Short-term rental management in the Black Forest
The Black Forest is 160 kilometres long, and each stretch has guests of its own: spa visitors in the north, walkers on more than 6,000 kilometres of marked trails, skiers on the Feldberg. We let apartments of our own here, in Bad Wildbad and Baden-Baden, and take on your flat with the same process — from the valuation to the monthly statement.
Why guests book in the Black Forest
These facts decide who books your flat — and what belongs in its listing.
- 160 km from Pforzheim to Waldshut, with over 6,000 km of waymarked paths
- The Feldberg, at 1,493 m, is Germany's highest peak outside the Alps
- A national park since 2014, roughly 10,000 hectares between Baden-Baden and Freudenstadt
- Two spa towns — Baden-Baden and Bad Wildbad — both in use since Roman times
When demand rises in the Black Forest
A pricing plan follows the region's occasions, not the calendar. One checkable reason for each travel period:
- New Year
- At New Year, altitude decides everything in the Black Forest: there is usually snow around the Feldberg and rarely any in the Rhine valley 1,300 metres below.
- Christmas
- Roughly 1,300 metres of altitude separate the Rhine valley from the Feldberg — whether you spend Christmas in snow is decided by height here, not by the date.
- Easter
- At Easter there can still be snow on the Feldberg while the fruit trees are in blossom in the Ortenau — the same weekend, 80 kilometres apart.
- Whitsun
- Whitsun marks the start of the dependable hiking season: the high paths along the Westweg are normally clear of snow from then on.
- Summer holidays
- Baden-Württemberg traditionally has the latest summer holidays in Germany, which pushes the Black Forest's high season well into September.
- Autumn holidays
- In October the beech forests turn at the same time as the grape harvest on the edges of the Black Forest.
- Winter holiday
- At 1,493 metres the Feldberg is the highest mountain in Germany outside the Alps, and has the longest snow season of any German uplands.
- Bridge days
- Baden-Württemberg is one of the few German states where Epiphany is a public holiday — 6 January gives a long weekend here that does not exist elsewhere.
- Weekend
- The northern Black Forest is a good hour from Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, which is why weekends here book out more heavily than whole weeks.
- Short break
- The Westweg runs 285 kilometres from Pforzheim to Basel and is divided into stages — a short break covers two or three of them.
- Ascension Day
- Ascension Day usually falls in the first dependably warm week: the high ground is clear of snow by then, but the lakes are still cold.
- Advent
- In Advent the Christmas markets in the Rhine valley and the snow on the heights are often half an hour's drive apart.
Our own apartments are here
We let holiday apartments of our own in the Black Forest. They show how we present the flats we take on for owners.
See our apartmentsWhy owners choose Aura Apart
- Listings across Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO and direct booking, with synchronised calendars
- Dynamic pricing by season, weekday, local events and booking lead time, optimised daily
- Compliance with change-of-use rules, guest registration and accommodation tax, town by town
- Monthly reporting on rate and occupancy, with what we propose to change
- Guest communication in German and English around the clock, answered inside an hour
Seven signs that a Short-term management mandate would pay for itself.
- The apartment is already let short-term, but occupancy is under 70 percent
- The average nightly rate sits below the local benchmark
- It is listed on one platform only, rather than several
- Pricing is fixed year-round rather than moving with demand
- Change-of-use, guest registration or tax filing obligations are unclear
- The review average is below 4.7, which usually points at service gaps
- You want to scale to several apartments
How a mandate works
1. We view the property
We visit your apartment free of charge and without obligation, and assess the location, the fittings, which kind of guest it suits (city break, wellness, family, bleisure) and the occupancy we would expect.
2. Positioning and pricing
We put together a letting plan: the audience, a photography brief, what we would add or change, and a pricing strategy by season. You get a written income forecast before anything is signed.
3. Listing and booking setup
Professional photography and listing copy for Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO. We synchronise the calendars, fit the smart lock and set up the owner statement workflow.
4. Going live and running it
We go live and take on everything: guest communication, check-in, cleaning, maintenance, tax filings and the monthly payout. You see the income; we do the rest.
Short-term management in towns of the region
Each of these towns has its own page for a mandate there.
Other models in the Black Forest
Short-term management in other regions
Your flat in the Black Forest: we will work out what it can earn
We look at your flat and prepare a written income forecast — free of charge and before anything is signed.