Client case studyCasago YellowstoneWest Yellowstone & Island Park
18 unitsIdaho & MontanaClient since February 2023
Shoulder Season · On The Books

The off-season book more than doubled at a park-gateway portfolio

Yellowstone's west gate empties out when the park season ends, and this portfolio historically went quiet with it. Measured at the same point in the booking cycle, it is now carrying $104,025 on the books for September through December against $48,068 a year ago. Two of those four months had nothing booked at all last year.

+116%
RevPAR · total revenue per available room night
$30.31 to $65.59
+105%
RentPAR · rent per available room night
$23.71 to $48.71
+9.2 pts
Occupancy
5.5% to 14.7%
87 → 233
Nights on the books · same cohort, same cycle point
The problem

A portfolio that lived or died on ten weeks.

Casago Yellowstone sits at the west gate of Yellowstone National Park. Demand there is among the most concentrated in the country: the park draws visitors through the summer, and the surrounding towns empty when it ends. A portfolio this size has very little room to absorb a soft season.

The revenue management problem was never peak summer, which largely sells itself. It was the months on either side, where a small operator can either accept an empty calendar or price deliberately enough to pull demand into it. Going into last autumn, the portfolio had sold seven nights in October and none at all in November or December.

The result

Every month is carrying more, and two are carrying something for the first time.

Both years are cut at the same date, August 20, so this compares what was actually sold by that point last year rather than against a finished season.

Sep 2026
$75,266
Sep 2025
$44,156
Oct 2026
$19,423
Oct 2025
$3,912
Nov 2026
$1,346
Nov 2025
$0
Dec 2026
$7,990
Dec 2025
$0
September carries the largest dollar gain and October the largest proportional one. November and December are the clearest signal: a year ago this portfolio had not sold a single transient night in either month by this date. It now holds $9,336 across the two.
The mechanism

This one was won on volume, not rate.

Nights on the books rose 168% while the rate per night came down 23%, and revenue per available night still more than doubled. In an off-season that is the correct trade. Rate discipline protects a peak week that will sell anyway. It does nothing for a November that would otherwise sit empty, where the only rate that matters is the one that converts.

Nights on the books · 2026
233
Nights on the books · 2025
87
Rate per night · 2026
$332
Rate per night · 2025
$432
RevPAR · 2026
$65.59
RevPAR · 2025
$30.31

Each pair is scaled to its own maximum. Rate per night is rent only; RevPAR is total revenue per available night.

The work

What Pacer changed.

Strategy

The off-season got its own plan

Priced to convert

Shoulder and off-season months were priced against what would actually book, rather than inheriting a peak-season rate floor that had been leaving October empty and November unsold entirely.

Length of stay

Minimums opened up

Short trips allowed

Off-season demand at a park gateway arrives as short trips. Minimum-stay rules written to protect summer weekends suppress exactly the two-night November bookings that are the only demand there is.

Scale

Managed home by home

13 homes, individually

At this size a single property moves the whole book, so pricing decisions are made per home and per date rather than by portfolio-wide rule.

Method

How these numbers were produced.

Matched booking cycle

Both years measured on the books as of August 20, so 2026 is compared against what 2025 had actually sold by the same date, not against its finished total.

Same-store, transient only

13 homes managed on or before Aug 20 2025 and still managed today. Stays of 28 nights or more are excluded from both years so a monthly rental cannot stand in for nightly demand. One property listed three ways is excluded, since its listings share availability.

No market index

Forward market benchmarks are projections rather than settled results, so a market comparison at this cycle point would not be like for like. It is deliberately omitted rather than estimated.

What is your off-season actually worth?

Pacer is a preferred revenue management partner to the Casago franchise network. We will look at what your shoulder months are carrying today against the same point last year, and show you what is recoverable, before you make any commitment.

Request a portfolio audit