Entire apartment vs 2 room (not the usual question)

[Fabrizio284]

Hello guys, I will quickly explain my doubt!

I have an apartment with 2 rooms and 2 private bathroom.

I want to rent the whole apartment, but I’m scared that sometimes only a couple will book and not two couple and In that case I would loose money.

On the other hand if I do two private listing, each with a private room, some couple could not like that cos maybe they are looking for a flat with no other person on it. And an other negative thing is that if two couple are looking for “entire flat for 4 people” (that’s is my perfect target), the apartment will be not displayed, since I’ve two different room of 2 person each and these do not match the filter “whole apartment for 4 people”.

So I thought about a third option, do 3 listing, that is a mix of the two above, it means 3 listing, one for the whole apartment and two for each rooms. But In this case means that I’ve to work on the calendar a lot (and that’s fine) but blocking so many days on the calendar will lead to worst ranking for my listing.

I hope I was clear enough explaining my self.

What do you think about that?

[Anonymous]

@Fabrizio284   Don't forget, not all parties of 2 people are couples who want to share a bed!  It's perfectly common for two friends or relatives to book a 2-bedroom home where they can sleep separately.

As @Emilia42  said, people pay a premium for privacy, and the value of a room plummets when the apartment is shared with others - especially if it's other guests rather than the host. 

The Extra Person Fee becomes especially useful to you if you're able to lock one of the two bedrooms and save yourself the time of preparing it when only 2 people book. If you approach it this way, be sure to mention in your listing that payment for 3 or more guests is required for use of the second bedroom.

[Sarah977]

@Fabrizio284  Another thing to consider is that if you rent each room separately, with both sets of guests using the common spaces, like kitchen and living room, those people may not actually get along, or one group may be noisy and disturb the others, or one group may leave a big mess in the kitchen which impacts the others' enjoyment of the space. These things can lead to bad reviews. 

If the host actually lives in the home themselves, then these problems can be largely avoided, even if they rent out more than one bedroom, because the host is on site to make sure things are kept clean and hopefully let guests who are disturbing other guests know that they need to modify their behavior.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Fabrizio284 

I can't see your listings, did you pause them?

What is the layout of your apartment, are both bathrooms attached to the rooms or your guests have to cross the common hallway to come to the bathroom and back? 

Do they have any shared places like the kitchen?

I am asking because we have a big apartment divided into two separate apartments. They share the front door and the small hallway. Both apartments have their own doors, kitchen, and bathroom. This way we can rent each apartment separately or together as a big one for bigger groups.

We linked our calendars so the listing for both apartments is automatically blocked if any apartment is booked and vice versa.

We have a higher occupancy rate for the bigger (2 bedrooms) apartment where we can host up to 6 guests, than for studio for 2 guests because there is an oversupply of studio apartments in our city.  For 2 bdr apartment, we have a base price for 2 guests and charge additional 10€/night for an extra guest. Often, 2 guests will book 2 bdr apartment because each guest wants his own room but our average group is 3-4 guests. So yes, many people travel in groups of 4+ people. Some of them are family and some are friends so even better if you have a combination of single and double beds.

If you want to max your revenue then set the base price for 4 guests as others suggested, or, if possible, divide the apartment into 2 separate studios.

[Fabrizio284]

Thank u for explaining your case.

Yes my listing are dormient cos I’m renovating the apartment and I’m starting planning everything ahead.

But my case is different cos the two rooms are actually in the same apartment (even if inside every room there is a bathroom) but the Kitchen / living room is shared 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Fabrizio284 

You know your market better than we do but, I would list it as 2 bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms. As others have said - shared areas like the kitchen/living room are too risky. One messy or loud guest can ruin another guest stay and you will be the one who will get a bad review.