What to set my minimum night stays to during off peak season in AZ

[Michelle3398]

I have been considering changing my minimum night stays from 3 nights to longer stays of 28+ during the hot summer months in Glendale, AZ.

Is this a good choice?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Michelle3398 I would say not. why lose out on potential for short stays? Guests can always book 28+ if they want. One thought though - Do you create a tenancy with 28+ nights stays?

[Michelle3398]

Thank you so much for your response. In Arizona, yes we do require a rental agreement for stays of 28+ or more.  Since we started, we've only had one family stay for 28 days through AirBnb. It was a very good experience and I think it helped us avoid issues because we only allow high ranking guests to book.

After reading through all of the other responses in addition to yours, I believe we will just stick to our 3 night minimum after all.

Again, thank you so much.

[Muslim4]

For low seasons - the less nights you set, the better. I would even think of setting to 2 nights, but it really depends on each listing and its demand.  

[Michelle3398]

After reading through all of the other responses in addition to yours, I believe we will just stick to our 3 night minimum after all during peak season.

During the slow season, I believe it would be a good idea to reduce our minimum night stay down to 2 nights and increase our prices to weed out any locals that book only to have parties.

Again, thank you so much.

[Joan2709]

@Michelle3398 

Min Stay

Many Hosts use Professional Hosting Tools on Airbnb (turn on in account settings) and create a Rule Set to that allows 2-night min stays in slow season during the weekdays. Apply where you want to the calendar. I would keep your weekends 3nights. You can also restrict your check-in/check-out days to prevent a guest from breaking up the valuable Fri/Sat/Sunday bookings. You can for example, prevent someone from booking a Thur/Frid and checking out on a Saturday. You can also use Rule Sets to keep your popular holidays (Thanksgiving/Christmas) at a 4night min using Rule Sets and keep your default setting at 3 nights.

Hybrid Approach

I do work with some Hosts who only accept long term stays in the slow months using a "Hybrid" approach. This could work, but it depends on your market and demand for long term stays. Your property is pretty large (5 bedrooms) for a typical remote worker, traveling nurse, etc. I would think only a family relocating or a family temporarily needing housing due to a  fire at their home would rent your place long term. These Hosts use another platform that specialize in 30+ stays and block their Airbnb calendar for those months. They then open up their Airbnb calendar in the busy season for short term stays, but still keep the long term stay option open on the other platform.

Cautions

Keep in mind there are alot of pitfalls on Airbnb for long term stays. Airbnb does not provide rental agreements, background checks, or security deposits like other platforms do. As @Mike-And-Jane0 mention, you'll have to check what Arizona law says about someone establishing tenancy. Once they have, they can stop paying you and squat. You will have to go to court to evict them and that is usually a long, drawn out process and you usually need to hire a real estate attorney. Meanwhile, the guest is staying rent-free at your property while you are paying all the utilities and upkeep of the property. Airbnb will not help you evict a squatter:

Lots of other scams against Hosts on Airbnb as well. Below is guide to long-term stays on Airbnb that might be helpful:

Guide to Long Term Stays

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-guides/Monthly-Stays-on-Airbnb-Guide-Revised/m-p/2066547#M2...

Other Strategies - Multiple Listings by Number of Bedrooms/Bathrooms

Many Hosts with properties your size use the multiple rooms strategies. If you have the ability to lock off bedrooms and bathrooms you can have a "Parent" listing (entire home) and then list smaller options to increase bookings. "Child" Listing A (3-4 bedrooms), "Child" Listing B (2 bedrooms). Price each listing according to the number of bedrooms. It takes alot of coordination and properly syncing the calendars, but many Hosts do this. You would need to lock off bedrooms/bathrooms not included in the particular listing and make that clear to guests in the description and when messaging them. Of course, price it properly, as they would have access to all the other amenities on the property, but be limited to the number of bedrooms/bathrooms they booked.

