New Host with some questions and opinions (occupancy, "smart" pricing and stuff

[Mark1340]

Hi all,

I launched on 12 Dec and I immediately got a booking and have been steady ever since, there is a lot to learn.  Turning around laundry, pricing, pricing, more pricing, re-pricing, settings and of course guest comms and one bit of minor damage already.

Here are my questions, I'd appreciate you seasoned Hosts answering:

Smart Pricing - Seems not to work at all and I keep being asked to half my nightly rate which would in effect be me hosting for next to nothing.  Smart pricing doesn't seem to vary at all.  I had a last minute (a few days before), New Year's Eve family of 6 and it still just gave them my base price.  Seems to me it's useless, doesn't show in the calendar any variation throughout the year apart from up £5 per night in the summer season.
It gave away my place during Easter fortnight at my LOWEST price, really, really annoyed about that.

Rooms with toddler beds and bunks beds and capacity - We've got three rooms, each with a double bed, one room also has a bunk bed for one child, the other has a proper wooden toddler bed and there's a double sofa bed in the dining room.  One bathroom.  So, technically we can sleep what?  10?  I'm confused because I can't accommodate all adults and there is nowhere to set how many adults and kids you can support, not as far as I can see.  6 guys booked over Christmas, no couples.  How do you manage this please?  Oh and yes, 10 people and one bathroom doesn't work so we've set currently to max 6 but you see what I mean about kids.  2 more kids with 6 adults would be perfectly fine but I'm worried I'll end up with an Instant Book for more beds than I have.

Penalty challenge - This seems broken somehow.  If someone books and subsequently tells me they have 7 people and I then cancel their booking, why am I at fault and get a penalty?

Instant Book or not - Seems that AirBnb really, really, really want to have this set on.  I did but had to switch it off while I figure out why smart pricing is so rubbish and possible adjust my prices manually.  Easter week, still annoyed about that.  As a guest I loved Instant Book, no waiting around for someone to get back to you but with it switched off, do you find you really don't get as many hits or is that nonsense?

Sharing info - I've seen this setting and I'm thinking, what a good idea, see who's searching an eventually booking and what they chose and for how much.  I cannot find this information anywhere, in any of the menus.  

Thanks all

Mark

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Mark1340 , Happy New Year, lots to talk  about.  There are a whole lot of Points of View on many of the things your inquiring about, some are chosen techniques others are best practices, both are based on your goals and abilities.  If you wanna book as often as possible, your lowest price needs to be very competitive in your market area, you can look at what your competition is offering and be below them always.  Instant book is a must have, self check in is a big hit with many folks and it also helps to have lots of great reviews. There are obvious and less than pitfalls that can come with each of those as well.   

As far as pricing goes, you might need to employ a few different strategies, first, look for the dates that will always be filled, (college grads and arrivals, holidays, festivals and events) and boost the prices on them manually, you know they will book so make sure you get what the market will bear.  Use smart pricing at pricingf levels that are not your lowest price so if you have lots of days going unbooked, go manual a couple weeks out and lower the price a bit and see if you get hits.

There is more, much more, being an Inn Keeper is challenging enough by itself but most of us are also repair, cleaners, marketing, advertising and financial advisers, some are even cooks for our businesses and this is for sure a real deal business.  Im blessed to have an In Keepess (Melodie) to take on a share of the load, it could be unbearable without her for lots of reasons.  Much of what I wrote above we've learned from a friend of mine who has been doing it for many years with her husband, my own experiences (over 400 bookings in the last 3 years) and lots of calls to the help line (they are generally very responsive).  Much of the marketing has become automatic, I tend it a little every day and modify and tweak my listings often.  I still have lots to learn, this is a great place to do that, hope I could shine some light on possibilities, Im sure others can add to what Ive said far better than I did.  Safe Travels and Bookings, John

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Mark1340 to start with pricing...smart price does not show much variation, it will vary and will also change the price of a given date over time. I get the impression it relies on your own booking statistics, and you won't have too much data yet.

Your bottom price on smartprice has to be the lowest price you would be happy with, and I find myself tweaking dates manually, for example for Valentines day.

The price suggestions are a load of nonsense, definitely ignore them - if we followed them we'd all be hosting at a loss.

Welcome and enjoy!

[Mark1340]

Thank you

[Emilia42]

@Mark1340 I have found that Smart Pricing really only works in the summertime (high season.) Remember YOU are setting your minimum price so it should never drop below that. Ignore their nagging for you to set it lower. I end up managing my own prices in the 'off season' and letting smart pricing take over from May-October. But with a close eye. 

Never, Never, Never cancel a booking on/for a guest. Always call Airbnb to do it. You will be penalized unless they authorize and cancel the booking for you. 

I use Instant Booking and I love it. But there are a lot of hosts here who disagree. My advice is to be comfortable and know the system well before you turn it on. Your calendar has to be constantly up to date. Bookings will come in at random and you can't get the booking and then decide the dates are not available. You also need to know how to use the calendar functions like the length of stay options, etc. For instance, it wouldn't be wise to have a booking come through for one night during a 4 day festival. With instant book you can also select options to vet your guests. Like requiring a government ID or previous reviews from hosts. I have had great luck with instant book and I rely on my guest communication to set the tune with how comfortable I am with the booking. I haven't had to cancel a guest yet. But if you do decide to use it, take your time and familiarize yourself with all things Airbnb first. 

[Mark1340]

Great reply and really informative, thank you on all points.

[Lisa723]

@Mark1340 list the number and types of beds you have in each room. If an adult can't use it, don't list it. You can add a note about the child-only beds in your listing description. Your max guest count should be the number of adults that can sleep, with two per double bed-- which sounds like 8. (Unless you're not comfortable with that many.) Guests are responsible for figuring out whether your bed/bath configuration will work for them, but if you assume use of child-size beds in your max guest count you will have problems. And Airbnb doesn't count children under 2 as real guests, by the way.

"Smart" pricing is notorious for under-pricing. (And Airbnb has a conflict of interest here. If they can persuade you to lower your price, they can increase their own guest fee without raising the total price.) There are a number of independent automatic pricing tools that do a much better job. I'm very happy with usewheelhouse.com for this.

Re. sharing info, I enabled this some time ago and I also have never received any information. It doesn't work, for me at least.

[Sarah977]

@Mark1340  6 adults and 2 kids all trying to use one bathroom sounds a bit challenging.

Ihave never used Instant Book. I'm not a high volume host and only list a private room/bath in my home, but I like to be able to communicate with guests prior to approving and it's worked well for me- I've never had a bad guest in 3 years of hosting, nor had to cancel a reservation. And I get the kind of guests who also like to communicate with the host before committing to a booking, which I appreciate. But it is true that it will put you higher in search rankings to use IB.

[Mark1340]

Very useful thanks, I'm having the "instant book" discussion now with my wife and she says similar to you.  It's nice to have a chat with your guests before approving.

I just took the Airbnb thing, "We promote Instant Book" listings to mean that they actively penalise you if you don't have instant book.

[Alexa92]

I did feel at first that airbnb was constantly harassing me to turn on instant booking but if you just keep ignoring it they will eventually go away 🙂