Last minute discount - a test

[Emiel1]

The "last minute discount" (LMD) , only available when using rule sets, is IMHO rather useless:

1. It does not work when the "Smart Pricing" feature is turned on.

But Smart Pricing can be turned off for specific dates by setting fixed prices on those  dates.

Unfortunately  then the LMD still does not work. 

2. So you need to turn off Smart Pricing completely.

The LMD has 2 options:

- set the amount of days it will be effective (eg "2 days" means booking must be made within 2 days before check-in to have the discount)

- The discount percentage.

One would expect:

1. When the discount becomes effective, it is for the whole booking going to be made.

2. The guest will see there is a LMD when making a booking ("last minute discount: $$")

3. The LMD is promoted (in the search, in the booking form etc..)

None of the above is happening !

The LMD just changes the price in the calender.

Anyone using the LMD succesfully ?

[Robin4]

@Emiel1 

Emiel, I have learned over time that these pricing options which Airbnb build into their program are designed to help Airbnb, not the host. I consider pricing tips and discount offers to be a shortcut to disaster. You have no doubt seen here over time the number of hosts that have been manipulated by Airbnb into offering ridiculous discounts......one I saw just the other day complained that Airbnb had snuck in a 60% discount for a one month stay, which was going to have the effect of virtually ruining the host if they didn't cancel it. And to make matters worse by cancelling that booking the host gets penalised. You Emiel were involved in that thread.......

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Monthly-Discount/td-p/1610437

You can't even send a special offer to a return guest any more......special offers only work now for first time guests. I have been through this with customer support and the only thing you can do now is establish the exact dates the guest wants and arrange with them to keep refreshing the booking calendar and as soon as they see reduced rates for those nights jump in and grab them before another potential guest does. It is just plain crazy and encourages return business to go off platform!

I stay right away from any discount options, smart pricing or pricing tips. If a guest is worth a discount they will get it at the conclusion of their stay in the form of a refund.

This has the added bonus of discouraging the bargain hunter/bottom feeders from booking!

Cheers........Rob

[Emiel1]

@Robin4 

Yes, the platform has some weird flaws. Experienced hosts can often achieve their goals with a few tricks. I think the use of "special offer" is limited because otherwise hosts might starting to bombard their former guests with offers.

I think If a returning guest first makes again an inquiry, then a special offer can still be sent.

I do use "length of stay" discounts and also Smart Pricing and they work well for me

But the "last minute discount" is a useless application, because the potential guest does not even see that it is an offer. People from my country are known for hunting bargains and are always very exciting when seeing a "SALE" sign and/or strikethrough prices !

[Robin4]

@Emiel1 

"I think If a returning guest first makes again an inquiry, then a special offer can still be sent"

No it doesn't work that way Emiel!. I have been through this so many times because we do get a lot of return guests......and if a guest initially is introduced to me by Airbnb, I like any future business with that guest to remain through Airbnb. Call it stupid, call it loyalty, I just prefer to do business that way. I do quite a few off platform bookings but, not if Airbnb have first been involved.

The way the system works, if a previous guest sends a new enquiry, that enquiry attaches itself to the existing message stream with that guest, and because their stay has concluded the opportunity to send a special offer for dates they may request does not exist.

I have two options only open to me.

1/......Get the guest to book as a new booking and once the booking has been processed return a percentage of their payment via the 'Change or Cancel Reservation' tab if the booking is upcoming (which is risky the way stays can cancel in these Covid times) or, the 'Send or Request money' tab once the stay has taken place.

2/......Establish exactly when the guest is ready to book via the existing message stream and when they tell me they are ready, on my calendar I alter the pricing for the dates they require and they immediately book those dates, hopefully before another guests jumps in and grabs them.

Emiel, I have had this out with customer support but trust me those are my only two options and I do use them frequently.

I can understand why many hosts would just say, 'well bugger Airbnb', secrete their phone number tactfully into the message stream because personal phone numbers disappear once the stay is completed, and do the business outside of Airbnb.

I do hate the fact that we as hosts are at no point in the process to be trusted. Airbnb is like a 'helicopter parent' hovering over us monitoring every shady move they think we are going to pull on the company or the guest.

Anyway, I deal with it as best I can!....... All the best Emiel!

Cheers.......Rob

[Emiel1]

@Robin4

Thank you for your insights.

So in a way Airbnb is stimulating(!) doing business outside the platform.

Regarding option 1:

The "change" option has an advantage as after the price is amended it also recalculates Airbnb service fee and taxes (if any) , so the guest will get more refund

Regarding option 2:

As my stays are mostly for longer time periods:

I "prepare" the dates for a returning guest by applying a rule set (i have a  "specialcases" ruleset wich i adjust to the actual situation). It contains the check-in and check-out day, the value of the max. lenght of stay, which is set to same value as the min. lenght of stay. Then i apply a special discount in the rule-set for the lenght of stay (the "special offer").

This way it somewhat limits another guest booking for the exact same dates and no need to manually adjust the prices in the calendar.

But it is rediculous we have to use such antics just to do business !

[Robin4]

@Emiel1 

Exactly Emiel, Airbnb are driving us to do repeat business off platform.

Of the 2 options I use to handle return guest bookings  my most favoured way is to return money at the end of the stay via the "Send or Request money" tab. I have done that a couple of times just recently and any refund I offer simply comes off my next payout. It works but it is convoluted....clumsy!

If I try to refund via the 'Change or Cancel' reservation tab before the stay takes place it is regarded as a booking alteration and Airbnb will refund that money back to the guests payment method and take it from my next upcoming payout. If that booking falls over and the guest gets refunded, I am reliant on the guest to return that refund they have already received for something I have not been paid. Emiel, it is just bloody messy!

