest and quietest months is relatively narrow. In a city where leisure tourism dominates, summer stands out more sharply and the winter trough is deeper. The ratio between the busiest and the quietest month, shown in the last row, is a quick way to compare them.
These figures describe one platform's reviews, not the whole market, and a review is not a booking — longer stays and guests who never review are under-represented. But the shape is usually stable from one year to the next, which is exactly what makes it useful.
Planning around the curve
- Prices. The rate set for the peak matters less than the rates set for the months either side of it, where demand is present but not guaranteed. That is where dynamic pricing earns its keep (see dynamic pricing explained).
- Minimum stays. Longer minimum stays can make sense at the peak, when demand is strong and turnovers are expensive; in the quiet months they often leave gaps that never fill. See minimum stays and length of stay.
- Maintenance. The quietest weeks are the natural time for deep cleaning, repainting and replacing worn furniture. Planning them a year ahead avoids blocking dates that would have sold.
- Cash. A deep trough means months in which fixed costs continue while revenue falls. Knowing the shape of the year lets an owner set money aside in the busy months rather than discover the gap in February.
- Off-season guests. The quiet months often attract different travellers: people on business, visiting family, or working remotely for a few weeks. Listings that speak to them directly can soften the trough.