Demand

[Terrie9]

I'm in the Atlanta area specifically.  Talking with a few other hosts outside of this platform, we're experiencing a slow down in demand.  How's demand in your respective areas? Have you noticed an increase, staying about the same, or decrease in bookings?

[Marie6762]

I’m in the Bay Area in California.  My friend, has a basement studio and I homeshare.   We both have been solidly booked from March thru September, with October about half-full.  So, a bit of an increase over previous years.

[Terrie9]

Hi Marie6762, thank you for the feedback.  May I ask what do you think your solid bookings are attributed to?  For example, repeat customers, or some other anomaly?  Thanks for your input.  It is greatly appreciated and I thank you for taking the time to respond to help us all succeed.

[Marie6762]

@Terrie9 

Like most cities, it’s super-expensive here.  In addition, few good (safe) hotels.  My price is lower, than comps because guests have an en suite 1/2 bath and  have to share our shower.  Also in the middle of foodie heaven, and a transit hub serving the greater Bay Area.  I feel maintaining a 4.98 to 4.99 rating for over 200 guests also contributes.  I love being both a landlord and a Host and, knock on wood, have yet to have a bad apple!

[Debra300]

@Terrie9,

We rent in Mableton for long-term only, and have been consistently booked this year, thus far.  Our reservations are about 6 to 8 guests per year, and the guests usually are contract workers, people relocating to the area, and parents spending the winter break with their college age children.  

@Marie6762,

I used to live on 49th St. at Manila Avenue way back in the day.  I will always be a girl from the Bay.

[Terrie9]

Debra300 it sounds like you host long distance in Mableton from Saint Lucia, if I'm correct. You bring a fresh perspective to me in that you rent long-term only.  May I ask what is your minimum night stay for a booking since you only do long-term?  For example, do you require a minimum 30 day stay, 60 day stay, 90 day stay, etc. Your comments remind me that I've considered requiring a minimum night stay longer than 2-night minimum, but I've been a litle hesitant because I didn't know if this would hurt my bookings since I only require a minimum 2-night stay. Do you think I should take a chance and extend the minimum night stay requirement, if so, in your experience in Atlanta metro what is a good minimum to require? Thanks so much for being willing to share openly.

[Debra300]

@Terrie9,

Let me share a tip with you about tagging a person's ID so they are aware that you're speaking with or mentioned them.  Type @ and the most recent participants in the thread will appear. 

If you don't see the ID of the person you want to tag continue typing their name/ID, (e.g., @Terrie will show all IDs that start with that name), and then select the person whom you wish to tag.

You know that you've properly tagged an ID that's when it is in red font and has a link to the user's profile.

Now, onto responding to your post.  Our primary home still is Mableton, and I work remotely for a company with offices in Marietta and Alpharetta.  We do spend the majority of the year in St. Lucia managing the guesthouse.  Right before the pandemic we sectioned off the master bedroom in our Mableton house, and converted it into a one bedroom apartment.  Initially, we did short stays, because we were onsite (St. Lucia had closed its borders), but just before we were returning to the island in August 2020 a guest contacted us about staying for a couple of months while they waited for limited flights to open up for their return to India.  That's how we started with long-term stays, and now we only book short stays when we are onsite and it's for open days between long-term bookings.

This year, we decided to rent the main part of our hose, because we aren't there 3/4 of the year.  We currently have guests who are contract nurses, and will stay for 90 days.  We've not had any problems with leaving when as scheduled.  I think the fact that the rental is our home plays a factor.

We do have Instant Book enabled, and require that guest must have a Government ID verification and good reviews.  Typically, we have a 30 day minimum and 31 day maximum, because this requires guests to send booking requests for longer stays, and we want to have a conversation with guests before they book.  One benefit of the rental being part of our home is that we can set a low maximum guest requirement and allow only older children.  We allow only two persons to stay although each of our rentals has two bedrooms.  This helps to lessen the amount of wear and tear on the furnishings.  

I read your reviews, and kudos to you, because you're doing a fantastic job as a host.  Since your property listed as a three bedroom that can accommodate six guests, you're marketing to families.  It appears that your guests frequently are groups or families that are not looking to stay long-term.  If you want to dip your toe into long-term rental, create another listing with a slightly different details and link the two listings.  With this feature, if you get a booking on one listing, it will instantaneously blocks the dates on the linked calendar to avoid double bookings. 

You will have to lower your daily rate to be competitive with other long-term Airbnb rentals in your area.  Reduce the maximum number of guests from six to four, change the number of bedrooms from three to two.  Since you're using the third bedroom as an office take another picture that has office furniture in the room and post it to highlight a home office.  For the long-term rental you can accept either Booking Request or Instant Book (if you do, I recommend the following settings).

Note that long-term rentals have their own cancellation policy and payment policy.

.  

[Sudsrung0]

@Terrie9 

We are on the island of Phuket in Thailand, normally this is our low season always a bit hit and miss, but not this year we have been full all year booked now till Sept 19th and we are already getting booking for Peak season which is Dec and Jan,

Strange because two of the biggest markets for us is China and Russia and they are not able to get here yet.

After covid we are still down on the tourist numbers but we are doing ok, we dropped the prices a little bit,

All from Airbnb no bookings from any other platform maybe because our calendar is showing full,

[Richard531]

@Terrie9  We are in the Sothern California Mountains and Desert. 

We are booked 100% in all listings regardless of time of year.  However, our peers in these markets have been discussing how massive the travel pullback has been for their listings.  I have heard the same all over the country (and some international markets have literally gone to zero for various reasons).  So I don't think you're not alone in feeling a bit of a slowdown. 

However, we are VERY aggressive with pricing (when needed), our listings are higher end/beautifully marketed, and our reviews are almost flawless.  We take this line of work extremely seriously.  I'm convinced if you do the above, in almost almost any market, you can stay at 100%.