How do I attract week day guests?

[Melissa-and-Coy0]

My Airbnb usually hosts approx. 20-nights a month.  But since summer is approaching I've only been booking weekends.  In the month of May every Friday-Sunday is booked. 

How do I attract guests for weekday stays?  I have tried lowering the nightly cost of these nights.

 Should I require a lengthier miminum night's stay?  Has this happened to anyone?

[Marzena4]

In fact, it is about making weekend prices higher, @Melissa-and-Coy0. And for all year. Plus any extra festivals that might generate traffic. There is nothing else you can do. This is the way this industry functions.

[Barry-and-Lera0]

@Melissa-and-Coy0We sometimes have this issue as well during the summer and wedding season. We just tend to go with it as its hard to pin-point how to rememdy the situation. You could try doing a 20% discount (or whatever percentage you want) for a 7 night booking or setup a three (3) night minimum in the summer to help grab a Thursday or Sunday night. The minimum could also hurt you if people are only looking for a two (2) night weekend getaway. After 3 years of hosting we are still learning.

[Fred13]

@Melissa-and-Coy0The market is 'telling' you that during summer your place is primarily popular for 'weekenders' foremost. In order to change that cycle, you must add 'something' to entice  'week-dayers' to your listing. Besides price, perhaps a calendar showing local 'events' that happen during the week (aka information), an added amenity that is offered only during the weekdays (bonus), etc. Something along this type of thinking. Good question btw, and good luck.

[Rene-and-Zac0 · Accepted solution]

@Melissa-and-Coy0 I market my listing towards weekends primarily and my rate is higher during the weekend because of that with a two night minimum.

Once all the weekends are gone, I make the weekdays a much lower rate but at a three night minimum.

Then if those don’t sell, I raise the rates again and go to single night stays. I don’t like single night stays so I try not to get to that point but we gotta eat. It’s worked pretty good so far and I’m booked at a much higher percentage than my direct competition. I’m trying to sell about four nights in April and then I’ll be %100 booked.

So far April 2018 is going to be my best month ever. 

Good Luck! 

‘You know it’s hard out here for a Host’ 

[Erica1255]

Can you do single night stays for only a certain part of a calendar? I don't want my future calendar open for single nights but I want to be able to offer those types the week b4 when I have unbooked days? Is that possible on airbnb/vrbo?

[Kelly149]

@Melissa-and-Coy0 you can only sell what people want to buy. I'm in the same boat, 100% rented for weekends, weekdays much slower.

Couple things I've done:

- created a second listing to try to grab the weekday traffic. This listing is simpler, starts with pricing for 2 guests, has higher reservation requirements (positive reviews & ID), sometimes has a longer minimum length stay than my other listing

- on both listings weekend rates are much higher and I have a cleaning fee to act as a multi-day discount

-never use SmartPricing -- it doesn't recognize that weekends are more valuable than weekdays

-ignore Price Suggestions -- it doesn't recognize the demand difference for weekends

And then an observation: my HomeAway reservations are much more often 3/4/5 days, whereas ABB is almost exclusively 2. Perhaps thats a marketing thing and ABB attracts the 2 day weekend bargain hunters and HA is the higher budget, longer stay guests. Maybe thats just me, but what I've noticed over the last year.

[Karen1450]

Your advice is helpful.  I have a question, if you make a 2nd listing, do you have to wait for a number of reviews to get the superhost status there also?  OR if you are a Superhost, does that transfer to whatever new listings you make?

[David126]

I had a conversation with a guy who owns a RV park, he has had one night enuities for the 4th July, that is a no, minimum he takes will be a week.

Now if he ends up with  a single night nearer the time then he will fill it. But that is unlikely.

So cream the long stays and fill in with the short stays at short notice.

[Lisa723]

We set a seven-day high-season minimum stay to allow guests who really want a vacation the opportunity to book. Then we lower the minimum to fill in gaps as the season gets close.

[Karen1450]

I am in your postition.  I also notice that if someone books on a weeknight.  They book Wednesday for 1 night.  

[Lloyd117]

We are having all our weekends book and never any weekdays could I have something turned off?