I'm new, but no bookings

Brad-and-Desiree0
Level 1
Hodgenville, KY

I'm new, but no bookings

I'm new to Airbnb, although I have used it as a guest. My husband and I have spent the past month really fixing our basement up, and it's like an entire apartment. We have two bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, complete kitchen, and more. We have had our listing up for 8 days now, and have had 127 views, but no booking. Not even questions/inquires. We do live in a small town, and we are the ONLY listing on Airbnb, in our city. Anyone have any advice, or feedback from our listing? Thanks!
14 Replies 14
Neva0
Level 2
Yale, OK

Sounds very nice. Are you pricing it competitively with other Airbnb's or hotels in the area?

I have it for $100 a night. I thought that was pretty reasonable
Kristine12
Level 2
Prague, Czechia

Hi, when I have new apartment to put on-line I am trying to offer it for really low rate that for the first Reservation doesnt cover even my costs. But after getting some nice review you can always increase prices.

So according to my experiences unfortunately you have to go down with prices.

Good luck! 🙂
Jerry19
Level 2
Las Vegas, NV

After hosting for a year here is my experience with 90 reviews.  When I started a priced a room at $50 any night and got about 60% occupancy on weekends but little during the week.  After 20 reviews I raised Fri and Sat nights to $65 and got 90% weekends and 10% Sunday they Thursday bookings.  

I turned on Airbnb Smart printing which dropped my rates to $25 and $50 and within 2 days I was FULLY booked for 2 weeks solid.  I turned off Smart pricing, signed up for BeyondPricing for this month and have above 95% booked.

I would lower your rate to $75 then $50 or until you start getting reservations.  Once you get over 10 reviews start raising your prices back up, setting a different rate for weekday versus weekend.  Also not mention by you but I would accept 1 day reservations at first to get reviews.  Hosts are nervous about guests with no reviews and guest are the same way.

Lori-Beth0
Level 2
Sonoma, CA

Hello there, here is some strait from the hip feedback.  A few things stuck out to me about your listing. One the picture looks like winter and not smiley enough? Two the use of the word basement. I would never ever stay in anyone's basement. I would rebrand that and call it lower level. Is there truly no windows or exits to the outside? Also you may want to consider different pricing or even different listings (or maybe you have I didn't get that deep into the listing) if people just  to book one room/ or two or three rooms. All in all I do agree with the folks about getting those first listings under your belt and a deep discount.

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

@Brad-and-Desiree0, All good advice so far but I would like to add that you have missed an opportunity in the missing profile of yourselves. I love to read a little about the hosts. Some write a full page, some just a few lines, all is good.

 

 

 

Mike77
Level 10
Bend, OR

I just would not want to stay in a basement room with no windows.  The second picture makes it look like a fancy jail cell.  Not for a $100 a night!  No way.

 

Mike

I guess that is a matter of personal taste. There are many folks who would want to stay in a lower level, espeically folks with kids. In some ways it is safer. If the listing includes basically a second house (3 bedrooms, bath and kitchen) access to ping pong and yard, a  full family would do well there. That is a great price. But some folks just get turned off by the word basement. This is a small town and the only airbnb so it is an untested market. I wish them and all of us the best luck. Mike, today I learned there are different level people. You appear to be a level 3, can you explain how the levels designation works? Thanks.

"I guess that is a matter of personal taste. "

 

Yes, I would agree that it is a matter of taste, that is what I was stating.  Not everyone wants to stay in a treehouse, it is a matter of taste.  🙂  I have had one such set of people sign up to stay and get here and then walk around and then say, "It is not up to our standards" and then they left.

 

My guess is that the reason you are not getting people to stay in the basement room is because the price is too high, and it is a basement room.  

 

I would make the suggestion that you make the other amenities the thrust of your pictures and the basement room just a room that the bed is in, and not the main selling point of your rental.

 

Mike

 

Please check the spelling in your title.

Its not my title. How would you correct the spelling?

Sorry, I replied to the wrong person.

@Lori-Beth0, I think they were referring to the title of the listing, as in a missing ''n'' in ''country''.

Melanie58
Level 10
Boise, ID

I am kind of free-wheeling here, just thinking of myself as a traveler that is choosing your place.

 

I wonder if it would be beneficial to rebrand this as two separate bookable locations?  I am new to airbnb too, but I have a family.  When we are traveling, we do it as a group of five people.  Large groups of people are often a combination of big and little people. You have stated your town is small, so unless your town is where I am headed for my family reunion or something, as a parent I am thinking of your place as a throughway, and if I am on a budget I am trying to keep things cheap.  It's very easy for me to find a single room for maybe $40 but for sure less than $100 and have some of my kids sleep on the floor or an air mattress etc when we are just trying to find some place to crash into bed at 11 at night and wake up at 6am the next morning.  So even though I am "5 guests", in reality I am considering all places that are designed for 2 guests and above because my 5 year old can squeeze in the bed with us, and the older sisters can sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.  

 

In this scenario the kitchen/extra half bath etc are amenities we just wouldn't be willing to pay for because we're really just stopping through for a night of sleep.  Features I am willing to pay the most for are the private entrance (because we'll be showing up late), a few extra towels, and access to the interstate/whichever road I'm driving to continue on my journey.   However, if you branded this as two separate listings, maybe call one of them a private room with private bath, and one a private room with shared bath just to see which fairs better, then maybe you could at least get your first listings and start getting some reviews - I guess it doesn't hurt at any rate to try a few different things until you find the thing that sticks!  For pricing, you could choose to charge extra, say $5 extra, for each guest beyond the first two in each room.  I am just imagining that most people I know that travel in a larger group aren't willing to shell out for space unless they are going to be camping out somewhere for a long period - say a beach vacation where it's economical to cook your own meals and nice to be able to do laundry.  That's when those additional features really start to matter to the potential guest.  On the other hand, I was looking for a bargain in Laramie, WY last week and chose to stay with my daughter in a single rented room with a shared bathroom.  It was $41, and we were really happy with it.  The other guest down there was also a single traveler and very nice.  If you switch over to more of a shared space idea, features you could highlight would be like a lock on the interior door of each room, and maybe something that emphasizes what a quiet place it is.    

 

Also, you are south of the next major city to you, so an appealing tactic for me would be to highlight how convenient it is to get through all that traffic (for people headed south anyway) so you can wake up and hit an open road without delays.  I know when I am driving from Oklahoma to Idaho, I always aim to get far beyond Denver so I don't have to deal with the traffic in the morning.