Thoughts on 2-Night vs. 3-Night Minimum Stays?

Karina-and-Craig0
Level 1
California, US

Thoughts on 2-Night vs. 3-Night Minimum Stays?

We are thinking of changing our minimum from 2-night to 3-nights, to simplify and reduce move-in/move-out wear and tear.  Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this? Does it reduce rentals? Increase quality of guests?  Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated. 

5 Replies 5
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Karina-and-Craig0 I think it depends a lot on your region and season. I tried this, and it didn't work for me in off-season. People wanted to book two-night weekends, and just didn't book three-night weekends. However, in summer season it's fine. (Even a seven-night minimum works pretty well.) What I am doing now is lowering the minimum stay as check-in date approaches, so: more than 120 days out, seven nights; 60-120 days out, three nights; under 60 days out, two nights.  (usewheelhouse.com makes this automatic.)

Laura2592
Level 10
Frederick, MD

@Karina-and-Craig0  we have a 2-night minimum and I highly encourage that to keep party guests, porn shoots and other fly-by-nighters to a minimum. We don't live on-site and can't run back and forth between every single night guest. We are out in the country so it is less of a tourist spot than a major city. I don't think we miss out on much in the way of bookings as we are always pretty busy!

 

I don't know if 3-night minimums would be popular or not. We have been thinking about allowing longer stays (we limit them to 7 nights.) As we are pet-friendly and Airbnb does not cover pet damage, we worry that allowing guests to stay for weeks with a pet might exponentially increase repairs. We saw this early when we had guests book for a long weekend and neglect a dog who almost ate through a solid wood antique door. They were gone for a wedding for 12 hours and the poor dog was beside itself. Cleaning after a 7-night stay is a lot more intensive than a 2 night as many guests won't throw out trash or do laundry even when facilities/rules allow for both. A three-night would probably not make much difference, but you could limit those who want a quick weekend getaway. If you tried it I would be curious to see how it worked!

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

We have a 3 night minimum purely because we don't want to be continually cleaning/changing beds etc any more often. Who can tell if it loses us bookings but we were very happy with our first 6 months as hosts so who cares!

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Karina-and-Craig0  I've always had a 3 night minimum, but as Lisa, said, it really depends on your location and perhaps season, as to whether this could lose you a lot of bookings. I live in a touristy beach town and people are coming on vacation, so they generally come for  week or two, it's not a place where people are just passing through for a night or two. I have a fairly budget-priced listing for my area, so cleaning for a one or two night stay wasn't something I wanted to do.

You could chang it to 3 nights, see if it seriously impacts your bookings-you can always change it back again whenever you want.

@Karina-and-Craig0  If Airbnb is your primary source of income, and your first priority is maximizing your occupancy rate, you'll probably need some 2-night bookings to fill out your calendar, especially for those tricky weekdays.

 

If hosting is more supplemental income, and your goal is to increase the quality of guests and the return you get on your investment of changeover time/labor, a 3 night minimum does help here. (On guest "quality":  nothing wrong with people making short weekend trips, but when your listing is at risk of attracting parties or other unauthorized uses, that minimum works as a filter).