I completely ignore what ABB says about # of listings and their price suggestions. They will say my listing was in a search but someone booked for x dollars cheaper. I know my area very very well and nowhere sells for what they are implying. It is bs. I agree- Id raise your rate. Discount shoppers tend to give the biggest headaches and worst reviews. Not worth the effort on your part.
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I have been empty for 3 weeks. I never go more for than a few days. Dropped my price a little but still nothing. Itâs not worth dropping too much. Iâm planning to sell this spring (not because of Airbnb, itâs just timeâŠ) and my Airbnb apt would be part of the sale.
First, you must not allow your frustration or desperation appear in your response to the guests seeking discount. It isnât personal. It is part of the host job description!
My suggestion is that if you get many discount requests why not experiment? Treat them as tests, see which approach works best. In your reply you could try to use anchoring techniques - list price of the nearby hotel, the price of a breakfast in nearest diner, and then your (hopefully much lower) price. By comparison you will look better. Another technique? Use humour. One guest asked me for a discount, I suggested we could discuss and agree some refund after she arrived, everyone loves a good haggle but I warned that I was a master haggler. She agreed. But she never brought up the discussion again. And I got good reviews.
Treat each discount request like a test. No harm in a guest asking. Laugh at them in good humour I suggest. Congratulate them for trying. Make it easy for them to feel good about asking but not getting.
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A[quote=âGutHend, post:1, topic:28998â]
a guest asking 3 questions, which I extensively answered
[/quote] I agree with the comments about pricing but just wanted to note that in my experience guests who ask questions never end up booking. The worst was someone fretting about the sound of nearby church clock striking (Iâm in an English village). I downloaded a decibel app and waited for it to strike. It took lots of goes to get right. I sent the results and had no response at all.
I wouldnât go to that trouble any more.
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Just to show another point of view ⊠
I find that they almost always book. See the questions as a further sales opportunity and a chance for you to personally connect with a potential guest who is interested enough to ask specific questions. Remember too that many guests donât just only inquire at one place - they often ask and make requests at half a dozen. Are they likely then to book at the place where the host gives them prompt, accurate and friendly info? It seems so to me.
@jaquo I always try to give prompt, accurate and friendly info, but also in my experience enquiries most often donât lead to bookings. The reason probably being that âsellingâ just isnât one of my talents, because âsellingâ usually requires a minimum amount of lying about something, and Iâm too straightforward and honest to do so. Maybe @Caroline_Bradbeer and I are a bit alike: I would also try to get a measure of the church bellâs noise and would communicate the results to the client, while there are probably better ways to convince the guest that the noise isnât that bad. 
I think it also depends on the questions guests ask and the possible answers one could give.
At one point we had several gay men enquiring if it would be okay to bring several dates to the apartment. I explained them that for their and our security this is a bad idea and therefor we donât allow it. I told them itâs better to just leave everything in their room, and rent a cheap room to have their fun. Well, this has 1 time resulted in a booking, and a dozen times it hasnât resulted.
On the other hand we regularly have people enquiring about the speed of internet, since our internet speed is more than okay, most people do book.
Oooh @GutHend - you and I have had some great conversations here in the past and a lot of the time I agree completely with what you say. But not this timeâŠ
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Why use the âsecurityâ card? That sounds fake and condescending to me.
I would have said, no guests, thatâs our policy, basta. Doesnât matter what sexual orientation people are, the policy is no guests, thatâs it, no discussion!
This typically sounds like the kind of discussion you get into when your room is super, super cheap.
GutHend, I hate to break it to you, but I suspect that⊠YOU were the âcheap room for their funâ.
If I were you, I would try to improve the space, invest in profesional photos, and stop renting for under-the-market prices.
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The security card is REAL and I think itâs better to give people the real reason for our âno guestâ policy. By doing this I also give them a much needed reality check: We got a local (gay) friend get drugged and robbed while looking for a âsexual adventureâ.
We are a gay couple ourselves, so of course it doesnât matter that people are gay, itâs just a fact that I have never had other people ask us this question. Although I could easily imagine a similar question from a girl.
These are not âdiscussionsâ we get into. Guests ask a question and we say âNOâ and give an explanation.
Definitely not, rooms can be had for less than $US10 close-by. We are also live-in hosts so I donât know why anyone would think it would be ok to show up with another âboyâ every half day.
