Best 7 Day Minimum Stay Strategy.... Fri-Fri vs Sat-Sat vs Any 7 Day

[David H.]

Hi. We have a large lake house in the midwest that attracts multi-family stays from Memorial to Labor Day.  This past summer was our first year, so to test the market we had a 3 day minimum, and we filled every weekend with 3-5 day stays easily but we had holes in the midweek.  We plan to open reservations now for next summer (2025) and want to avoid the mid-week vacancies.  

We are considering either a Fri-Fri, Sat-Sat, or AnyDay to AnyDay 7 day minimum strategy. It seems that there are pro & cons to each. Our cleaner says she has another house on the lake that does Fri-Fri and fills the whole summer...unfortunately (or fortunately) there aren't a lot of other STR large lake houses around for us to comp.

For those of you that also do 7 day minimums, what is your preferred strategy?  Or does anyone find that having a 5 or 6 day minimum is also effective?

Thanks!

[Andrew Steffens]

I agree with @Michael Baum - you will severely limit your potential renters doing a 7 night minimum.  I would do 3 night minimum on weekends max.