Help me out here

[Ann72]

As unbooked dates approach, Airbnb, Smart Pricing, and even some hosts suggest lowering your price to increase your chances of booking those unbooked days.

Thinking of a place like Maine, where most of the bookings happen in the summer, I've been scratching my head over this.  You get messages or pop-ups that imply people have booked other places cheaper than yours.  But wouldn't the available listings start to dwindle the closer you get?  And wouldn't you therefore be entering a seller's market, not a buyer's market?  So wouldn't it make sense to raise the prices as the unbooked dates get closer?

What are your thoughts on this?

[Ben551]

@Susan151 oh yes! I remember reading about your pricing tool, it sounded brilliant! I hope one day to be as confident and informed about my own market. Right now I haven’t lived here long enough and I would miss things... 

For example, I had no idea there was an annual event in Wellington called the World of Wearable Art festival that lasts 3 weeks every September... people are charging double because hotels run out a year in advance... I had no clue and neither did Airbnb smart pricing, but thankfully my pricing tool knew and hiked me up by 286%. It’s also now booked 🙂

[Susan151]

@Ann72 @Ben551  I actually will take a moment to give a less flippant response.

The Wheelhouse philosophy includes the mantra "if you are booked solid three months out, you are charging too little." I object to this mantra on so many levels. I want early bookings, preferably for numerous days [4-8 to be exact.]

I like the guests who plan their trips early. They are, by definition, invested in having a good time. They have done their homework. They have reviewed the AirBNB and hotel offerings and have chosen to stay in my house, in my three rooms. They have chosen to stay in a private room in a house. It is less expensive than a hotel or apartment, but when my ideal guests book, I am just about the most expensive shared house in the list. So, I am not getting cheap guests, but those that want value for their accomodation dollars.

I also put great value on "value." I always want my guests to feel that the dollars that they paid to stay with me reaped them a stay that enhanced their time in my city. Again, I have heard from other hosts that if you always get 5-stars for value, you aren't charging enough. In my mind, I am charging top dollar for what I can offer. Wheelhouse can't capture my values when pricing my rooms.

Hope this clarifies a bit.

[Ann72]

@Susan151 As usual, you and I are on the same page - that is my EXACT philosophy to the letter.

We live in a Walmart world, where many people are on an endless quest for cheaper.  But my listings, like yours, attract people who think about value.  They're not looking for the cheapest possible thing.  They're looking for how much value they'll get in return for the price.

From time to time I've been lucky enough to stay at some very nice hotels.  And I'll tell you - wonderful design and the feeling that every detail has been thought of is an elevating experience, worth every penny.

[Ann72]

@Susan151 Thank you - I was writing my reply while you were posting this - see above.  Wheelhouse isn't available in Maine anyway!

[Suzanne302]

@Susan151 

Yes! So much what you just said!!

[Suzanne302]

@Ann72 

I ignore anything the ABB bots say. Not sure how they're programmed, but they are always wrong, at least in my market!

I raise my rates as the unbooked dates draw closer. It's hard to comment on another market, but I live in a beach town, and my listing is 15 minutes away from the beach. I'd say 25% of my bookings are made more than a month in advance, and 75% of my bookings are made less than a month in advance.

My personal method is to start with my minimum rate. Once I get a booking for any particular month, I raise the rate for that month by a few dollars per night. (keep in mind I have a cheap listing so my base rate is $45!)  I continue to increase it with each booking that comes in for a particular month. So, if a particular month is not booked at all, a guest can book for $45 per night. If the month is pretty full, the rate goes all the way up to $65 per night. 

Again, I ignore anything that ABB tells me! They tell me I could get more bookings if I lower my rate to $26 per night. This is laughable because I have an 80-90% occupancy rate!

[Ann72]

@Suzanne302 Definitely!  In four years of hosting, I've never lowered my rate according to the Airbnb bot suggestions.  I said, "My minimum is what I would charge normally."  It's MY minimum, not the bot's!

I do use Smart Pricing because it works for me - it raises rates beyond what I've ever charged.  I spent some time this winter researching one listing in particular that had not done very well last year.  Partly that was because the calendar was blocked for half the summer.  In any case, I found that most bookings over three years had come in at $297 a night.  So I set that as the minimum and let Smart Pricing take it from there.  This year it's booked 100% more than last year, and it's only March.  Well over half those nights are at a higher rate than I've ever received.

Most rates are going up, but I'm going to take your method and apply it as bookings come in and unbooked nights reduce.  Thanks!

[Robin4]

@Ann72  @Susan151  @Ben551  @Suzanne302 

Oh Ann, I gave you more credit than that, do you really take notice of those silly emails!!

Look at one I recently got! It is telling me I have been such a good host I must be burnt out and need to take a break and do the one thing I have been longing to do.....stay in my own listing.....seriously!!

I take absolutely no notice of any company promotional 'Tips' or advice.  I do not watch Q & A's , I have no time for promotional material that invades the right side of my booking calendar.

I am fully booked month after month...and the last thing I need is Airbnb telling me how to do it better! I think I am making a pretty good fist of it as it is!

Pricing/ booking tips........you are kidding, not for me folks! 

Cheers......Rob

[Ann72]

Darling @Robin4, as I said to darling @Ben551 and lovely @Suzanne302 - I do not pay attention to any suggestions but my own.  I've never even gotten one of those emails* - but if I did, I would laugh and move on.

I love all of you to bits, I really do.  But it's clear I'm not getting through to you.  (Except to Ben.  He saw what I meant.)  And I'm not suggesting you do what I do.  

Big hug emoji!

