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Hi forum
Soon my calendar will be opening up for Christmas time and it’s got me pondering how to deal with seasonal pricing etc. We are going into a slower time now with our winter underway and bookings have dropped off noticeably. I have relaxed the price a little though I don’t believe for a moment a lower price will suddenly make Americans or others suddenly think about travelling to NZ just to take advantage of that not a big believer in price cutting for sales though am experimenting across other sites. Anyway - I realised that some of the spring bookings I am now getting are able to book at the current lower rate. Come summer we will be in high demand it the tail of Summer 2018 is anything to go by.
It doesn’t appear as thought the AirBnB platform can allow management of different prices based on seasons - only week and weekend rates. Over Christmas I need to decide whether to block dates or have a 7 day requirement through the period as I will be away and my main housekeeper will not want to be doing turnovers daily at that time.
How does everyone deal with special event dates, and longer term pricing alterations?
Other sites seem to allow it but I can’t block those days on AirBnb but leave them open on other calendars that manage it better as the ical Sync will keep overwriting it I would think.
Other questions is how can you message a picture (my arrival diagram) to guests on a desktop. I seem to only be able to send an image when send a message from my mobile phone. Even better would be attaching a pdf of the arrival information that has the picture as part of it. Any tips?
You set prices on a day-by-day basis. You can select (shift-click) 1, 2,3… a month’s worth of days and set the price for what you’ve selected.
Photos and PDFs are “attached” to an email. Every mailer program out there (Gmail, Earthlink, etc.) lets you do it. But the picts/PDFs must be on your desktop so it can be attached. You need Adobe or a word processor program (MS Word, or the free program Apace OpenOffice) which lets you lay out a page with text and pictures and then Save it as a PDF.
Thanks for the tips especially in pricing. Perfect.
I know how to create pdfs etc but i can’t see how to attach them to an airbnb message. Ideally want to do it within airbnb messaging so i can check when I’ve sent it to them. Can do it on cell phone app but not on airbnb website hosting system.
Thanks for the timely reminder to go and manually set my Xmas-Jan prices! Some canny people start trying to book now when it is set to the generic price 6 months ahead. Last year someone booked it in July using IB for Xmas-NY but I explained I needed the extra money to get through the year and they agreed to re-book at the higher price.
As far as availability settings go when you set the minimum time requirement there is also a way to set a special one for a period. Go to Calendar>Availability settings > Trip Length>edit > add another requirement. Set this for just the days you want to make an exception. For example from Dec 23 to Jan 31 I’ve just set a minimum trip length of 4 days instead of the usual 2. From playing with this setting I’ve worked out it overrides the generic setting for the specified days. Note when editing this under “during” for dates it looks like you can only do it for block quarters but the last date setting lets you set specific dates. You’re welcome.
As for pricing I find out when all the holidays are and set manually. The hardest thing is coordinating prices across different platforms but as ABB is the only one on IB I make sure I get that one right for high season, school holidays and long weekends.
My suggestion would be to put your arrival diagram as well as all other pertinent information (how to check in, nearby attractions, listing information) on a free website, so you can send guests a simple link.
No help here, but I would say that I would jump at the chance to return to New Zealand again for a third visit! It certainly would appeal to me, especially if it’s at a time when they drop the airfare rates as well. It’s my favorite far away getaway!
Thanks for that. I do have a website and facebook page but Airbnb removes the links in any message. Once booked I said Google this address for gps on Google maps etc but it was withheld.
not a big believer in price cutting for sales though am experimenting across other sites. Anyway - I realised that some of the spring bookings I am now getting are able to book at the current lower rate. Come summer we will be in high demand it the tail of Summer 2018 is anything to go by.