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We got another enquiry from a guest asking 3 questions, which I extensively answered. He then says he loves what we offer and if I could give a discount. I explain to him that the days he wants to book, already were discounted nights (=AirBnB’s “Offer X% discount”). Result: Guest booked somewhere else.
What kind of discount could he have been expecting on a price of $US 25,00 per night in a beautiful, clean room, with the best bed in the country, in the best location with a VERY descent breakfast included?
I’m seriously thinking of answering the discount questions with another question the next time a discount seeker shows up: "Hi, regarding the discount you asked for. We offer X,Y,Z… All this for the price of only $US 25,00 per night. With what kind of discount can we make you happy and can we secure your booking?"
What are your opinions about this possible tactic.
I would do this to make these discount seekers realize: Do they want it for the price of a bed in a dormitory without breakfast. Or do they want to fuss over $US 1,00 - 2,00? In both cases: Just stay at home!
These are the kind of guests that afterwards go for a $US 5,00 coffee .
Hi @GutHend, The only thing I would suggest is to use a . instead of a , People asking for a discount when your pricing is that super reasonable are going to see that as a much higher number because it is a comma instead of a decimal point. (The fact that it is followed by only 2 zeros is immaterial LOL) At least in the US it is. If they are asking for a discount on that low a rate, they are, in my opinion, rather simple minded or extremely tightfisted. I understand your frustration. I own a small family entertainment play center and people occasionally complain that my hourly rate is “ridiculous” while they are sipping that $5 coffee. My rate is lower that most others in the industry and a great value for my area. People!
I have just seen that the hotel nearest to me has a special deal price - $309 per night. So if I received a complaint about our pricing I’d suggest that they might prefer ‘the value for money’ at the hotel.
Anyone – American or other nationality – who asks for a discount on a $25 per night room with breakfast deserves nothing more than two words = No Discount!!! Followed by clicking the Deny button.
Avah does have a minor point – most Americans/Canadians don’t even use the decimal – just $25. Even though I’m very familiar with the European comma use, it is still momentarily disconcerting to see it.
Send them where they came from you will avoid a lot of problem and bad reviews in the end. these ppl are usually a trouble and high maintenance with low appreciation of host’s efforts.
Just the other day AirBnB showed me that compared to last year there has been a 60% increase in the amount of listings. And there already were many. This together with the fact that we closed shop for 3 weeks, has caused us to crash down in the search results. Aaaaahhhhh…
For the moment we will have to do with low prices to get business going again. At the moment we don’t have any reservation coming up . Luckily we don’t really depend on the income, but still it’s disheartening. In the past we have had people come over from other BnB’s saying “If only we found this place earlier.”
Are you listing on booking? If not, you should seriously consider it. With 3 rooms you are a small B&B anyways …be aware of the different approach to pricing. For more info or referal code pm.
I noticed this year that situation changed.
Hotels around have incredibly low prices . I can’t compete.
This winter out of 4 years is the slowest for me. I was playing with prices and put discount o we discount on my pool house. Immediately I had someone Inquired and on top of that asked for discount.
I told him real price is actually twice higher .
So the strategy you used to try to prevent this didn’t work?
I don’t pay much attention to Airbnb’s notices of these things but I would if I had a dramatic slowdown. I’m just as busy as ever and I recently raised my prices. I think it must have to do with my high number of reviews. Were you able to keep your reviews from your previous place or did you start again from nothing?
I’m planning on publishing any findings at the end of February. Of course there are many variabels, so I don’t know if there will be any real conclusions.
Since we opened the new place 57 people have left us a review. I think you’re definitely right that the busier you are, the busier you will be. The problem now is that I don’t know why no one is booking, not even our best room (with private bathroom) at an incredible price. Maybe it’s simply because there are no tourists around, who knows. I definitely need to start promoting our place through other channels.
Tell me more about this second account. Same listing twice, basically? I block dates whenever I am going out of town, so I’m interested in this alternate way to “block” dates without impacting search rank. Can random people book on both your listings at once? How do you manage that?
I have tried, as an experiment, to offer cut rate price at less than 50% my normal rate.
When I did that, I got people who wanted even more of a discount! And telling me my cleaning cost was too high compared to the price of the room (umm, that’s the price I pay out of pocket to my declared and legal cleaning service and it’s not too high, it’s the room that was too cheap.)
I got someone who, to avoid paying for parking, did not put money in the parkmeter (this is all explained fully in the welcome pack), and then wanted ME to help PAY FOR HER PARKING TICKET!
Same person also hacked my Netflix account which I had left open on the TV and changed the language which was very hard to change back because I couldn’t read any of the menus!
you will avoid a lot of problem and bad reviews in the end. these ppl are usually a trouble and high maintenance with low appreciation of host’s efforts.
