Ways to increase mid week bookings.

[Paul41]

My main source of Airbnb income is from large groups that book my house for the weekends. These are almost always Hen parties as my listing is very close to Liverpool City Centre. The guests are great and its been working really well. However I get virtually no bookings mid week. I  have dropped the price mid week about £500 per night ( weekends I charge about £1000.) I would really welcome any ideas to drive mid week bookings. I plan to offer individual rooms rather than the whole house but I have a similar listing and again the demand for rooms is mainly weekends. Any ideas would be really welcome . 

Here is the listing 

<div class="airbnb-embed-frame" data-id="44638715" data-view="home" style="width:450px;height:300px;margin:auto"><a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/44638715?guests=1&amp;adults=1&amp;s=66&amp;unique_share_id=0b13dc3e-... on Airbnb</a><a href="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/44638715?guests=1&amp;adults=1&amp;s=66&amp;unique_share_id=0b13dc3e-..." rel="nofollow">Georgian Townhouse 5bed 4bath Hottub 5min CityCen</a><script async="" src="https://www.airbnb.co.uk/embeddable/airbnb_jssdk"></script></div>

[Emiel1]

@Paul41 

You provided the embedded HTML from the "share"option, which will not work here.

The listings URL is:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/44638715

[Angelica-Y-Jorge0]

@Paul41 depending on the season and how busy your area is you could extend the minimum booking day count to 4 or 5. You would lose out on some of the weekend bookings but may attract more long-term vacationers. You could also try raising your weekend pricing and day pricing but offering a substantial discount for multiday bookings.

Just some ideas hope they help.

[Anonymous]

@Paul41   You have a really beautiful home with some excellent design touches. It looks like a great place for large groups to stay, if and when your local laws allow for masses of people from mixed households to share a property (I'm writing from a place that's a long way off from that).  But if you've organized your sleeping arrangements around the kind of business that you get from hen parties, I don't know if you really have much hope for a vibrant midweek trade.

I could be wrong, though - as an expert in the Liverpool travel market, what occurrences would normally draw large groups of people into your city in the middle of the week? These would appear to be your only real opportunity given the current layout.  Bear in mind, despite the fact that your home is very tastefully appointed, the overwhelming majority of travelers with a budget over Youth Hostel level do not want to sleep in multi-bed dormitories when options with more privacy are available. I can't help but look at your very beautiful accommodation and think how much more valuable it would be as a house with 5 private rooms and a 10-guest maximum rather than a makeshift hostel optimized for the kind of parties that will ultimately cost you a lot in damage.

[Alexandra316]

@Paul41 I would try focusing on business travellers. I notice that at least one of the bedrooms has a desk: emphasize that and your wireless speed and offer free tea and coffee (if you don't already). That seems like a natural fit to me. I agree that the chances of renting the whole place during the week are pretty slim unless you can get work teams, but I can't imagine that in the current climate that's going to work all that well. I would consider only renting out a coupleof the rooms so it doesn't become too crowded and loud, especially as there are only 2 bathrooms. Maybe only rent out bedroom 3 and 4 to start so people can have private bathrooms.

Listings that rent rooms where the host isn't on site scare me a bit. I hope you can make it work for you, but I think that with shared spaces and no one to watch over them, it can become difficult. I think focusing on catering to a limited number of business travellers could mitigate that risk. Just make sure you're locking off the rooms that aren't part of the deal so people won't be tempted to bring extra people back.

[Anonymous]

@Alexandra316 makes a really important point there about renting private rooms in a shared house:  if you have multiple parties of guests boarding in the same house and no host on site, you have a recipe for disaster.  

[Paul41]

@Alexandra316 brilliant ideas. I  actually live next door  so it's possible yo set up 3 listings with ensuite each as a listing aimed at business travelers.  Thanks again you have helped clarify my ideas. 

[Alexandra316]

@Paul41 I think if you're next door that definitely makes it much better: so much easier to keep an eye on things. I would definitely mention that in the listing.

Glad to hear it was helpful! I hope it works out well for you. 

[James3315]

Hi Paul.

I have the same question and I would be very interested to know how you are getting on. 

I have 2x neighbouring 7 bed houses with wet room ensuites. Each room has a king bed, desk, laptop safe and the 4 floors are all wifi linked with business grade internet. The rooms need this as a minimum in my opinion. We see a good amount of mid week bookings as we have no bunks, bathrooms to all rooms and the work space. So they are really to the standard of a mid tier hotel which mid week business bookings expect.

Plus a massive dining area and chefs kitchen that seats up to 35 and it makes for a real work away day destination. But this clearly requires a lot of investment.

I'd still like more mid weeks, so I am interested to know how you are getting on. 

These are my two:

Railworks 1: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/47188864?source_impression_id=p3_1662977131_7lfLgMqc37tywv3t

Railworks 2 https://www.airbnb.ae/rooms/47193194?source_impression_id=p3_1662977170_bKq6wy3PYRQROv%2B8