Coventry & Swanston Short-term Letting

Coventry is down 16.7% like for like, A$30,085 across November to October against A$36,096 in the same months a year earlier. That is 80% of the A$37,614 target, on 66.8% occupancy at A$124.83 a night.

May and June are where it broke. May fell from A$1,882 to A$772 and June from A$2,589 to A$466, on nights down from 22 to 10 and from 26 to 3. June also carried four maintenance nights. July held at A$2,426, August rose from A$1,642 to A$3,058 on 29 nights and September reached A$2,963 on 26 nights, against A$372 a year earlier when the owner stay took most of the month. August and September are one 37 night let at A$114, covering the Grand Final.

October cleared its target and November has barely started. October settled at A$3,244 on 22 nights against A$2,219: the 20 night Booking.com stay at A$144, then a five night insurance booking from 30 October at A$181, taken the same day. The Cox Plate went unsold. November holds that insurance stay's last three nights and one VRBO booking, 28 November to 2 December at A$236, which covers the second Harry Styles night. That is A$1,248 against a A$3,944 target, with six of 30 nights sold, the last four Cup Carnival nights and the 11 to 14 November concerts open.

Price did not move much while that happened. May's achieved rate fell 9% as occupancy fell 41 points, and June's rose from A$100 to A$155 as occupancy fell to 11.5%, with 23 of 26 available nights unsold and the apartment compliant and freshly serviced. June rests on a single three night booking, so read it as two thin months rather than as a pricing decision.

January to April 2025 was a single long let, and a good one. Booking 8182 ran 21 January to 17 April at A$173.60 a night across all 86 nights, A$14,929 in total, which is why those months sit at or near 100% occupancy at a rate Coventry has not matched since. The Letting Agent settled it in four instalments and dated only the first, so the portal booking record carries A$4,321 of it. The rest comes from the statements and is returned to the nights it was earned on.

Strong through its first spring and summer, reaching A$243 a night in December and A$226 in January, then falling away from April. One seasonal cycle, so no prior year to compare against.

Coventry. Its first months with the Letting Agent, 16 May to December 2024, reached 75.0% of appraisal. 2025 cleared its appraisal at 117.0%, or 104.2% without the A$3,634.94 cancellation settlement, because a strong first half carried a weak second half. 2026 to October stands at 85.1% of what those months should produce, up from 81.3% to September on October's A$2,400 net, which settled the whole 20 night Booking.com stay. September's settled income includes a A$457.99 payout on a cancelled booking.

Swanston peaked in January and has not recovered its rate. A$5,432 on 24 nights at A$226, falling to A$998 in June on 8 nights at A$125. The twelve months to October 2026 come to A$38,020, 70% of the A$54,259 target, on 58.1% occupancy at A$179.34 a night. Settled net for 2026 to October is 71.5% of what those months should produce, up from 66.8%.

Volume has come back, rate has not. July to October ran 20, 23, 21 and 24 nights, matching January's 24, but at A$124, A$133, A$148 and A$144 against January's A$226. The apartment is selling again at about two thirds of the rate.

October cleared its target on late, cheap bookings. It settled at A$3,462 on 24 nights against A$2,073, 77% occupancy, at A$144 a night. The four nights across Caulfield Cup and Jay Chou on 17 October sold two days out at A$100 against floors of A$170 and A$220, and an 11 night Booking.com stay from 22 October, taken four days out, sold at A$107.

November is a third sold. Ten nights booked, A$2,245 against a A$7,058 target. The Harry Styles stay from 26 November at A$322 still holds the month's rate; a four night Booking.com stay from 11 November across Robbie Williams, Iron Maiden and Foo Fighters sold at A$158, under the A$220 concert floor. December has one seven night Booking.com stay from 4 December at A$148, under the A$170 baseline and across the last Harry Styles night, whose floor is A$220.

The weak months are empty. January 2026 at 35.5%, May at 32.3% and June at 11.5%.

56% of nights are in stays of 20 nights or more. Leaving out the 86 night let at A$173.60 in early 2025, those long stays earn A$103.50 a night against A$126.39 for shorter ones, which holds occupancy at a lower rate.

The weak months are sold too cheaply rather than empty. From April to June it held 27% to 43% occupancy, but at A$125 to A$139 a night against A$181 across the rest of the year, leaving out the Grand Prix month. One stay of 20 nights or more, 11% of nights.

