I was asked by Airbnb customer service to post my question here. My problem is that I'm losing bookings in my peak season, when I have a Saturday-to-Saturday rental policy. What I've been told by customer service is that if I don't like the fact that Airbnb users are not reserving my property during my peak period, I should switch to the nightly rental model.
Unfortunately, the nightly rental model, while the only model that works at all during the off-peak season, does not allow me to make money. I have a vacation cabin. I only make a profit during the peak summer months, when I can garner week-long stays that don't yield greater revenue but greatly reduce my expenses, since I go from an average of three changes a week (with their attendant high housekeeping costs) to only one. Therefore, my business model is to break even during 10 months of the year, and make a modest profit during the two peak months of summer.
Last year, that model worked fine. I had booked 7 out of the 9 peak weeks by the beginning of Spring. While it's true that Airbnb accounted for only 33% of those bookings, vs. 42% for the year as a whole, Airbnb customers still played an important role in my success.
This year, that has changed. I have only booked one week for the summer, even though my Spring season is almost completely booked. At the same time, I have gotten two inquiries by Airbnb users asking me to let them know if I get any cancellations for the summer months. They were confused because Airbnb's reservation calendar shows all summer days as crossed out, except for Saturdays. And, of course, nobody is looking for only a Saturday night stay. There is nothing on the calendar that indicates that there is a 7-night minimum (instead, it says "minimum stay varies"). There is nothing that indicates that a stay must begin on Saturday.
This seems to be a user-interface design flaw. I wonder whether it is new for this year, since last year I got some summer bookings from Airbnb.
Other sites handle this situation differently. TripAdvisor's reservation calendar doesn't show any unavailable days except those that are booked, but if you try to begin a stay on any night other than the one that is the mandatory first night, a message pops up indicating that stays must begin on the designated night of the week. That interface is clear and easy to use. No danger that a guest will go away thinking there is no opportunity to book.
On VRBO, there is no helpful prompt, but nights that are not already booked are not crossed out on their calendar; they are grayed-out instead. So you can see easily the difference between a booked night and a night that you can't start your stay on. The night that the stay must begin on is not grayed out. That's at least enough to prevent the average user from thinking everything except Saturdays are booked.
Obviously, Airbnb might decide on a suboptimal design for its customers (guests and hosts) for its own business reasons. For example, Airbnb may have decided that whatever it can do to push owners and guests into short-term nightly rentals benefits its bottom line, and is worth aggravating some prospective guests and losing some owner clients. However, I'm hoping the design is not intentionally aimed at destroying my business model, but is just a UI (perhaps a new one) that needs a little more work.
Are there other owners out there who do 7-night minimums that begin on a specified day? If so, how do you educate prospective guests about how to find open dates?
