January and February in Zurich: what to do with the weakest quarter

How far it actually falls

According to AirROI’s data for July 2025 to June 2026, January is the weakest month in Zurich at 37.8 per cent occupancy, followed by February and November. July runs at 56.2 per cent. The gap between the strongest and the weakest month is thus around 18 percentage points.

What qualifies that figure: it is an average across all listings. A well-run property sits above it, a badly run one below — and in January that difference bites harder than in July, because less demand meets more supply. Anyone sitting just above the average in summer can land well below it in January.

Important for the annual calculation: these months are part of it. Anyone reckoning on July and then taking fright in January has a problem not with the flat but with the calculation.

Which guests come in winter

Not the city tourists. What remains are three groups you can address.

Business travellers: the share of business tourism in Zurich runs at around 30 per cent, and it is distributed more evenly across the year than leisure travel. January and February are months in which work happens.

Longer stays: expats between flats, project assignments, people in the middle of a move. For them January is not a bad month but one like any other — and they book for weeks.

And ski traffic, but only indirectly: Zurich is a transfer point. A night before an onward flight or after arrival, often booked at short notice. That carries individual nights, not the occupancy rate.

What works in these months

Three things, ordered by effect.

Lower the minimum stay. In July a three-night minimum filters out the weekend parties without costing bookings — in January it costs some. Two nights, or one, in January brings bookings that otherwise do not come. The price is more cleaning changeovers; on the numbers it is worth it as long as the nightly rate stays above the changeover costs.

Lower the price, but selectively. A price that has produced no booking three weeks before the date is too high for that date — that holds in January as in July, only in January it affects more days. Weekly and monthly discounts work harder here than a general reduction, because they address the guests who actually come.

And orient the listing towards these guests: workspace, Wi-Fi bandwidth, washing machine, transport links. Anyone searching in January searches differently from July.

• Lower the minimum stay — the single strongest measure
• Weekly and monthly discounts instead of a general price cut
• Orient the listing towards the workspace and transport links
• Put your own use into these months, if you need it

What is not worth it

Cutting the price to the pain threshold. A night at CHF 90 with CHF 95 of cleaning cost per changeover brings in nothing — it costs. Stopping above the changeover costs is not modesty but arithmetic.

Closing the flat. A listing without availability loses ranking, and it does not come back by itself in March. Anyone taking January and February out of the calendar starts the season from a worse position.

And promotions that attract guests you do not want: a discount on single nights at weekends in January brings precisely the bookings that lead to complaints from neighbours.