⚑ STL-07 Coventry is 2.2 points lower on Booking.com than Airbnb, 7.2 against an Airbnb equivalent of 9.4 out of 10, largely from one 1.0 review posted on 26 January 2026. Booking.com carries 38% of its nights. The 1.0 received a reply in October 2026, making 2 of 9 answered. The newest, an 8.0 on 20 October from the 20 night stay praising the location and view, has no reply; six others carry no comment to reply to. Every Airbnb review has one, including a 5 star long stay review from September, answered in October.

⚑ STL-14 Value is weak, and only at Coventry, 6.8 on Booking.com and 4.4 on Airbnb, from two independent sets of guests. Coventry has a pool and spa but no gym or sauna, so this is an amenity and pricing question.

⚑ STL-07 Swanston is 1.5 points lower on Booking.com, 7.7 against an Airbnb equivalent of 9.2 out of 10, up from 7.2 after a 10 on 21 October. That guest still named the key collection, the passcode and the car park directions as a hassle, the fourth Booking.com review to raise access. A 6.0 on 2 October cites cleanliness, no BBQ access and hot water and a 3.0 from 29 March is about the car park and access instructions. None of the three has a reply, nor does a 3 star Airbnb review from July 2026 describing a two hour check-in over the car park fob. The most recent Airbnb reply was in August 2026, leaving 11 of 17 answered.

Staff is its weakest score at 7.3, and Coventry's second weakest at 7.0. It appears on Booking.com only and measures the managing agent rather than the apartment.

Coventry: a third of reservations did not go ahead, 14 of 43. One is still in the future: 13 to 15 November 2026, reserved on 17 October.

Swanston: just over a quarter, 17 of 64, with four more stays moved to new dates. Two future reservations have gone, on peak dates: 19 to 27 December 2026 and 9 to 14 February 2027.

Coventry has 3 of the 26 nights left in November booked, where it normally has most of the month sold by now. Ordinary nights are live at a median A$132 against A$106 last November at 97% occupancy. Reaching the A$3,944 target at A$132 needs 21 of the 23 open nights. Fully let at last year's rate November would make A$3,172, so a cut alone does not reach the target either; it trades rate for whatever volume is left. Robbie Williams on 11 November is live at A$118, under its A$130 floor. December has 1 night booked against a normal pace of nearly half, at A$179 against A$123 last year.

Swanston's ordinary November nights are priced below the floor, a median A$160 against the A$170 floor, with no platform fee involved. Every concert night is booked, at A$158 against the A$220 floor. With 8 of 26 nights booked, reaching the A$7,058 target needs 26 more and only 18 are open. December is on 7 nights at A$265 live, above last year. Every Australian Open night is live above its A$240 floor, and Christmas sits at A$360 against A$300.

Coventry: the rate decays toward arrival, and season hides part of it. Across all bookings the correlation is +0.21. Comparing bookings within the same month, so season cannot do the work, lifts it to +0.37, because some of Coventry's longest lead bookings fall in its cheap winter months. Earlier bookings pay more and the rate falls as dates approach. Both figures fell at this refresh on a single October pair: the 20 night stay booked 210 days out at A$144, and an insurance booking taken on the day at A$181.

Swanston: weaker than its headline, but no longer flat. The raw +0.58 looks like the stronger relationship of the two, and much of it is season and events. Compare within the month with events out and it is +0.42; restrict to midweek arrivals as well and it is +0.31, up from +0.06 at the 1 October refresh. October's stays did most of that: a 67 day lead at A$224 a night against two to four day leads at A$100 and A$107.

Coventry mostly holds up. The relationship stays positive under every control, +0.18 to +0.37, though the events row fell from +0.36 on the one October pair above, an insurance booking whose rate may not have come from the calendar at all. The supporting signs are there: achieved rates spread widely inside single months, A$93 to A$177 in December 2025 and A$78 to A$137 in April 2026, and outside event windows short stays arriving Friday or Saturday earn A$147 against A$107 midweek. Something is moving this calendar.

Swanston now looks like Coventry. Its lead time relationship weakens under the same controls but holds at +0.31 midweek, level with Coventry's +0.32. Its weekend premium still runs backwards: short stays arriving Friday or Saturday earn A$146 against A$190 midweek.

