A hostel worker in Lisbon said their beds run 92% full in January, which killed my off season theory
I always thought winter was the cheap secret for Europe, but she pulled up the booking screen and showed me prices going UP after New Year. So what months are actually dead now, or is cheap travel just gone?
That "prices going UP after New Year" thing matches what I saw in Budapest a couple years back. I showed up in early Feb thinking I'd have the place to myself and the ruin bar hostels were packed with uni kids on break and digital nomad types who just stay put all winter. The front desk guy told me their slow weeks are actually the first half of November and the last week of Feb, weird little gaps between holidays. So the dead season is more like dead days now.