Pricing and improving occupancy rate

[Jo-And-Alistair0]

Hi 

We are new to hosting ( mid September) and would like ideas and support about pricing and to understand better how we can improve our occupancy rate. The occupancy rate is currently 40%.  I have googled and read on the internet and still feel a bit in the dark..

There's too much to explain here without going into detail but we know we need more knowledge to get our air b n b working the best it can for us!

Thanks for any support, ideas or engagement on this. We have little knowledge but have also had a brief look at a video on dynamic pricing tools.

😊Thanks in advance 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jo-And-Alistair0 until the community centre allows us to access your profile and hence your listing it is hard to suggest anything. If you are in a seasonal area then it may be that 40-50% is the best you can hope for. If not then you could try Airdna to give you more insight although a long time member (until he was banned) didn't like Airdna or the way it acquires its data.

[Jo-And-Alistair0]

Thank you for your feedback, much appreciated 

you could be right. If you do get a chance when you are allowed to view our profile to have a look we’d value your thoughts. Thanks so much!😊

[Helen3]

As @Mike-And-Jane0  Airbnb have removed our ability to review your listing  in their new 'upgrade' of this community so we can't provide any meaningful advice @Jo-And-Alistair0 

In terms of pricing the best way to set your pricing is to do your market research and see what others in your area are charging for similar properties. You will need to adjust for your high, low and mid seasons.

In terms of improving your occupancy rate this is far more complex. As there are multiple factors that affect this - the most important being supply and demand for your area and your property location. You would need to do market research around this to understand what a good occupancy rate looks like.

What did you factor in as likely annual occupancy rates when you set up a profit and loss budget for your STR to look at potential profits for your STR business?

[Jo-And-Alistair0]

Thanks so much Helen 

We'll do more market research.

In short, right at the beginning of hosting we offered a discounted price to get ourselves seen, then very recently we set a total price per night for 1 guest/2 guests or 3 guests (it's a 2 bed property, one double and one single) We did this because we recognised that we had 3 people staying for one night paying the same as one or two guests)

We also thought that guests might prefer seeing a tota/overall price rather than clicking to book and then realising there are additional cleaning fees/guest fees. 

Am enjoying exploring options but would like to find a way to feel what we're doing is as effective as it can be.

Has anyone else taken professional advice, and if so, what  would you recommend?

Thanks again 

[Helen3]

If you want professional advice, you could post on a local host group for your area and ask for recommendations for experienced co-hosts who can help you with research and optimising your listing.

Make sure you take up references before using their services and check out listings they cohost. @Jo-And-Alistair0 

[Huma0]

@Jo-And-Alistair0 

If you'd like feedback on your listing then post a link here as we can no longer see it otherwise.

[Jo-And-Alistair0]

Hi Huma 

thank you!  - here’s the link 

 https://abnb.me/1dtod0SwXub

[Huma0]

Thanks @Jo-And-Alistair0 

So, from a very quick glance, I can see you are in quite a rural location. It does look like a lovely spot, but have you done any research into visitor numbers in your area? Perhaps in the autumn and winter months it is not uncommon to have only 40% occupancy and you might get more bookings in the summer.

I stayed in an Airbnb in Somerset, close to Wells, which I believe is extremely popular with tourists but, even there, the city was pretty quiet in October. The host seemed to think we would have a very hard time finding pubs or restaurants that would be able to accommodate us for dinner, seeing as we had not booked ahead, but we never once had a problem getting a table!

Also, I see from your reviews so far that your lowest ratings are for location and value. It can be very frustrating when guests mark down on these categories (they are after all aware of both the location and the price when they book), but it might be something to think about, unless it was just the one guest who scored you very low on those and everyone else gave you high scores.

So, yes, you maybe do need to look at similar listings to yours in the area and see what they are charging. Have a look at their calendars and their reviews too to make sure you are comparing your listing to ones that are actually getting bookings.

Having a look at other hosts' calendars is not fool proof as you can't tell whether the listing is booked or the host has blocked the dates for some other reason, but if you look at the reviews too, you can get a sense of roughly how often they are getting booked. If you find that most of the listings in your area have a lot of availability, then you will know it's maybe more of a general problem (perhaps just at this time of year) in your area.

You can't change the location of your listing, obviously, but if guests are marking it down (and also accuracy), is there anything you can think of about the location that you haven't mentioned on the listing that might adversely affect a guest's stay? Even if it's something you have mentioned, guests often do not read the details, so sometimes it's useful to remind them of that particular point/s before they book so that there is no misunderstanding. 

[Jo-And-Alistair0]

Hi Huma 

It's really kind of you to give us such thoughtful and good advice! 

We have added some info about us being rural and that there are no pubs guests can walk to etc. We'll look at other local air b n b's calendars/reviews to get a clearer sense of whether this is how it is at low season.

We took the decision recently to fix a set price for 1 guest, 2 guests or 3 guests and to give a final price - and we're not sure if that was the right thing to do and might move it back to what it was. If you have any thoughts about that? 

Thank you again Huma 

J and A  

[Huma0]

@Jo-And-Alistair0 

If you use the @ symbol before someone's username, you can tag them and then they are notified that you responded.

Re the pricing, do you mean you changed it from charging different rates depending on number of guests, or vice versa?

At the moment, I only accept one person in my listings (they are all private bedrooms in my shared home), but when I did accept two people per room, I did charge an extra person fee.

Occasionally this was a problem because the guest didn't think to put in the guest count when booking/requesting to book, as they assumed it would be the same price, but they were always okay with changing it when I explained. 

I think it really depends on the listing. My rooms have always been popular with both solo travellers and couples/pairs, but I wanted to keep the price affordable for both. As the extra person fee wasn't that much (around £15 a night), the total was still good value when split between two people.

I agree with you that guests prefer to see costs up front and they will see this one if they enter number of guests, but some people just don't think about it...

[Huma0]

@Jo-And-Alistair0 

PS, do upload a profile photo and a short description of yourselves. Many guests appreciate knowing a bit about the hosts, especially when you don't have many reviews yet.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jo-And-Alistair0 you seem to not allow Monday check in. This wills to you getting the folks who work away from home mon thru Thursday night which won't help your occupancy rate. Also the pricing seems high to me (but we are in the midlands) and I am not sure your 1 vs 2 vs 3 pricing really works. The cost to you must be very similar if 1 person or 3 people stay. 

[Jo-And-Alistair0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 thank you for your reply, we have made some changes based upon the feedback we've received and we think you're right about the pricing. We can't offer Mondays at the moment but that's also a good point. Thanks so much 

[Sudsrung0]

@Jo-And-Alistair0 

I think you need better photo's and make sure you write a description for every photo