[POLL] What is the average length of your bookings?

[Sybe]

Hey everyone,

As we’re slowly coming closer to the end of spring and the start of summer, lots of people are finalising plans and making preparations to take a small break away from their everyday lives. While some might go away on a short break, others could be planning a few weeks' holidays or even take their work and laptop away somewhere for a longer stay and a change of scenery.

The type of guests and length of stays you get depends on many different aspects, such as your listing type, location, amenities or even local legislation.

What is the average length of stay for your guests and why do you think that is? Was what you expected when you started hosting, something you were aiming for or perhaps that changed over time? Fill out the poll and let us know more about your experience in the comments!

Thanks!

Sybe

[Annie1372]

For me, I have no choice.

Quebec changed its law to be more strict about temporary hosting, in order to keep appartement available for local, since housing was already in shortage here, even before AirBNB big popularity.

my minimum booking is 31 day by law, and unlike many of my neighbours, I respect the law because the fine is almost 4000$ CAN and I do not want to pay that.

[Jenny]

31 days is a long stay, @Annie1372, but I can understand how that protects local people if housing is in shortage.

If you had the opportunity to legally offer shorter stays, would you want to?  Or are you happy with longer stays?

[Ann72]

My average length of stay over the past year @Sybe is 3.7 days.  When I first started hosting, I thought it would be longer, because I host vacation stays in a region that's a bit remote.  Some people come for a traditional one to two week vacation, but most come for shorter getaways.

[Jenny]

Do you prefer the longer stays or the shorter stays, @Ann72?

I feel like if I ever stayed in one of your wonderful listings, I'd need at least two weeks, and probably wouldn't want to leave!

[Annie1372]

@Jenny 

Yes I would offert weekly stay.

but not shorter than 5 or 6 days to avoid the party people that usually rent for a short weekend.

I live in Montreal which is 1h20 to 2:00 from my chalet (depending on traffic & snow storm) and cleaning staff are also scarce in our area, therefore longer rental means less cleaning appointments.

so far, my guest were fantastically and they loved my place as well

[Ann72]

I think I prefer the shorter stays @Jenny.  When people are in residence more than a week I get more anxious about things.  But if you came, I'd be happy for you to stay as long as you liked!  The fact is that I always build wiggle room into my visits here because I almost never want to leave on the day I planned to leave.  I always try to eke out another day or two.  When I fly in and out, I pray my flight home will be cancelled 🙂

[Debra300]

@Sybe,

For my guesthouse, the Airbnb average stays have been 2-3 days since we reopened last summer.  The reservations that I received from other platforms generally were longer than one week.  Most of the stays from locals are direct bookings and are weekend getaways.

[Quincy]

I believe I had similar statistics as yours @Debra300. 2-3 days, and 1+ week bookings from time to time. Thanks for sharing this! I believe I only had 2 domestic bookings. 

[Debra300]

@Quincy,

Before the pandemic the Airbnb channel provided about 35% of our bookings, similar to Booking.  We were closed for 16 months from March 2020 until July 2021 due to the government's COVID regulations.  For us, the year 2020 started off pretty strong, and we had projected revenue growth above the prior year.  We had some lengthier stays scheduled, but in early March we decided to cancel our upcoming bookings (this was before Airbnb did its universal cancellations). 

Since re-opening, our Airbnb activity has been pretty stagnant compared to the pre-pandemic period.  Thankfully, our reservations have increased from other channels, and we are pleasantly busy.

Airbnb 2022 (Jan. to May)

3 reservations, 9 nights = 3 nights average

Airbnb 2021 (July to Dec.)

3 reservations, 7 nights total = 2.33 nights average

Airbnb 2020 (Jan. to Mar. 7)

6 reservations, 19 nights total = 3.17 nights average

Airbnb 2019

19 reservations, 128 nights total = 6.74 nights average

Airbnb 2018

24 reservations, 129 nights total = 5.38 nights average

[Sherri176]

@Debra300   can you tell me how you created that table with average night and number or reservations? I exported my transactions to a csv but it just showed financials. Thanks!

[Debra300]

@Sherri176,

I copied information from my year-end Earnings Statements from the past few years.  You can find yours from last year: https://www.airbnb.com/users/earnings_report.  It lists the number of reservations, the nubmber of nights per reservation, and their totals.  The following is a sample Earnings Statement.  

[Sherri176]

Thank you so much!!

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

That's strange. I tried that link but it didn't take me to any earnings summary like that. The page was just showing me my payout method etc. I was able to find out the information by downloading the CSV in my transaction history, but it still wasn't as clear as this and involved several steps...

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

This earnings statement is for US hosts only.