And if I jump in and alter calendar dates for a specific guest there is a risk another guest will grab the alteration and book part of those dates before the desired booking is completed. Certainly doing this way also reduces the Airbnb service fee which the guest appreciates, but why do I have to do it this way, I should be able to simply send a special offer.

Emiel This is sitting heavily with me at the moment because I have a return guest from Helsinki wishes to book with me from the 12th July to the 20th of August and both of us want this booking to go through Airbnb, me for the safety of it and he because he can claim it as a legitimate business expense. At the moment I have my Airbnb calendar blocked as I want to offer this guest a reduced nightly rate. I have stayed away from rules sets and any other pricing alteration options because, as you have seen here over the years they are continually being subject to glitches or abused one way or another. 

I simply want things to go smoothly and to send this guest a special offer, but, because he has been here before........that option is not open to me!

Emiel, a new enquiry by and old/repeat guest should be regarded as just that......a new enquiry and be treated in the same way instead of just melding into the existing conversation stream.

It's a seriously bad bit of programming on the part of Airbnb and is definitely driving repeat business off platform.

I am going to involve @Catherine-Powell in this thread because it is something she might like to take on board and put to the development team for consideration.

Thanks for starting this thread up Emiel, I hope via it we can achieve  something!

Cheers........Rob

[Mark116]

@Emiel1 @Robin4   I used to use Smart pricing on and off, one of the previous iterations where you could see their recommendations for individual dates and select them I found was a good tool.  But, I ultimately gave up on it, I never saw any price increases, not even for New Year's Eve in the NYC area, or any seasonal change for summer or things like Fashion Week.  All it ever did was try to get me to reduce the price.

I do like the custom promotion option, but its still annoying you can't go lower than 10% and it starts out with a 30% discount.

[Robin4]

@Mark116 

Mark the company reaction is.....you get more bookings! More bookings, where the hell will I put them! Like you Mark, each month I am pretty much full, had one free night for this month of April.

Why on earth would we turn our backs on full fare paying customers to chase bargain hunters!

There is only one host here who has said she has had some success with Smart Pricing and that host is @Ann72 . She made that statement a couple of years ago and I would be interested to find out if she is still an advocate of using it!

Cheers.........Rob

[Ann72]

@Robin4  I'm the only host who publicly advocates it!  I've had private messages from many who use it to their advantage, too.

I long ago gave up on expecting Airbnb to RAISE prices for popular dates.  They're more likely to LOWER prices when they see dates many guests are searching.  So I turn off Smart Pricing for important holidays like the 4th of July weekend.

It's funny this should come up right now.  The other day I got a booking for three nights in June.  The middle of June is not high season in Maine (in fact, black flies and mosquitos are at their height then).  There are no holidays that I know of.  So I had ignored most of the month and left Smart Pricing on.

Minimum price for the cabin that got booked is $179 a night.  I'm fine with most bookings coming in at $179 a night.  It's a good price.  I make a modest profit at that price.  And yet - this guest's three nights were priced at $307, $305, and $247 per night.  I nearly fell over!

Over at the main house, a returning guest wanted to come for the third time.  We discussed (through text messages, not through the inbox) booking directly, but she was fine with using the platform.  Minimum at the main house is $512.  Her four nights in October ranged from $603-$608 a night.

The fact that my booking lead time is two to three months on average probably makes a big difference.  I can set it and forget it, except for the holidays.  With those, I've found that guests try to squeeze in at least one minimum-priced night and book, for instance, Wednesday to Friday, rendering a three-day holiday almost useless for other guests.  So I've started to apply holiday pricing to 10 days before and 10 days after the holiday.

Another key to Smart Pricing is to be happy with your minimum.  And I am.  Anything it does after that is gravy.

[Robin4]

@Ann72 

Ann, that's great that it has worked in your favour. Have you had the situation like some hosts here where your minimum has been ignored and some artificially low rate or high discount has crept into a booking putting you into a compromising situation? 

Ann, I brought you up as an example because of this conversation we had a couple of years ago and we do need to see some balance in our posts. All we hear are the situations where the host has got screwed either by the system or their own lack of vigilance when it came to their listing details.

It would be nice to hear some success stories, it's not going to influence me but it may help others in getting a better return if they know how to use these pricing tips correctly!

Cheers.......Rob

[Ann72]

@Robin4  I've never had the problems you describe, which I've also seen in this forum.  The only times I've been caught short are due to my own negligence.  For instance, once I played for a few hours with using Airbnb's minimum, just to see what would happen.  Of course, a wily guest grabbed a few nights.  Slightly annoying, but not the end of the world, and entirely my responsibility.

Airbnb is more likely to raise prices farther out and keep them low for shorter notice bookings, because their original demographic behaved that way.  VRBO raises rates for shorter notice and lowers them for longer lead times, because their demographic ("vacation rental by owner") tends to plan ahead.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, because we all have different listings that attract different types of people.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your suggestions. These are such great ideas, all given with so much thought. It's Hosts like all of you who will help continue improving the overall Hosting experience. I've shared this with our senior product leaders to review.

Best,

Catherine

@Robin4 @Emiel1 @Ann72 @Mark116 

[Ann72]

@Catherine-Powell  Thank you for stopping in.  SmartPricing is working perfectly this year, so I hope the old saw that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" will apply!  🙂

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Ann72,

I'm very happy to hear this feature is working well for you Ann, thank you for the feedback! I love reading you and other Hosts here, whether it's positive or negative, you always put forward honest and constructive thoughts.

Many thanks,

Catherine