Converting to 29 night mimimum vs daily rate with monthly discount

[Virginia814]

We have a 30 day minimum requirment per our HOA.  Our main guests are travel nurses and other travel professionals.  I used to list the condos with a nightly rate...then list the monthly discount.  I had no problems with this.  However, to avoid the county and HOA from targeting our listings...I changed our listings to our reduced nightly rate with a 29 night minimum.  My concern is that my listings are not coming up on general searches.  We are a Superhost...but I'm thinking that does not matter.   I'm thinking I may need to go back to the old way of listing and just write 29 Night (30 Day) minimum in my description?  Any advise would be great from someone that has had the same issue.  THANKS!  http://www.airbnb.com/p/pet-friendly-monthly-rental-columbia-sc

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Virginia814 

That's a tough one...many other hosts are in the same boat as more and more restrictions on STRs occur. You are correct in saying that your 29 night stay minimum has caused you not to appear in search results on Airbnb. Only guests searching for 29 nights or more will see your listing when searching by dates. In addition, the algorithm will also lower you in search rank appearance if you have limited availability in a flexible search. it will drastically reduce your appearance in search results. 

Your idea about showing the minimum stay in your description and keeping availability to one night might be the only way to go. Of course, you would need to turn off Instant Book to do that (which I assume you have done) to prevent stays less than 29 nights. I would also suggest you keep your own spreadsheet (or other record) of all reservations to prove (if need be) to the County and HOA that you have not accepted any reservations less than 29 nights. I would take a screen shot of of the wording "30day min" and keep it for future reference. Another option would be to also list on another platform that is commonly used by traveling nurses that typically caters to stays 30 days or longer.

Maybe another host with the 30day min requirement can offer other suggestions??

[Joan2709]

@Virginia814 

Just thought of another issue...since you will have Instant Book OFF, you will receive requests to book. If the guest doesn't read your 30-day (29 night) min info, you will get a request to book for shorter stays that you can't accept. Declining too many of these will hurt your SuperHost status. You will have to advise the guest that only 29night stays are available and get them to withdraw their request (within 24hrs) instead of you declining it.

Guests can search using the new "monthly" tab, but not many are aware of it or use it.