Surviving the Slow Season - Any Suggestions to Keep the Airbnb Business Afloat?

[Daniela2458]

Greetings, Hosts!

I'm a host of three Airbnb properties in beautiful Portland, Oregon, and currently, I'm experiencing a bit of a downturn in my spirits. Perhaps the seemingly endless grey skies are casting a shadow on my outlook, but it's undeniably challenging to maintain a positive attitude when my apartments are only at 20-40% occupancy. As the winter season sets in, I find myself yearning for the warmth of sunshine.

In my efforts to address the low occupancy rate, I've experimented with several strategies:

1. Adjusting Prices: I've lowered my prices to attract more guests during this slow season.
2. Targeting Extended Stays: I'm actively promoting longer stays to tap into a different market segment.
3. Enhancing Amenities: I've even gone the extra mile by offering added perks like complimentary coffee and wine to entice potential guests.

Introducing additional amenities when my booking rate is below my baseline pricing can be financially challenging, but I'm committed to trying new approaches. I'm reaching out to the Airbnb community in search of advice and insights on how to navigate the slow season more effectively.

Your shared wisdom and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Let's brighten up this winter together!

Daniela

[Laken0]

Would you listings be useful to local organizations, business or creators in need of space to host small holiday events or area to create digital content? Have all your previous guests left online reviews? Is there a new way to represent your properties with use of videography to make listing come alive to your audience? 

Just ideas from my perspective as a consumer. 

[Joan2709]

Hi @Daniela2458 

I would consider creating social media business acounts for your listing (start with Instagram). Link it to your Airbnb Account. You can also post on your personal Instagram your cover photo and Airbnb link. Ask friends that view your personal instagram to add your listings to their wishlists on Airbnb.

Consider Airbnb custom promotions instead of just discounting prices so you can get the 4 perks associated with a custom promotion. 

[Nicholas439 · Accepted solution]

Hi Daniela2458,  you're doing the right actions.  Winter can be a more challenging time for bookings.  I've had to reduce prices for the past 2 years just to keep places booked due to the considerable increase in competition and low prices generally.  Additionally I formulate a pricing structure based on the length of stay with higher discount for longer stays and plug the discounts into my calendar via rule sets.  Usually start with 10% off for 3 days and work up to a 50% for a month or more stay.  This way I'm always promoting longer stays.  For winter I'll sometimes add additional discounts and when things are really bleak add further discount for last minute deals.  That way, if some weekends are booked then it's possible to fill the unbooked nights with lower per night stays but still keep the monthly gross reasonable. 

If you're still not booking, take a new look at your photos and make sure that your place is shown in it's best light. 

I've found that changing the title and adding some text to the property description can help reset the search algorithm so your place shows top of listing.  Always good to search as a guest and see if it's easy to find your own booking using different parameters.  If not, adjusting title and info to make sure your property is easily found.

Probably shouldn't say this on the Airbnb forum but if you're still lucking out you can increase your marketing reach via VRBO and Booking.com - lot more work but may be necessary depending on your competition. 

Lastly - but certainly not least - is a positive attitude.  Don't get into the mindset that bookings are hard to get - change your mind and let the universe reward your hard work.   I'm as far from airy/fairy as you can get but I've had bookings magically appear when I have applied this - in fact - just got a 4 month booking on one house that wasn't booked for the next several months. This occurred while the cleaner was at the house  from the last booking that extended 3 times and ended up being a 2 month booking.   Wishing you the BEST season yet of your Airbnb adventure. 

[Alex1485]

Hi @Daniela2458 !

When was the last time you redid photos of your places? Did a furniture rearrange? Or a design tweak?   Moved photos from one listing to another? A fresh coat of colored paint, a new pillow here and there. 

You are in a competitive market, guests buy with their eyes, what are you doing to visually stand out from the competition during the winter months? 

If Hawaii is your design plan, where are plants? The bamboo woven wallpaper? The large ocean scapes? The jute rugs…