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@Patsy - do you mind sharing a link to your Airbnb listing? I can take a look and let you know some suggestions based on your neighbors pricing.
Generally, we (Beyond Pricing) recommend setting your cleaning fee to the amount you actually pay to clean your place between guests, or whatever that time is worth to you if you do it yourself. That way, you can accept last minute or 1 night bookings without worrying that it’s not worth your while.
We also recommend not charging an extra guest fee until after the number of guests that is equal to your number of bedrooms. Generally, however, we suggest doing 2x the number of bedrooms. So if you have one bedroom, you can charge for extra guests beyond 2 people. If you have 2 beds, charge for beyond 4 guests.
Thanks for your advice Ian. My airbnb website is:- www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/1910400.
I don’t think I’m too expensive for what I offer but there is a lot of competition in this most unique of country towns!
I’d love some feedback from anybody other than a guest.
Cheers
Patsy, you’re moving in the right direction. First, you mentioned you were priced high relative to comparable listings that are getting more reviews and presumably are showing up higher in Airbnb’s search results. We (Everbooked) generally recommend hosts’ price at a discount relative to top ranked listings unless you offer more value - in the form of amenities for example - at the same price. Lowering your base price will attract the attention of more prospective guests so again, a good move. I like your change to a more competitive minimum stay as that will likely increase your conversion rates for guests inquiring about your place and will give you the chance as well to gain more reviews. Finally, you will want to lower your prices toward a minimally acceptable nightly rate as unbooked nights approach in your calendar. That will make you more money and continue to demonstrate to Airbnb that you are a more active host which helps with your momentum. This is important all year round but may be especially important during low season. Your minimally acceptable nightly rate should be just enough to cover the small costs to actually host your guests (utilities, small gifts, etc but not your cleaning costs) while being just enough to meet your hassle factor. Best of luck!
I tried beyond pricing, and the rooms of my house which currently are at around $30/$40/$50 and $60 a night, suddenly were rated at $80 to $115! So, it didn’t work for me. It didn’t account for the lower-income neighborhood, the eccentricities of the rooms, or the fact that it is a shared house with shared bathrooms.
@cs2015 - I’m guessing that the default base price was too high for your listings. We don’t do as great a job as we should at communicating how to set your base price so many people don’t realize that they should adjust their base price until the prices look similar to what you’ve been getting bookings at (n your case $30-$50/night). Do you mind sharing your Airbnb listing URL and I can take a look, or you can send me an email at: ian@beyondpricing.com
Patsy,
Your place is charming. I looked at other local rentals and they are crazy cheap, but you are underestimating the advantage of being in the middle of town. Also the amount of work to keep a garden like yours will not go unappreciated.
Airbnb people are kind of divided between price people and experience/location people. There are plenty of both.
Many people would prefer to not have to walk a mile to a pub or have to have a car. The ones who want the beach will go to the beach.
I dont know the cost of the local hotels, but as long as you are under that, the right people will pay and be happy to. My place just opend at the end of the season in Nashville and my prices were a good 30 -50% over other in the area and I have had 6 rental in two months…1 was for a full month.
Also a slightly higher price will keep out kids who want to party hardy. Learned this from 30 years of property rentals.
Ian, I checked you guys out a week or so ago and sent an email with questions; I never heard back. Again last night my husband and I spent a lot of time reviewing our competition and agonizing over price. The name if my lisitn is ‘2 cozy bedrooms’. Do you have my inquiry?
Sorry for the slow reply - I just checked our support team’s tickets but didn’t see anything, but it may have come from an email I don’t recognize. Do you want to forward me the inquiry to: ian@beyondpricing.com?
AirBnB’s price tips have been insanely low. I know this is low season, but still the price tips they give are a steal! I even had one potential guest question me if towels/linens are provided. They thought the low price with all the amenities provided sounded too good to be true and wondered about some “hidden costs” . It is true, prices too low can be a red flag. I stopped charging cleaning fees as that seemed like a “hidden cost”. Other hosts in my area don’t use Everbooked, but the prices Everbooked give are more comparable to other hosts in my area.
I’m curious a bit more about what the benefit of lowering the base price is. I have my calendar set with individual prices for busiest vs. slower months, but recently raised my base price to discourage undercutting from competitors, and because I have my first three reviews on my listing and they are all raving five stars. I had assumed my potential guests were looking at prices by their desired dates.
My strengths are: friendly, helpful family, hot breakfast served at their convenience, 5 minutes from the bus stop, two bedrooms and private bath, along with kitchen area. However, the space is not completely finished. We’ve had to contractors drop us. It still looks great, but not completely polished. I haven’t done any actual decorating - we got it furnished and then stopped.
I can’t list it as ‘entire’ because I don’t have a door between us. However, interestingly, when I did list it as ‘entire’ last week I dropped in the search. So I changed it back - besides, it’s just a better feeling.
To complicate things I really want more money when they have four people and use both bedrooms. I love having couples on occasion as they are so much less energy, but I make more money with 4. I’m just so confused, lol!
Also, do you think it is a negative to have a high price per extra person? Typically I thought $69 for 3 people and then $25 for every person over 3, so if they are a large group, really using the space, they are paying r $119.
btw I do collect the sales & occupancy taxes in cash when they arrive.
I’ve just clicked ‘sync prices’. Would love an expert to give me more counsel on the base price and am willing to pay for it.
Since both @dross of EB and @ianmchenry of BP are here, I’d like to ask them (and any users here) what the advantage of their pricing models are over airbnb’s own Smart Pricing, which just rolled out to my listing?
We have found Air BNB’s Smart pricing to be far to low for what we are able to consistently get for our flat and house. We have migrated from @dross and Everbooked to at @ianmchenry at Beyond Pricing, because BP’s calendar showed ‘up ticks’ in more local events and gave us a fairer weekday price than Ever Booked. However, I still subscribe to EB for the reports, they are gold if you want to judge comp in your area or look into buying elsewhere.
As @dcmooney mentioned I love the Health Score on Beyond Pricing. We have been consistently raising, and booking (!!!), our price to the point we are halfway through ‘the season’ and will easily make 1.25-1.5x what we did last year with less guests, which is great from a wear and tear perspective.
Yes, but, while Beyond Pricing will increase your prices for events, seasons, and days of the week, Air just keeps the price tips low low low. While Air may have a ‘price tip’ for me of $55, my base is $79 and Beyond i setting my prices even higher - and what do you know? I’m booking at that price!!
I’m loving it so far!! So glad I finally made the switch, though I’d still like more help with setting my base price, and would be willing to pay for it. Still hoping @ianmchenry will chime in on the possibility of getting that service - an experienced analyst to check out comps and hotels and actually compare spaces.
My advice is to charge what makes hosting worth it for you. I would rather have an empty room and make zero than to put up with someone in my home for less than it’s worth. It’s stressful having to tiptoe around in the early mornings, smile and act professional as they come and go while you are trying to cook dinner, do dishes, etc., hang around all day in the room preventing me from blasting my sound system.
Charge what makes it worth it to you. I know it’s easy for me to say, but I have a day job and don’t need depend on the Air income to survive.
We do the same thing, price what we think our house is worth, and that is higher than our competition, but we consistently get the price. I have found we we have lowered our price just to fill dates, we have gotten a lower quality of guests, that don’t ‘fit’ with our place.
