@Susanne738
Hi Susanne,
OK, I've looked at your listing - very nice! Really.
We have something similar - high occupancy (8 pax in our case) - but in a very different setting, so my advice may or may not apply to your listing, however, something here may be worth considering.
First, we have basically two seasons - a high season and a low season - I would expect your high season to be in winter? The ski season? Ours is summer. Nonetheless, the high season for us means guaranteed back-to-back bookings of up to 8 pax. It will be booked. Guaranteed.
High Season
We learned early on that if we price on a "per person" basis in the high season, there's two things we can expect:
1) We will be booked all summer by 2 persons, at 1/4 the price we could be getting. Simply because a large house accommodating 6 or 8 persons is a dream villa for a couple - and cheap!
-or-
2) Guests will book for one person and bring the maximum number of people simply because it's the least expensive that way. They can always claim it was a mistake... but the conflict that it creates can and usually will backfire on the host (poor reviews, false claims for refund, etc). The character of guest who would willingly defraud the host is also the type who will make things up and cause problems. You need to avoid attracting them.
So, in the high season, we price it "flat rate" for the entire villa. They take it all or go elsewhere. And we are consistently booked for the entire season with a full house at full price.
Price: Your prices are very reasonable, but still comparatively inexpensive. Generally speaking, you are competing with hotels (especially considering the great quality of your listing). Hotels generally charge an average of around €50+ per night per person, especially in the high season. You might want to consider elevating to a €300+ flat rate (6 pax) for your listing. You can try it for next year, and see if it works. If you don't get any bookings, reduce the price a little every month until you find the sweet spot - and return to getting bookings. But you might be surprised to discover that they'll be happy to pay that full price. You have to experiment.
Low Season
In our case, the typical booking in low season is for 2-6 pax. If we price it "flat rate" for 8 pax, we tend to price ourselves out of the low season market.
Conversely, if we simply reduce the "flat rate" price to make it affordable for couples or 4 pax, then it's too cheap, and we can expect bookings for 8 pax, simply because it's irresistibly cheap.
8 pax are far more expensive and complicated to host than say, 2 or 4. And they tend to socialise more - stay up late, drinking and having fun - party-like. And tend to be a bit messier. That's generally OK if they've paid well. But definitely NOT OK if they got it cheap.
We like couples (or two couples). They are generally uncomplicated, don't engage in irresponsible behaviours, they go to bed early, don't consume much, and we have far less laundry and cleaning. If that's who we get in the low season, I'm happy about it.
So, in the low season, we price on a per-person basis, starting with a somewhat high price for the first 2 pax (around 80€ per person), and then a lower price for additional persons (30€ per each additional person). 80€ per person is at the higher end of what a couple is willing to pay, but they get the entire villa all to themselves - and they love having a big house all to themselves. And this attracts a more affluent guest, willing to pay for it. Affluent guests tend to be more conscientious, clean, orderly, and uncomplicated. In our case, many - if not most - low season bookings are golfers. Daily greens fees here are more expensive than the villa! So, it works in our case.
But here's where it gets tricky:
Airbnb has no facility to change the pricing model on a seasonal basis. You're either "flat rate" or "per person" on your listing.
So, there's only one solution: Two listings. One for high season, one for low season. Just block the low season on the high season listing, and block the high season on the low season listing.
It sounds easy, but it's not. First, if you're listed on any other platforms, you can only calendar sync with one of your airbnb listings, because if you sync with both, it will show the entire year blocked. So you can't calendar sync with other platforms - you have to do it manually. And that means you have to update all platforms manually immediately after you get an Airbnb booking.
Next, Airbnb will automatically open next year's dates on both high and low season calendars, so you need to be sure to block next year's low season dates on your high season listing, and next year's high season dates on your low season listing - or else you'll get high season bookings at the low season rate.
It's a lot of work keeping it organised.
You have to decide what makes sense for you, but this is what's working for us. I see many similarities between our listings and obviously we share some of the same booking issues. I thought perhaps something here might make sense for you.
Good luck and happy hosting!