Share your tips to boost low season bookings

[Quincy]

Hello everyone,

I have read many conversations from Hosts here in the Community Center about different ways to increase the number of bookings in the off-peak season. I find that this topic is always very relevant to discuss, as this can vary quite a bit for each Host.

Some of the most common tips are to put promotional prices, improving the images of the accommodation and updating the advert constantly.

What tactics have you used to manage the low-demand season in your listings? Have you noticed any improvement in enquiries after implementing these changes?

To help each other out and give some advice to new Hosts on the CC, share your tips and advice here! 😃

Quincy 

[Ann72]

That's really cool @Debra300!  Chambers of Commerce take note.

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

It's difficult to determine which channel that initiated a direct contact from a guest.   So, I am not sure if we've received bookings as a result of the promotional activities.  When people call or Whatsapp, I don't ask them how they found us, but know that they could have seen our own Google Business listing during a search, direction signs posted in our St. Lucian neighborhood, been referred by another local host or word of mouth by a previous guest.

[Ann72]

Yes, 100% my experience @Debra300.  Sometimes I consider sending out a poll or survey at the end of the year, asking a few questions including how they found us, but it seems like a lot of trouble for very little return and besides, we're all asked to do too many surveys.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

I may be wrong but I don't like low season promotions. My feeling is that there just aren't many guests out there in low season so reducing the price just gets us a lower revenue rather than more guests.

[Sharon1155]

We don’t particularly have a low season. We started in July 2020. To my surprise we are booked in the winter as much as we are in the warmer months. We are getting traveling professionals for long stays at a time.

[Quincy]

From personal experience, I noticed that guests booked longer stays in the low season @Mike-And-Jane0. Also, I'd say roughly 80% of the bookings were from people in the UK. 

[Ann72]

I do one maybe once a year in January or February, not so much for bookings as for more views and clicks @Mike-And-Jane0.  I don't like offering discounts as the discount-seekers invariably leave a 4 for value, but since the promotion is for 10 days, very few actually get the discount, while my views and wishlist additions go up.  Ultimately it's just an indirect way of boosting the listing imo.

[J-Renato0]

Good topic @Quincy  ! This time I will just read and learn from the other hosts! I have seen very good tips here!

[Lea2235]

I am only walking through my first low booking season since I recently listed the whole property full time. I do have long and longer term stays set and this has helped so far. I am not in a holiday or resort area but the winter months are still slow. I am working on updating my Guest Book to show more of what the area has to offer as well as list events. I'm not sure there is a one size fits all answer but I do enjoy reading about other's ideas! 

[Laurelle3]

@Quincy As we have been hosting just over 12 months and we don't have a true history of Airbnbing, what with Covid and many lockdowns and cancellations. However when we were operational it was always booked for my nominated open vacancy calender.

At this stage I don't need other advertisement for bookings. I manually ajust the price to the seasons and to other Airbnb's in my local area. Maybe in the future but will continuing reading CC for ideas.

[Prasanna15]

@Quincy at this moment, i have added more discount promotion and also reduce restrictions - reduce minimum nights to get more bookings 

[Penny424]

I'm not going to lie, I don't do much advertising, but I think it helps to know who your customer is and target them in your details.  I live close to the local Uni, which I have highlighted.   I make a point of saying that I keep interaction to a minimum for those that are wary with covid.

I haven't been doing this too long, but I get more than enough bookings.

[Gillian166]

I agree that offering a discount during winter months isn't helpful at all, as energy costs will be double. it's probably a good time to close up for a week or two and have a holiday ourselves. I'm not sure what this year will bring, we are in a wine region, it's always in season here. 
 

[Sharon1155]

We are also in the wine country and find that people come to work in the surrounding area. Now with gas prices what they are people that are an hour away are booking so that they don’t have to travel and pay for the fuel costs.