Coventry: longer stays earn a little less, a rank correlation of −0.21. Stays under 20 nights run at a median of A$115, against A$101 across the eight stays of 20 nights or more, which range from A$91 to A$174. Event night floors in the pricing framework now apply to every booking, so a long stay across an event is priced at the floor on those nights.

The longest stay was the best one. Booking 8182, 86 nights, earned A$173.60 a night, the highest of the long stays. October 2026's 20 night stay came next at A$144. The three winter long stays, 31 to 41 nights between May and August, earned A$91 to A$114. Booking 13192 is a cancellation payout on the same nights as 8182 rather than a separate let, so it is out of this chart.

What is left is a season problem. From May to August, long stays earn a median A$100 against A$89 for short ones, so length costs nothing in the quiet months. Across the rest of the year they earn A$101 against A$125, about a fifth less. Long bookings are taken at much the same number whichever month they land in, which is what the event night floors exist to stop.

Swanston: no long stay problem, a rank correlation of −0.10, with one stay of 21 nights at A$135. It has no stay over 21 nights at all, and its 7 to 21 night stays earn a median A$183 against A$155 for shorter ones, so there is no exposure here to manage.

Coventry. The Grand Prix earned A$539 against a rest of year rate of A$103, more than five times. Christmas and New Year earned 45% more and Easter 33% more.

The Australian Open is where January went: 8 of 21 nights sold, at A$155 on the nights it did sell.

⚑ STL-12 Melbourne Cup Carnival earned only 16% more despite selling 7 of 8 nights, and the October racing weekends earned A$97, below the rest of year rate.

Swanston. The Grand Prix earned A$681 against a rest of year rate of A$174, close to four times. Christmas and New Year earned 76% more and it sold 17 of 21 Australian Open nights at A$244.

The October racing weekends are the weak spot, 2 of 6 nights at A$140, below the rest of year rate.

Coventry: the two platforms pay much the same. Airbnb carries 55% of nights at A$126 a night against Booking.com's A$122, on fees within a point of each other. Airbnb's lead is booking 8182, 86 nights at A$174; without it, and without the Grand Prix on Booking.com, Airbnb earns A$107 against A$113. Airbnb's stays average 15.6 nights to Booking.com's 9.5, and it carried all three winter long stays.

Swanston: Booking.com pays A$33 a night more than Airbnb, A$186 against A$153 on a similar fee, yet Airbnb carries 61% of nights. VRBO's A$305 rests on the Grand Prix at A$681; its other two stays averaged A$180. The one website and one direct booking earned A$224 and A$218 with no platform taking a share.

Two of the three comparables were withdrawn on 8 September because they sit in a higher bracket with gym, sauna and cinema facilities Coventry does not have. The Letting Agent will rebuild the set around Southbank 1 bedroom, sleeps 2 apartments of comparable building and quality, with no assumption of gym or sauna.

⚑ STL-05 The rebuilt listings have not yet been shared, so Coventry is still priced against 5.0 rated apartments with gym, sauna and cinema, which is where its Airbnb value score of 4.4 comes from. Until they are named, the six event rate floors, A$100 to A$370, cannot be checked against comparable Southbank apartments.

The comparables with the deepest review history lead with a named view and premium furnishing brands, where Coventry's description gives its balcony view a single line.

All three comparables out-rate Swanston, including the one with no pool or gym, which leads on review volume. The closest match, the Lighthouse listing, has the same facilities plus spa and sauna and scores 4.9 for check-in against Swanston's 4.3, which points to arrival execution rather than facilities.

⚑ STL-06 Check-in is the gap to close, and it is the car park and three building arrival already tracked.

Owner operating costs were A$541.20 for safety compliance checks on 25 May 2026. A further A$295.90 for smoke alarm rectification was outstanding at year end and settled on the July 2026 statement, so it lands in FY2026/27. Including the A$541.20, Coventry's charges were 21.9% of gross.

The year's income includes a A$1,631.15 payout for a cancelled booking. Commission of A$244.67 was charged on it at the same 15.0%, shown among the expenses rather than in the fee column, which is why the commission here exceeds the fee subtotal on the annual statement. Trading gross from stays was A$24,459.66.

Commission alone is 91% of Swanston's operating charges, with nothing unpaid at year end.