I have shown our listings to a few regulars on this forum and no one said it looked bad or needed better pictures. In fact most reactions were quite positive, and you should already know that people do give their true opinions on this forum.
The problem is just that there is huge competition where we are and we just get snowed in by other listings.
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Your listing is gorgeous as are your photos.
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Hi GutHend,
Are you new?
When we first starting renting our two small Airbnb (a studio and a 1-bedroom) during high season (mid-June 2017) when we didnât have any reviews, we set our prices very low (2 times lower than the high season prices as suggested by Airbnb). Then the low season arrived (mid-october 2017 to mid-April 2018), we had to maintain the low prices in order to get sufficient reservations. We were able to obtain more than 120 5-star reviews in less than one year. From the following high season 2018 onwards, we were able to increase our prices considerably. But when low season started in mid-October, prices were forced to drop.
I once got into an altercation with a lady for exactly the same reason. My room was priced at exactly the same 25USD and she wanted a discount. I honestly think these are people who hate spending any kind of money and ask for discounts anywhere. Honestly, I priced my listing the lowest, just like the OP with the hope that Iâll get clients. The thing is I was so angry with this unreasonable woman that I told her to stay at a hostel or not travel if she canât afford my price. I went to great lengths to explain to her that she wouldnât find a better priced listing for the amenities I offer and guess what? She got defensive. She argued that of course she can afford this, she is well off - I forgot what she told me she was, a lawyer? - but she doesnât like to pay the full price and it is a habit of hers to shop around etc. I told her that if I go lower, I would lose money and that I donât appreciate at all that her gain would be my loss.
I declined her reservation because I honestly hate these type of people. I am not wasteful with my money but I hate people who count every penny and try to make a buck at my expense when in fact they have a ton of money! I donât want to have anything to do with them. Most certainly I donât want them in my house at all. I was neutral in tone with her but it rubbed me the wrong way.
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maybe you just need some time. What you describe however seems strange to me maybe you should look into upgrades that let you select your customers within same price range.
BUT i agree with other hosts, set your rules, stand firm, good luck to you!
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Jesus! Your keen
I would of told them to shove the decibel app up their backside!
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I have cheap and cheerful rooms too. If they are asking for a discount having asked 3 open ended questions for $25 a night, itâs almost certain that you are dealing with an idiot, and a high maintenance one at that.
If this were an enquiry, I would say âgood luck and God blessâ and dust myself for fleas.
Cheap and cheerful can go very well for me, and more often than not they are happy and happy to help out, too. But your prospective guest may have unrealistic expectations.
On the flip side⊠I found what I might call a âdiscount hostâ - I was looking for a one night stayâŠ
I asked some questions - it was $40/night, 2 beds, 2 bathrooms, for 4 people in his house.
One of my questions was: âWhat check out requirements do you have?
His response: What do you mean check out requirements???
My response: Many hosts have a list of things to do upon checkout, such as empty trash, pull off linens, etc.
His response: Your clearly needing too much for 40 dollars.
Um - huh? I assumed - its cheap, I will have to do more work myselfâŠ
It ended up we needed to stay an hour down the road to make the next days drive shorter, so we didnât stay. Checking back now it seems that host has disappeared off the platformâŠ
Surely the answer is to try to stay objective, donât take it personally set your limits and take distance
Problem is Airbnb newbies who work at a loss but this is luckily curtailed in my area by abondance of red tape taxes police regulations Etc.
Never expect someone to say wow your place is great can i pay you 10 dollars more.
I had a guy paying 1/4 the price he then wanted discount on cleaning because it was too high compared to nightly rate (um yeah I almost rented to you for free!)
25 a night with sheets, electricité, internet, heating, other services⊠i mean, maybe we should all sell our apartments and just rent 25 a night and ask for a discount the.n give a bad review when the breakfast was not up to our high standards.
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Thatâs offensive as hell to those of us who sell things for a living. I am a real estate broker and I never ever lie, if anything I piss off my sellers for over disclosing.
RR
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Offense is taken, not given.
My apologies to all sellers who never lie. In my experience, all real estate brokers I have ever spoken to either lied or just didnât know their job. But that is just my experience 
. Without a doubt there are real estate brokers who know and tell it all.
No hard feelings 
.
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