January bookings

[Tonia649]

How is everyone doing for the month of January? 
What do you do to get more bookings? 

**[Title updated for clarity by Community Manager]

[Robert4385]

Booking are slowing on Airbnb. When we began this venture we did well and amassed a fair number of booking. More and more the site has slowed bookings drastically. I think this is largely due to market saturation with soooo many new homes listed  for people to choose from. I have been trying to price more competitively and tune up the listing. Friends of mine have given up and returned to monthly/yearly rental process to insure they can cover monthly mortgage. We hope to see bookings increase as the weather breaks and travel picks up. Until then we’ll work on subtle improvements to our listings. Best of luck!

[John5097]

@Tonia649 

January has been the slowest month. I'd suggest looking over other similar listings in your area, see which ones are booking, and decide if you want to take a similar approach.

It's really competitive in my area, and hard to compete against a two bedroom condo at the beach for $38 a night. I've seen them as low as $20 a night during covid. What's the point even renting? So this may not be a good time to find the right approach and see what other listings are doing through the year. It really varies as some prefer more budget friendly and flexible while others will just take that time off it doesn't book.

ETA: So far I've kept rates discounted because guest were so responsible and loved it. Hopefully that will continue. But now seeing guest, like yesterday, who book for May, 5 months in advance, then ask if they can extend their trip hoping that I would have added a day buffer in-between guest, and canceled, but of course I would need to go up 30% in rates to add a day between guest and its just a one bedroom. So may end up going up in rates if guest become to demanding which seems to be the trend.