@Angela2638
We have a similar situation, where in summer, we can price the whole house at one premium rate, an we'll be guaranteed to be fully booked at full rate.
But in the winter, it's rare that we'll have a full house. Usually, it's couples, two couples maybe a family of 5. If we price it at a full house rate, then it will be priced out of the market, and receive few bookings, if any.
But if we reduce the winter price to be palatable for say, 4, then we can be guaranteed to be hosting 8, because it's so cheap per person, that they see it as a "must take", and we end up getting pennies per person, which is untenable for us
Conversely, if we had a per person rate in summer, it would consistently be booked for 2, 3, 4, 5.... And, we'd lose the premium guaranteed revenue.
On Airbnb, you can't change the pricing structure on a seasonal basis. It's either a whole house flat rate or on a per person basis.
So we have two listings, one for summer, with a flat rate for the entire house, and a winter listing, with a per person rate. The more people, the higher the price. We block the winter on the summer listing, and block the summer on the winter listing.
The only problems are:
A) it's impossible to sync both calendars with another booking platform because both Airbnb calendars will block the entire year in the other platforms, unless you do the same 2 listing system on the other platforms, which in some cases, makes no sense, because other platforms have seasonally adjustable pricing models. So, two listings on the others, or do it all manually.
B) Some guests like to book the 2 person price, and bring 6, expecting to use the other bedrooms for free. We have 2 mechanisms to help prevent this. First, we simply vet the guests extensively, and make sure they understand that a 2 person booking means 2 persons and ONE bedroom. If they want more persons/bedrooms, there's an additional price. Second we lock the unused bedrooms. So, even if the guest assumes they can get away with it, they can't. Surprise! Oh, how many people now? That's an additional xxx.
🙃