Other Strategies - Multiple Listings

Some Hosts use a multiple Listing strategy. I have not had any Hosts do that, but I'm tagging @Elaine701 on that as she is familiar and see if she has some tips she can share.

[Michelle3398]

Hello Joan,

Thank you so much for all of the various options you mentioned in your response.

After reviewing all of the scenarios and issues involved in longer stays, I believe the option you mentioned will suit my needs best, is there someone you can refer me to that can help me get started with:

Other Strategies - Multiple Listings by Number of Bedrooms/Bathrooms

Best regards,

Michelle 

[Joan2709]

@Michelle3398 

First, let me say I am not an expert on multiple listing strategies. I have researched them as a potential for some clients and read on the CC about other Host's experiences, but have never done it for my Host clients - yet. I can only offer some possible advice, but it is up to you to ensure it works they way you want it to. You can always start another thread in the CC and ask for advice from other Hosts who actually use this strategy and get their input.

I would start by watching this YouTube video about "Parent/Child" Listings:

Parent/Child Listings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-3ko5cd7Y8&t=8s

Cautions & Tips

Below are some cautions and tips I have seen from other Hosts. Be prepared for alot of additional work to keep this all straight and running smoothly. Some Hosts would prefer to use @Elaine's method of one entire listing for high season(s) and another entire listing for low season and simply blocking the calendars appropriately and pricing the two listings differently according to seasonality. This also includes having a longer minimum stay for the high season, and a shorter one for low season. You can start with just ONE smaller listing

Coordination - Locking Off Bedrooms/Bathrooms

Be sure you have an effective way to coordinate locking off unused rooms and keeping that straight can be involved. Otherwise, guests will not have access to rooms they should, or have access to rooms they shouldn't. Someone needs to be double checking this before a guest's arrival.

Listing Accuracy

Be SURE you clearly outline on the smaller listings that they are limited to XX bedrooms and XX bathrooms. Although they will have the property to themselves (no one else staying) and access to the all the amenities, they will not have access to all the bedrooms/bathrooms except for the one's included in the listing (others are locked off). Only include photos of the bedrooms/bathrooms available to guests on the smaller listings. You can also mention the entire home is also available if they would like more space in the description.

Professional Hosting Tools & Multicalendar

Turn on Professional Hosting tools and use the multicalendar to monitor the multiple listings - it's much easier. The multicalendar is only available on the desktop; not the App.

Professional Hosting Tools

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2499

Syncing (Linking) Calendars

This is what many Hosts struggle to get right and they end up with double bookings and having to cancel a stay - not good. Be sure you understand how syncing the listings works. I suggest NOT using Instant Book until you are sure you have it setup correctly. Otherwise, you will end up with double bookings. Only a reservation will block all the calendars (if synced correctly). This is an intentional feature that Airbnb uses. This allows Hosts to block the smaller listings in their busy season when you want your entire place to get booked. For this reason, Hosts usually don't allow the smaller listings to be available on weekends, or Holidays and restrict the calendar availability on the smaller listings to only a few months by making the smaller listing(s) unavailable by default and only manually open the calendar as you like. You'll need to explore all the features of the availability settings on your calendars. If you want to use the home for personal use, or need to block it for maintenance reasons, you have to block ALL the calendars as blocking one manually will not block the others. You might just start with one listing entire home and add one smaller listing...say 3 bedrooms to get the hang of it.

Linking Calendars

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1864

Linking Multiple Rooms

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/289

Instant Book - OFF?

You may want to turn off Instant Book. For properties your size I usually never recommend Instant Book (party risk). Too many loopholes with Instant Book to risk it for large properties. A guest with a 3.5 rating can still Instant Book and guests with trips but no reviews (red flag) can still instant book. Of course, that means you will have to approve all bookings, but that is probably a good idea anyway. Since Airbnb is not removing retaliatory reviews these days, it makes Instant Book even more questionable. 

Whew...that's alot. Do your homework first and decide if this method will work, or if you want to use the other strategy. Either way, your workload will increase for sure and you'll have to decide if any potential increase revenue is worth it.

