How to increase the number of 30-day bookings

[Susan1709]

Hi everybody.  Do you have any ideas on how I can attract more 30-day bookings? 

Susan

[Linda108]

According to your calendar, @Susan1709 , you do not have 30 consecutive days until February 2020.  Is that when you are looking to book long term guests?  You listing accommodates 7 guests so who do you imagine would be seeking a long term rental?  In my area, which is the Southern CA desert, we get "snow birds" in winter, especially from Canada.  Do you have a similar season?

Right now your listing is oriented toward the short term guest.  How about developing a second long term listing that you sync with your short term listing that has a minimum of 30 days.  You would modify description to appeal to the long term renter along with the price.  Just a thought

[Susan1709]

Hi Linda.

I wasn't aware that we can have two listings of the same property. I guess the idea is to make sure everything on the listing is directed toward long term rental - that's why saying the house accommodates 7 people is not a good idea?  I suppose we could get some snow birds, but I think they usually go to other states.  I was thinking more in terms of health care providers that travel from one facility to another working 30+ days. Or students here for internships.

I'm having carpel tunnel surgery in Jan and will be unable to manage the property for a month.

Thanks for your response!

Susan

[Linda108]

Perhaps the student or health care providers would be very happy to book an entire home for just themselves if the cost is reasonable for a single person.  In one of your listings for this property, you could have just a single bedroom available (locking off all the other bedrooms) and adjust the price accordingly.

Would that work for your financially?

[Sarah977]

@Susan1709  You can have as many listings as you want for the same property. Many hosts rent out multiple rooms to unrelated guests, so they have a separate listing for each bedroom, and each listing may have use of common areas like the kitchen and the living room. Then they might have another listing for the entire house, and link the calendars, so if they just get a booking for one of the bedrooms, the entire house listing becomes unavailable. 

I think what Linda was getting at was that there aren't likely to be a group of 7 people, or even 5, that are looking for a 30 day booking. So if that's what you're after, you'd have better luck listing each bedroom separately. Of course, this creates a different sort of listing, it would become more of an upscale hostel sort of thing, and would require different things from you as a host, like making sure that the common areas are always kept clean, dealing with many independent guests at the same time, rather than a group where one is the booker and the one responsible for the group, etc. and the guests would have to get along with each other.