Stepping back a bit, this seems to be simply a request for ideas to eliminate gaps.
I have a lot to say about this, so please bear with me. 🙂
I have thought long and hard about this myself, and tried different strategies working with Rules. All of the strategies have involved some kind of restrictions, and after setting up the rules, I started getting concerned that I might be shooting myself in the foot and missing out on too many bookings because of the restrictions I had imposed with the rules. I have yet to formulate a decent set of rules to reduce gaps.
There was an interesting approach that someone posted here that involved pricing. I think it involved lowering the price on the days he wished to encourage and raising the price on days he wished to discourage. He thought it was a decent approach, if I remember correctly. He gave examples, and you might be able to find the post if you search.
I finally came to the conclusion that it is actually not a tragedy to have a few days during the month unbooked. I am satisfied with 26 days of bookings a month. Having the other days free gives me the chance to schedule any maintenance, bids for remodeling, and other improvements to the properties. It also gives me and my cleaner a break. Many back-to-backs in a row can be stressful.
I also think that the type of property you have will produce a particular pattern of bookings. My downtown property is always booked on the weekends. I have a 3 day minimum on it, so that at least gets me one weekday booked. My resort property is booked pretty evenly weekdays and weekends year-round.
I don’t know if your area is suitable, but to fill up Monday-Friday, consider marketing to business travelers. You can register with the Chamber of Commerce in your area, and try to register with some big businesses, hospitals, universities, and especially realtors, who often have clients come into town for a few days to look at properties. If you have a more rural location, try to appeal to the remote worker. Make sure you have a proper desk, good wi-fi connection, etc., and highlight business suitability in your listing.
Another idea is to subscribe to a dynamic pricing product, like Pricelabs or Wheelhouse. For a very small percentage of the bookings they control, they price your days according to current online traffic, recent bookings by others, holidays, events in your area, etc. The prices change all the time depending on the current business conditions, and you can fine-tune their choices by choosing aggressive/normal/relaxed overall strategy, as well as many other tunings. I was astounded at the high prices they set on certain days, and they actually got booked!
Just a few ideas, none of them surefire ways to fill your weekdays. If you discover some good strategies in your search for this, please come back and share them with us. 🙂