[Elaine701]

Thanks, @Joan2709 

One question... I've never understood the benefits of Other Strategies - Multiple Listings by Number of Bedrooms/Bathrooms

I've heard of others doing this, but the strategy isn't clear to me.

It appears that you have multiple listings, one for the whole house, another for one bedroom, another for two bedrooms, another for 3 bedrooms...

If that's the strategy, then in my case, I would be booked all year for 2 persons using one bedroom and bath, at 1/4 the price of the entire house. And a few of those would bring 4 or 6 pax anyway.😏

Wouldn't it be more practical to simply have one listing with base price for 2 pax/1 bedroom, and incremental price for esch additional pax/bedroom?

One host i read about offers each bedroom in a separate listing. Yes, people who have never met each other book a bedroom and have to live in the same house together. In this case, I would expect the bedrooms would need to be priced and operated like a youth hostel. It's not clear how that would be attractive  or advantageous over simply offering the whole house (?) 

What am I missing?

[Joan2709]

@Elaine701 

I think the Home Share arrangement (Rooms) is going to be the most affordable for guests and some don't mind sharing the common spaces with others as long as they have a private bedroom. Some also have a private, attached bathroom. If they will be gone all day (seasonal worker) they will only be at the property to sleep and maybe eat one meal. They prefer the more affordable options then.

The options are to have separate listings for each configuration. You can always block calendars in the busy season, and over holidays and only have the entire home available. You can also have the smaller units available mid week and only the entire home on weekends. There are multiple ways to do it as long as you have the ability to lock off bedrooms and bathrooms that will not be used. 

[Elaine701]

Thanks, @Joan2709 

So it's like a philanthropic effort to provide more "affordable" accommodation?

That's a noble cause, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to most hosts, particularly new ones who haven't yet developed the "street wisdom" to defend themselves from the less desirable elements that specifically target the more economical offerings. 

I think you'd have to be pretty committed to that cause AND be well seasoned to manage that effectively.  But good on you if you choose that path.

[Joan2709]

@Elaine701 

I think it's more of a way to still live in the space while making some income on some spare bedrooms. 

For Hosts not living in the space, I'm thinking your setup would work better. One listing for high season, one for low season? 

[Elaine701]

@Joan2709 

I was not referring to a home share. I have heard of others making a separate listing of each room in a house. The guests book it and have to live there with strangers in a shared space.

One host said it's really great and the guests love it. But again, it seems to me you'd have to rent the rooms for an especially low price to attract them. Like a youth hostel or something. Which is why it seemed rather philanthropic.

[Joan2709]

@Elaine701 

The scenario I am talking about is you have separate listings and the guests staying have the whole house to themselves...just not all the bedrooms and bathrooms:

Listing A - 5 bedrooms - 3 bathrooms

Listing B - 3 bedrooms - 2 bathrooms

Listing C - 2 bedrooms - 1 bathroom

If any of the above are booked, the other 2 are blocked and the guest has the entire propety to themselves and access to whatever bedrooms/bathroom they booked. The other bedrooms/bathrooms are locked off.

[Elaine701]

@Joan2709 

Ok, I thought that's what you meant, but I'm confused because you can do the same thing simply by using the per person model, starting say, with base price for 2 pax, and an additional rate for each extra pax.

In our winter listing, guests get one bedroom for every 2 pax. If you have 3-4 pax, you get 2 bedrooms. 5-6 pax, 3 bedrooms 7-8 pax, 4 bedrooms. 

If the booking is for say, 4 pax but they each want their own bedroom, then we have a surcharge for each additional bedroom beyond this base rule (in this case, 2 extra bedrooms). 

This way, you don't need to manage 3-4 listings. It largely takes care of itself (unless they lie of course, but we lock unbooked bedrooms, so eventually, they have to come clean if they lie about it). 

Does that make sense, or am I still missing something?