Critique My Listing - Brie, Lake Arrowhead, CA

[Brie3975]

Hi! my name is Brie and I'm pretty new to hosting, my husband and I listed our house on AirBnb several months ago and right away had interest/got a booking, the people who stayed with us left us a good review.  we then had to cancel another booking because we had to do a repair in the house that suddenly came up, and then it's been pretty dead. our manager tells us it's just been the off season, but this weekend is Memorial Day and still crickets. could you guys look over my listing and help me figure out what I am doing wrong? I'm worried the cancelation may have hurt our visibility. any advice or help would be very much appreciated! thank you!

link to the listing: https://www.airbnb.com/h/lassenlodge

[Emiel1]

@Brie3975 

You offer very high discount on monthy stay, is this correct ?

You also offer the non "refundable" option, which gives 10% discount.

As weekly discount is 15%, total discount can be 25% for a week.

(not applied to extra guest fees)

[Brie3975]

yeah, would that be a problem? 

[Gwen386]

Hi @Brie3975 

This is just my 2cents so I’m looking at it critically and from what I would seek in a rental. It is kind of outdated with the green carpet throughout. Guests could be concerned with age of the carpet. Also, the bed coverings are very distracting. I suggest updating to solid colors and also make sure that drapes, area rugs, and bed covering in each bedroom compliments one another. Every thing looks so busy. The good thing is that your rental is very spacious. 

[Huma0]

@Brie3975 

Your drop in bookings could have been caused by the recent changes that Airbnb made to their search functions, with the categories, etc. etc. It has affected a lot of hosts (you can find many threads on the subject here on the CC). Have you checked your views to see if people are looking and not booking or just not looking at all? Have you checked where you appear in search results (try this on someone else's computer or device or log out and in again after deleting cookies, browsing history etc. to get accurate results). 

If it's not the views that are the problem, have you checked out your local competition, both in terms of pricing and offering? Have you checked their calendars to see if they are getting bookings for the same period?

I know nothing about pricing in your area and if your rates are fair. The house seems very spacious, but I agree with @Gwen386 that the decor looks dated. If I was paying full whack, I'd expect something a bit slicker.

Having said that, your monthly discount is huge. Is this for full occupancy, i.e. for 10 guests? If so, you are only charging them $384 each for a month (before fees and taxes, which don't go into your pocket anyway) and $9.50 each for cleaning! That seems very, very cheap. 

I don't know if you expect to get monthly rentals often in your market or not, but if you do, I am surprised people wouldn't book with that discount.