Do you keep an eye on the competition?

[Quincy]

Hello everyone, 

Several of you have mentioned in the past keeping track of the prices charged by other Hosts in your area in order to better adjust yours. 

Whether it’s in terms of pricing, decoration, house rules or interesting extras to offer, there is a lot to learn from our competitors these days.

Do you keep an eye on your competition, and what do you look for when doing so?

I look forward to reading your anecdotes and experiences 🙂

Quincy  

[Emiel1]

@J-Renato0 

There are several reasons:

- Most of my guests are (international) students, people doing internships etc... Their budget is limited, so if i increase prices they will (can !) not book anymore.

- I have not many costs, as i do all the work myself, including maintenance and repairs.

- I do not offer very short stays (like 1  - 3 nights: too much work).

- I own a business account on Airbnb. If my earnings form hosting in a year stays  below a treshold, the Dutch tax system will give me benefits (like no obligation to charge/administrate VAT, also Airbnb not charging me VAT on fees)

[Chyrel0]

I always try to refer to local competition. I am very interested in learning how one listing rates higher on the results than another. Can anyone help with the algorithms?

[M199]

@Normen0, @Lawrene0 , @Quincy 

About 4 doors away from our home is an Airbnb.  We work together and support each other in many ways.  For example, my husband will go over and plow the the driveway when we get a lot of snow (btw, they live 2 hours away).  So for 15 minutes it takes, no big deal.  They have stepped in to dogsit when we had a family emergency.

It goes both ways, we work together and watch each others backs.  Works beautifully for both of us.

[Stephanie]

I love this @M199 - an amazing example of how supportive the Host community can be.

Side note - please may I see the dog 🐶

[Quincy]

This is an amazing example, indeed @Stephanie! 

[Michelle1164]

Like @Lawrene0 I do not live in a touresty area. Many of our stays are 1-2 nighters passing through to get from point A to point B, short term contract workers, conference goers or the occasional wedding attender. We are a little off the beaten path to most other Airbnb's in the area. So our guest tend to be more intentional in what they are looking for in a stay. I've seen a lot of local Airbnb's come and go in the short time we have been hosting. I can pretty much guess which ones won't be around for very long. 

Some of the things I look at when looking at other local hosts pages are:

1. Nightly prices to similar set ups. We are an in-house host. 

2. Their House Rules or should I lack there of. This tells me just how much thought and research they have or have not put into deciding to host. 

3. How far from us they are and what side of town they are on should I need to refer a guest to another Airbnb that would better meet their needs, based on questions they ask during an inquiry. 

4. Their reviews. I have actually declined a couple potential guests based on not so favorable reviews left by other local hosts for guests who frequent the area and have stayed at several Airbnbs. 

[M199]

@Stephanie 

My sweetheart!

[Emilie]

@M199 Precious 😍

[Quincy]

Lovely @M199 😍

[J-Renato0]

@Quincy 

I usually do not keep an eye on the competition to set price.
My "termometer" in term of prices goes up and down like the following examples:
1- Are my listing being booking too easyly? Then I should raise the price.
2- Are my listing rarely being booking? Price is somewhat high.

I do not care if someone are charging too low or too high. I consider only my interest, I consider only what I want to get. My will does not go with the tide.

As for trends in terms of style of furniture and wall colours and other things that may attract the attention to the listing, maybe once a year I look at other listings.

[J-Renato0]

For the sake of the English language and for my own sake I must correct myself!

1- Thermometer !

2- Unbelievable.. I should have said... Are my listings being booked too easily?

[Huma0]

@J-Renato0 

I also rely mostly on this method, e.g. I just raised the prices on my rooms as I am getting plenty of interest/bookings right now. However, knowing from recent searches that there are not many good quality/affordable Airbnbs available in my area helps me to feel confident about doing this.

I don't know why I always feel a bit nervous about increasing prices when I know mine are too low! I guess it's because I host long term guests and I know with the Airbnb fees etc. it is still a lot of money for them.

[J-Renato0]

@Huma0 

Yes, Sometimes I also feel a bit concerned about increasing prices
When we increase the price, we may find some more demanding guests. In some cases, under some circumstances, somehow we have to improve something to justify the increase. Some slight improvement, but that causes good impression helps. Maybe some perks. It involves some planning and we have to be sensitive.

e.g. Some time ago I increased the price and I also changed the cutlery for a new one of better quality and put in some new glasses, new cups and new wine glasses. 

[Quincy]

Thanks for sharing this @J-Renato0! In the past, I would check listings within my vicinity just to get an idea of what others are charging. 

[Huma0]

@Quincy 

Yes, I used to check out the local competition every now and again A. to compare prices and B. to have suggestions on hand for guests that I couldn't accommodate. 

However, since the pandemic, I am not finding comparable listings in my area. I used to refer people to some local hosts who, while their prices were much higher, had a similar style of listing very close by and excellent reviews. Those hosts blocked their calendar (I'm guessing due to COVID as they didn't explain why) and, last time I checked, it was blocked for the coming six months but open to bookings after that. There were a couple of other decent looking places nearby that were in a similar price range to mine but I can't even see them in the searches now.

I'm not worried about my bookings right now. They seemed to finally pick up a few months ago and at the moment I am turning guests away. If anything, I am probably pricing too low but it's difficult to know without similar listings to compare to (I can only find similar in other areas of London and location is an important factor). 

The problem for me is that I do have guests I want to help find places (e.g. guests who want to extend stays or returning guests that I am unable to accommodate) and they are struggling but what's in my local market either looks grim or overpriced or both. I started a thread to find similar listings in London but no one responded!