* (That's pretty funny, Rob!  Reminds me of when I was getting unmarried and LinkedIn kept suggesting a new connection - my ex! :))

[Robin4]

@Ann72 

Hey, 'tongue in cheek' possum!

I absolutely do get it, we all need to use the bits of the platform that work for us, as individual hosts. Our circumstances are different, so we will each have varying challenges.

Where I do see our similarities Ann, we each host in an area where there is not a lot of competition and the rules we use are not directed/dictated by the number and quality of hosts around us or government regulations.

I have stumbled across a winning formula here for me....it would never make me rich, but it is not supposed to, It's just designed to improve my quality of life.....

And it does that really well.

I do totally understand that some pricing aspects that Airbnb have put into the platform are of benefit to you, actually float your nightly rate to give you a better return and I think that is great.

But my circumstance here is a little bit different, and I do tend push a different barrow because each few weeks I get an email telling me that 'guests looked at my property, but decided to go elsewhere because it was $6-$9-$15 per night cheaper for those 2-4 nights that I still have available over the next couple of months.......

really!! Now this one was a couple of days ago and it wasn't too bad Ann, it simply suggested I should bypass my regular base price reservation for one that I will make less money on....maybe there is a logic there, but it escapes me!

Where it gets completely ridiculous....(for me) Ann,  is when I am, once again, fully booked and it suggests I should open up nights which I have blocked because they have been booked by guests other than Airbnb, who will pay me more money than I get from Airbnb. I should, not just open them up to Airbnb 'lookers' but, should take a cut 30% off my regular rate and actually lose money for the priviledge of loosing money.......SShhhhhhe

I would, just once, love to go to my calendar page and see those pricing suggestions on the right side of the screen suggest that I could actually get a higher amount.....but the reality is, that will never happen.

I understand your situation Ann, but for me, this is the reality I am faced with

I value those few nights off that I might actually get, I think I will leave it that way!

Cheers.....Rob 

[Ann72]

@Robin4 I would love to go to the calendar and find a message that says, Hey, raise your price by a LOT - right now! too.  That is hilarious.

I'm glad you posted and pointed out our similarities.  I found out today that there are only 14 properties in my town of Sedgwick.

I'm not bothered by the pricing suggestions.  I've always thought they were ludicrous.  But I have been tempted to equate "fully booked" with success.  My instinct has told me, though, that lowering rates to get a higher occupancy rate would backfire - I'd make less money and have to spend more on wear and tear.

I took @Ben551's suggestion and went to Airdna today and signed up for a month.  Interesting data.  My occupancy rate on one place is 31% against the comp of 61%, yet my revenue is $7,000 higher than the comp.  So my instinct, my oldest and most trusted friend and advisor, seems to have been proved right.

[Ben551]

There is a lot to be said for instincts @Ann72 - I’m always saying people should trust them more! Especially when it comes to business. A bit of rational reasoning and cross checking is good, but instincts are gold.

Slightly off topic.... but my wife is a big believer in instincts in general. She says there is research proving that victims often feel anxiety in a situation they are unsafe in, but rationalise it away as an annoyance... realising later that they should have listened. That fight or flight sense that says there is danger. They try to re-teach people in the forces to tune back in, which is hard to do after schools have spent years teaching students to silence all instincts in order to memorise and regurgitate things...

[Ann72]

@Ben551 I love that study!  Very interesting.

Have you or your wife ever read Malcolm Gladwell's BLINK?  It talks about "thin-slicing."  What can sometimes seem like instinct is the result of thousands of hours of experience.  So really, what I call "instinct" in this case may have come from a combination of factors:  I built the house, I know the peninsula intimately, I pay all the bills, I know how people feel about the house, I've run a business for 30 years in which every new product offering has to find its own market, and when I offer a new product, I can only rely on my knowledge of a market that is unfixed and hard to quantify and my belief in the value of the product.  If my beliefs had not been supported by bookings and income, I would have had to change course.  But they have been so here we are.  🙂

[Robin4]

@Ben551 @Ann72  @Suzanne302  @Helen3 

I believe there is a substantial part of our brain we consciously don't tap into and I think 'instinct' is on the periphery of that section.

When Ade was diagnosed with MS we started going to the support group meetings and one of the early sessions dealt with relaxation and meditation.

There was 20 of us in a circle around the moderator and she began by telling us we would do 15 minutes of meditation where we would let our thoughts go and let our minds wander where they would. I was not into this meditation business and for me it all seemed like a bit of a joke!

Anyway for the first 5-7 minutes I closed my eyes, opening them periodically to sneak a peak at what everyone else was doing and thought how stupid we must all look there in lala land!

Towards the end of this meditation session I must have drifted off a bit because I had this really strong vision of a squirrel running around in a fir tree on the snow covered slopes of Mt Fuji in Japan! I can vividly see it to this day!

When the moderator declared 'time up' we each had to relate our experiences. When it got to my turn being about 5th around the circle I said I could not really say I could understand what we had just done, whether we had tripped off! But I said....."Towards the end though I did have this really strong vision of a squirrel running around in a fir tree on the snow covered slopes of Mt Fuji in Japan"...and this woman shot up on the other side of the circle and said...."I had that exact same vision, a squirrel in a snow tree in Japan"!!!

I had never had any contact with that woman before that moment but the moderator made a big deal of it and said how we only use a small portion of our brains.

I can't say that instinct has ever let me down, how it comes about I don't know but, I believe it is worth as much, or more, than all the good advice others may give!

Cheers......Rob

[Ann72]

An amazing story, @Robin4!  Just wow.  🙂