Cape Cod summer rentals are close to fully booked

BREWSTER, Mass. — Most rental properties on Cape Cod are already fully booked for peak summer months, according to local property management companies. The rate in which they have been booked is record-breaking.

According to Blake Decker, the CEO of Brewster-based vacation rental company Pretty Picky Properties, the demand for rentals has been unprecedented, with 96 percent of their 150 mid-Cape homes already booked for July and August.

Typically, he said, their listings would only be between 50 and 70 percent occupied in early March.

“The demand to be on the Cape has never been higher, and I’ve been doing this 15 years, so it’s been quite a ride,” Decker said Friday. “People have been calling us asking what’s wrong with our website because there’s no availability, that kind of thing.”

Decker added that even the shoulder months before and after the peak of summer are going fast.

As of Friday, Memorial Day through June 26 is 60 percent booked, while normally the company would see bookings at around half of that, or 30 percent.

On the back end, from Labor Day to Columbus Day, 25 percent of the company’s rentals are booked, which Decker said is usually their total amount of bookings for that time period.

“Usually we want to be as helpful as possible, but we have nothing left to sell people. It’s a very unique situation,” he said.

The same rings true for Brewster restaurant owner Bud Noyes, who rents out a property every summer.

This year, he said peak summer months have been booked since Nov. of 2020.

“It’s been terrific, I have no complaints at all,” Noyes said.

Noyes said he’s welcoming the local boost in tourism, and because the demand for a summer rental has been so high, he’s now charging 10 percent more than he did last summer.

His five-bedroom property is now going for $11,000 per week, he said.

“It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, building this place for an investment.”

Wendy Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, said the following:

“Last summer the Cape’s tourism businesses did an excellent job keeping people safe, and the data show that transmissions occurred primarily at congregate living sites and private gatherings. Businesses were regulated and controlled in an effort to keep people healthy, and it worked. We anticipate that will be the case again this summer, and we are grateful that people are planning their summer getaways now. It is always better to get your reservation for the time you want to travel than to wait until the last minute!”

Cox Media Group