Does 'weekly discount' work?

[Ben205]

Assuming the benefits of offering a weekly discount are longer stays (more money, less work), I'm wondering how the offer actually works. Does anybody have experience of setting this discount and seeing an impact on their bookings?

There seems to me to be an inherent problem - the guest only sees the discount at the time of booking if they search for a week-long stay. But if they're already looking to stay 7 nights, the discount may persuade them to choose my rental over another but it won't make them stay longer.

If they search for 5 or 6 nights, nothing pops up to say 'Book 7 nights and get a discount'.

I could put 'Weekly Discount' in the description, but I doubt that would do much good. Or would it?

What's your experience?

[Rachel0]

@Ben205 When I first started hosting 4 years ago, the discount amounts (weekly and monthly) used to appear on the main page of the listing, near the calendar.  Then one day they disappeared and we have never been told why.  I still offer a 5% reduction for a stay of a week or more, but as my maximum stay is 15 nights, the monthly discount is irrelevant.  I can't see that it has had a major impact on my bookings as if I search for my own listing and put in that I want to stay for a week in August, it only shows my nightly rate as £53 for 2 people instead of £55, with no mention of a discount. Given that we are always being pressurised to lower our prices to attract more guests, one would have thought that the site would give the discount more prominence - but of course nothing as logical as that is likely to happen!

[Ben205]

@Rachel0Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that here in the UK, the weekly pricing doesn't seem to act as an incentive to stay longer, just a way of making hosts lower prices. Perhaps it works differently on other ABB websites?

Interesting you mention ABB continually pushing for lower pricing. I seem to have manage to switch that demand off! I don't know how, but the emails and constant 'price tips' ('increase your income for August by 184%', even though it's September tomorrow and I'm fully booked!) have gone away.

How about others - ABB pushing less hard for you to drop your price?

[Wendy117]

Now that you mention it, i have also stopped receiving as many pricing emails from airbnb.

I use weekly and monthly discounts but have reduced the percentages drastically as i manually reduce my pricing when i have an unbooked period coming up in the next 6 weeks and found with the discount it made the rate too low.  I cant say if you get more bookings as i have always had it set.

[Elena87]

@Ben205

I suppose it's all down to analytics, lack of access to data prevents you from making quality decisions.

If you knew for example that 40 % of searches were for 7 days or more in your area, yet you weren't getting a slice of the pie, you might, say,  go for a bigger weekly discount.

Without professional tools or stats, it appears to be down to trial and error or pot luck. 

[Ben205]

Good point.

As I can't know that, though, what I'd like the discount to do is encourage people to stay longer. To do that, when guests look for 4, 5 or 6 nights, it would help if the weekly discount rate popped up, making them think of extending their stay.

At the moment, they only see the discounted rate if they put in a search for 7+ days, which is no encouragement at all.

What I don't want is the 'weekly discount' to become a fight with other hosts to lower prices!

[Kelly149]

@Ben0my listing text mentions a couple ways to get a discount. In the year it has been that way not one person has discussed it with me. I think people either are looking for the week or they aren’t. 

[Ben205]

@Kelly149I agree, I think they are looking for a specific number of nights and so offering a discount is only an incentive in terms of your price comparison with other listings.

Given all hosts do that with their nightly price, can I suggest we all switch off 'weekly discount'. We're all losing money using it!