First Booking & Expectations

[Matt4551]

Hey all!

We're super excited to have launched our AirBnB last night! Within 2 hours we had our first booking! Naturally I'm unrealistically awaiting another one within minutes haha ... I realize thats wishful thinking as we need to build over the next few months BUT I'm wondering if anyone can help set our expectations! We're in Old Colorado City within Colorado Springs CO and have done a LOT of research on this market. Can anyone share some success stories from unlikely markets to give us a confidence boost?! Thanks in advance everyone! 🙂 

[Louise0]

Good luck, you place looks very appealing so you should do well.

One thing, I notice your clothes dryer is a condenser dryer and is next to the fridge.  That's a very bad idea.  All clothes dryers, but particularly condenser dryers, emit a lot of heat.  Over time the fridge's heat pump will have to work so hard to compensate for the adjacent heat source that it will die an early death.  This is why a refrigerator or freezer should be kept well clear of ovens and clothes dryers.   Is there somewhere else you can stash the dryer?

[Matt4551]

Thank you for the feedback! And that is really great advice. Unfortunately there isn’t anywhere else we can place the fridge at the moment. Luckily it’s a smaller unit so the replacement cost is MUCH cheaper than a full size, but if we end up doing anything further to the kitchen I think we can swap the washer/dryer setup to the opposite side of the kitchen to get it away from the fridge like you mentioned.

[Kia272]

@Matt4551  Your place looks really nice and I'm sure you'll be successful. There's always someone on AirBnB looking for a particular place, regardless of location, touristy attractions, etc. If you build it, they will come. Figure out who your ideal demographic is, and market to them. 

I'm concerned about your price, which seems very low. I'm a big believer in pricing my property at what I believe it's worth, regardless of what the other local AirBnBs are doing. I priced a weekend in June at your property and it gave me a price of $109/night for 4 adults. The listing shows a general price of $79/night. Sometimes prices like that attract guests that you don't really want. Also, if you opted into AirBnB's suggested 20% off for the first three bookings, you're practically giving the space away. 

I strongly suggest figuring out what you feel the value of your place is, and pricing accordingly. You can obviously wait until you have a few positive reviews showing. I feel really strongly that I'd rather have unbooked nights than bad guests. Bargain shoppers are generally not your friend on AirBnB. 

Just FYI, you can also add captions to your photos, which helps guests understand the space a bit more. 

Good luck and happy hosting! Kia

[Matt4551]

Thank you so much!! This was awesome to hear 🙂 … yes! The pricing is def low and you nailed it, we’re trying to get 3-4 reviews under our belt before pushing upward price wise. Co Springs is REALLY competitive and we’ll have (hopefully) 2 reviews this April so finger crossed. To your point tho! We’re running into this issue where people can book us with our prices super low pretty far out because we’re still waiting on our first few reviews. I’ll go in tonight and adjust pricelabs way up from mid May on. That June price is just too low. Strange they would pin us at that price in high season here…thank you so much for the info! Especially the Captions!

[Kia272]

Sure thing, @Matt4551 

It sounds like maybe you're using "smart" pricing since you referenced being surprised at the low rates in high season.  Be very careful with AirBnB's "smart" pricing because it's not very smart. You should set the low price at the lowest you are willing to accept, or AirBnB will take it much lower. My low price is the going rate for my place- not a penny lower. Again, I'd rather have unbooked nights than toil hard for less than it's worth. Definitely adjust your calendar for the high season or you'll be giving your place away. 

Good luck, Kia