How far out are you normally booked?

[Laura2592]

Just looking for a temperature check. I have been getting bookings for next fall and an inquiry for 2021, and thought "wow people really plan ahead!" I am not in any kind of serious tourist destination area so it seems a little odd. How far in the future are you normally booked?

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  An Inquiry for 2021? Man, that is planning ahead. Maybe they wrote the date wrong?

Personally I get bookings that are anywhere from a couple of months to about 10 days ahead. Most are around a month ahead mark.

I guess it would depend a lot on why people are coming. My listing is in a touristy beach town, so people seem to plan a couple months ahead, because they need to line up flights, time off work ,etc.

If you were someplace where a big event was happening, or someone had a wedding to go to, I could see where they might book long before.

[Dimitar27]

10-14 days most often.

Month ahead is an exception.

Last minute reservations-only one for the past 3 months.

[Alice595]

@Laura2592  Two to three months booking ahead for the entire house listing. Normally they come for vacation or visit family or friends nearby. 

For individual room listings, those are booked one to two weeks ahead. I also get last minute bookings 1-3 days ahead. These bookings are normally people who travel to work.

[Kath9]

@Laura2592 usually between a couple of days to a couple of weeks. 1-2 months is the exception. But I only open bookings for up to 3 months ahead. You might want to consider doing the same!

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592 I have read a few posts on here that suggest if you are booked far out, you aren't charging enough. 

[Laura2592]

@Emilia0I would say that is true in our case. We underpriced as there is little demand for our market as a tourist destination and raised the prices over time. I am on the smart pricing with the absolute bottom I will take as the bottom price but I am still getting notes from Airbnb to cut my prices down further. Come 2020 our plan is to raise our bottom line once again.

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592 

You're place is adorable, I would think you can get a lot more! It wasn't until my second summer on smart pricing that I found it was working for me. When I first started using it, my rate always seems to sit at my minimum but this last summer it creeped up. I don't know if that had to do with demand or competition or what but I stopped getting those nagging messages from Airbnb (or maybe I just started ignoring them!) And I stood firm on my higher nightly rate.

P.S. I live 1.5 hours aways from the major tourist draw and I am still fully booked during the "season." Don't be afraid to raise your rates and see what happens!

[Laura2592]

@Emilia42 yes we just started on Airbnb in late January/early Feb of this year so I was very tentative. I had heard so many horror stories about this platform but I finally broke down (we will probably start listing on others next year too.) We bought this house as a weekend place and maybe a permanent lifestyle change in a few years when we get sick of commuting. (Personally I want to move to Maine... but that is another story.) We had only used it for photo sessions for photographers wanting to do family/engagement/pregnancy portraits, small weddings and parties. Friends convinced us to try short term rental because they had done it and were successful, but they were in Washington DC which is quite different in terms of draw. Events are a huge undertaking and talk about cleanup! But definitely more profitable in terms of lump sum. We needed  a break from them so we are trying this.  Suffice to say, this is our house first and foremost, and any income generated is a nice offset, but we don't expect it to light the world on fire. Our biggest issue with pricing is that there is a large log home on 5 acres that sleeps 7 that charges far less than we do and has great reviews about 15 mins away. If I could convince that host to raise prices a bit, everyone in the area would benefit.

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592, It's funny that you say that about asking the neighboring host to raise their prices. Last week I called a friend who is basically an acquaintance of this new host who just popped up in the area and made her go talk to him about raising his prices. She did it and I think it worked! 🙂

[Laura2592]

@Emilia0Yes there is basically one large log house in my area and a handful of apartments and rooms. I am one of the only other free standing single families, but a cottage with 2 bed 2 bath (closer to the "city" we have some rowhouse stock and Frederick, where I live, is a historic town with lots of 19th century row houses and Victorians that has a smattering of Airbnb, Our cottage is in the boonies about a half hour away.) The new build large log house was up to $92 max and as soon as we raised our prices they dropped to $67 a night. We don't have enough room for 7 people to stay but they seem to be more secluded on more acreage. I think they dropped the prices to compete as they are not as booked as we are. This is why I want to meet some local hosts. I think we could help one another. 

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  Wait it out. I can't imagine how the log house owners could turn any profit at that price for a house that sleeps 7. I'll bet you'll see their price go up in the not-too distant future, especially if they get a bunch of yahoo partiers who'll book it cause it's cheap and trash the place.

[Bryan10]

Most of my guests book 2-4 weeks ahead but I had one exception of a booking one year ahead. I get a few last-minute bookings from stranded travellers as I'm close to the airport, including one who instant-booked while in the taxi on the way here (panic!).  I've now altered the settings so people can only book 6m ahead now, which works best for me because it's just a room and I juggle it between Airbnb and family/friends staying over. 

[Barry-and-Lera0]

@Laura2592: We use a 6 month booking window but we generally fill up our peak season (January - May) pretty quickly roughly about 5-6 months out. We have a multiple guests that return every year so it makes it much easier to fill up our calendar.

[Emily487]

@Laura2592 

We book anywhere from same day to 9 months out. The folks who book 6-9 months out tend to be coming to town for concerts, football/baseball games, or weddings.