What is your Booking Rate? (Poll)

[Matthew285]

Hello! We are relatively new to AirBnB, and we don't know what a normal Booking Rate is.

We can only see our own, so if you are willing to share your Booking Rate, maybe we can all gain some insight!

We are in San Francisco, and ours has varied from 0.6% to 1.1% over the last few weeks.

[Holly130]

Out of 597 views in the last 30 days, I have a book rate of 1.5%. Very disappointed in it, but the market is so saturated in my area that I'm not sure what I can do about it. 

[Matthew285]

@Holly130 I know a book rate of 1.5% is disappointing to you, but I don't think my listing has ever had a book rate that high.

But yes, it is very tough when an area gets saturated with listings. At least you have something the newer listings don't have: a whole lot of great reviews.

[Ange2]

@Matthew285   0% but I rarely get any bookings in the first 3-4 months of the year. Although I did notice many  in/near my neighborhood have slashed their prices by 50% down to as low as $45.00/night, Airbnb continually ask me to do the same.  But, not something I can do unless I want to pay for people's vacations.

[Matthew285]

@Ange2 you have a *lot* of reviews for both of your listings.

So what is the high season for your neighborhood?

[Ange2]

@Matthew285  Over 95% of guests leave me reviews, I have been doing this for a few years.  High season is usually May-November. I have had a few requests in the last few weeks but they wanted hefty discounts. I have only twice given discounts, when I first started, and I really regretted it, entitled guests, they expected more and more and more of everything, ate my food,  ransacked my cabinets  and complained at every turn. They ended up costing me above what they paid.

[Matthew285]

@Ange2 I was very thankful that when we started hosting (not long ago), the more experienced hosts shared with us the wisdom of never offering a discount.

With that hard-earned wisdom as our guide, we have so far managed to avoid an encounter with that dangerous creature: "Guestius Cheapus Entitledus"

Thanks for sharing your own experiences with discount-seekers, which will help me stay strong with they ask for "just a little help on the rate."

[Sarah977]

@Matthew285  Mine today says 3.7 booking rate, 107 views in past 30 days. But I seem to remember when I looked a week ago, it was something like .6.  I was and am booked almost all of Feb. and was booked about 14 days in January. Have one 3 day booking for March at this point. I really don't get how they come up with these stats, but there it is, for what it's worth.

I don't know if booking stats affect one's search placement?

My stats would go way down in the summer months, as not too many people book a vacation in the tropics when it's 90 degrees with 95% humidity!

If this affects placement, it's certainly not fair to hosts whose listings are in vacation areas which have a definite tourist season.

[Matthew285]

@Sarah977 that is an amazingly high booking rate! I think the highest I have ever had was 1.4%.

I don't think the booking rate affects search placement; or, at least, I have never seen it mentioned.

Regarding booking hot locations in the summer: I once thought I had found a great deal because a certain resort's summer room rates were very inexpensive. It turned out the room rates were low because it is so hot in that place that their average Winter temperatures were higher than our hometown Summer temperatures.

You can imagine how hot it was there in the summer. (I think it was 125 Farenheit or 51 Celsius).

[Sarah977]

@Matthew285  Yeah, but like I said, a week ago it showed a .6 booking rate.

I really can't imagine what the point of the booking rate stats are, anyway. I mean, obviously guests look at tons of listings when they want to book a stay, and only one of those is going to be booked. Not necessarily because it's better than the rest, but simply because it suits their needs. So what if 100 people looked at your listing last week, if they are looking for a place for 6 people and your listing says 4 max?

And lots of people look even when they have no intention of booking anything, just to see what's out there. For instance, you kindly looked for my listing for me last week when I said I couldn't find it. So that's one view that didn't result in a booking. I imagine lots of hosts look at other listings just to compare how their photos, description, and house rules compare. So, to somehow link the number of views with the number of bookings seems meaningless.

[Matthew285]

@Sarah977 I think they show us the booking rate because it is easy to calculate, not because it is useful or even informative.

Many of the other statistics hosts want to see are hard to calculate, or something AirBnB doesn't want to share with us. But booking rate? Just count the bookings and divide by the number of views (both of which are already being displayed). BAM. New statistic to display.

[Sarah977]

@Matthew285  You're probably spot on.

[Lisa723]

Mine vary between about 0.4 and 0.9, views between about 300 and 900-- three properties in two very different locations. Varies quite a bit seasonally.

[Matthew285]

@Lisa723, I have been surprised by how much the booking rate varies. I had imagined the number of views would vary, but the booking rate would stay somewhat constant.

Apparently not.

Thanks for the info!

[Fred13]

My booking rate has always been '0%', surely it must the higher. So, just for fun, I pulled out the calculator, it was exactly .00002% last month. Oftentimes, the Airbnb 'computer' sends me helpful hints how to improve it.

[Matthew285]

@Fred13, it's because people just like looking at your famous listing.

Sort of like seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.