Cornwall 2025: A commercial view of the holiday let market

By Zak Ali, Revenue Management Expert

There’s no shortage of commentary on Cornwall's holiday let market this year, but what the numbers actually show – and what they mean commercially – are two different things.

I have reviewed the full suite of Cornwall benchmarking from Key Data, comparing 2025 against 2024 across adjusted occupancy, RevPAR (revenue per available room), TRevPOR (total revenue per occupied room), stay value, booking windows, cancellations, and online travel agency (OTA) trends. The dataset reflects nearly 5,000 units, providing a solid foundation.This isn’t a month-by-month scorecard. It’s a summary of what matters and where the risks and opportunities lie as we enter the second half of the year.

Occupancy is down, but not unstable

Adjusted paid occupancy is behind 2024 in every month between March and August, but the gap is narrow and consistent: down 4-6 percentage points across key months. April is the only exception, pacing higher due to calendar timing.

This isn’t volatility. It’s a softer booking curve.

The wider story here is not about cancelled demand, but later demand and more friction in how guests commit. Conversion is taking longer, visibility is broader, and fewer guests are booking on the first search.

If your strategy this year is to “hold and see what happens", you’re likely behind. The demand exists, it’s just landing later, and evaluating more options before it does.

Cornwall-specific holiday let market signals

• ADR (average daily rates) are up year-on-year on the OTAs (£151 → £166), and higher still in market data (£220)

• Stay value is holding (TRevPOR flat at £172)

• Occupancy is down, but longer-stay, higher-spend guests are still booking

• Booking window is longer for high-value bookings (233 days vs 181 on OTAs)

• Length of stay is 7.5 nights (market data) vs. 6.2 nights (OTAs)

So the issue isn’t price, it’s this...

Operators with strong performance are not offering cheaper rates – they are better placed in terms of calendar structure, OTA presence, and conversion strength.

In Cornwall, the guest hasn’t disappeared. Guests are still booking, but they’re being more selective, and more bookings are going to the operators who are ready when the guest is.

If your strategy relies on reacting to short-term volume or benchmarking against OTA listings, you may be looking at exposure, not demand. In Cornwall this year, that difference is commercial.

Dropping the price might feel like progress, but in most cases, it’s just noise. Visibility seems to be the critical factor, and the bookings are still there for those who can be found.

RevPAR is soft, but guest value is holding

Adjusted RevPAR is down slightly year on year, from £52 to £50. But this only tells part of the story. TRevPOR has held steady at £172 on average, peaking at £231 in July and £278 in August. That is a strong performance per booking, even if the volume is thinner.

The opportunity this year is not in filling more nights. It is in extracting more value from the bookings you do take. If you are still focused on occupancy as your headline KPI, you may be missing the point. The commercial win is in contribution, not just conversion.

Availability is shaping performance – but not in the way most expect

The strongest booking patterns in Cornwall this year are not linked to how far ahead properties opened their calendars. They are linked to how deliberately they structured what was released.

The August data tells the story. The bookings commanding higher ADRs (£220 vs £206) and longer stays (7.5 vs 6.2 nights) are coming in with booking windows of up to 233 days. But that lead time is not creating performance on its own, it’s being captured by operators whose availability was aligned to it. Structured release, clear gaps, and stable pricing allowed those bookings to convert.

Cancellations are stable, but still commercially significant

Cancellation rates across Cornwall are flat year on year, sitting at 7.4%. But while volume hasn’t changed, the profile of cancellations reveals more than the headline.

Cancellations are concentrated among shorter bookings, OTA-driven stays, and reservations made on tighter lead times. In other words, churn is tied less to policy and more to booking behaviour. Guests with stronger intent, longer stays, earlier commits, and higher value continue to hold.

This isn’t an argument for stricter terms. It’s a reminder that cancellation risk is a by-product of booking quality. If you understand where that risk sits, you can afford to be flexible – not to create churn, but to convert stronger-fit bookings in the first place.

In Cornwall this year, the bookings worth holding onto aren’t just higher yield, they’re also more stable. The job is to attract more of those.

Final thought

Cornwall’s 2025 performance is softer than last year, but not unstable. With summer still ahead, the bigger question isn’t whether bookings will come, it’s who they’ll land with.

The data shows clear shifts in when guests are booking, how long they’re staying, and where higher-value demand is concentrating. Success this year won’t come from chasing pace or reacting to noise. It will come from sharper positioning, better calendar control, and a clearer read on what your data is showing.

This is not a broken market. It is a more complex one.

I would love to hear how this aligns (or clashes) with what you're seeing on the ground. Let me know in the comments.

Zak Ali is a Host Planet Columnist and Revenue Management Expert with 15 years of international experience leading pricing strategy, yield optimisation, and distribution for hospitality businesses across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

A PASC UK Board Member, Zak has played a central role in the design, development, and deployment of revenue management technologies, including dynamic pricing engines, integrated distribution platforms, and automated booking systems.

Connect with Zak on LinkedIn.