Hello, I was wondering if anyone had tips for attracting long-term guests, including ideas for additional marketing that would draw them to my listing. By long-term, I mean between one and six months.
I currently have two rooms listed in my home that get pretty much booked back to back by short-term guests and another room where I currently have a long-term lodger. His lease is up later this Summer and, while I'm reluctant to have a third bedroom with short-term guests (too much for me to handle, plus I like the security of having at least one long-term person here), I'm also reluctant to get another lodger because they pay much less than Airbnb guests but usually make more mess/ignore house rules, and this effects my business as a host.
So, I thought a long-term guest would be the ideal solution. When I first listed a room, I had a few of these (between one month and four months) and everytime it worked out brilliantly. These were people coming to London for work, study or internships. I don't get them anymore because the rooms are booked up months in advance by short-termers.
My problem is that the room that I want for long-term guests only barely gets any views at all because the calendar has been blocked since last Summer. I have opened up some dates now, but the room only has a handful of reviews (100% positive) from the brief period I hosted guests in it while I was inbetween housemates. Any ideas on how I can get the listing noticed/attract the long-termers without having to use Instant Book? I have thought about approaching universities, but other than that, I have no idea...