Listing description private rooms

[Laura7186]

We have two private bedrooms with a private bath that we are renting. For two weeks of the month, we have a permanent renter that rents a third bedroom with a private bath, but he is gone the other two weeks of the month, so guests would have the entire house. We’ve explained this in our listing, that for two weeks, of the month, there’s a possibility that they would share common living areas. We previously had the house advertised as “entire home”, but we’re getting a lot of cancellations because people didn’t read the listing description and would cancel after we informed them about the renter being there. We are wondering if others have this situation and if there is a better and more accurate way to advertise this listing. We’ve also lowered the price when our renter is there since guests will have to share the common areas. 

[Larry579]

Entire means entire 

just change to shared

[Rebecca]

Hi there @Laura7186 

How did you get on with your question? Have you changed anything with your listing to make it more "bookable" for guests? Let us know, we're intrigued to hear! 

[Laura7186]

Hi Rebecca, we have tried a couple of different changes, and they’ve both caused confusion. So, I think we have decided to create two different listings. One listing will accurately show when the entire house is available. The other listing will show when it’s a shared room. This might not be the best way to do this, but it will hopefully avoid a lot of messages back and forth between potential guests. 

We anticipated more guests being willing to stay in a shared space, as there are many listings like this in our area. So maybe we are printing it too high as this current “combo” listing, and hopefully creating a separate listing will give us better pricing and more reservations! 

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@Laura7186 two (or 3) listings is the only way to do this. You can either link the listings to prevent double bookings and/or block the shared room listing to 'force' people to book the entire place when it is available or in high season.

[Laura7186]

Thank you for the validation in this. Seems crazy to do two, but I also don’t want to dissuade  potential guests by having an inaccurate listing in either case. My husband thought of this solution last night, and at first I hesitated , but now I think it’s the only way to increase occupancy. Thanks again!