It seems to me that all my weekends get booked regardless of what I do, so how do I encourage longer stay guests so that they end up taking up those weekdays that are typically wasted? What kind of long-stay discounts do you guys give? I currently give 30% after 7 days.
If you are booked every weekend I would not worry about the weekdays, guests and fish both start to smell after 3 days
RR
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what? why did you even post…
He’s probably in one of those places where all that coming and going attracts attention and Airbnbing is illegal so he needs longer term guests.
I’m getting my 22 day guest today and I hope you are wrong @RiverRock
You can set different length stays, for example you can require 4 day minimum stays over the weekend and one night stays during wasted weeknights. Many hosts apparently don’t know this is an option. I was just talking to a Marfa, TX host who is one of my regulars and she didn’t know.
Are you serious? I’m not hosting illegally. I want my weekdays used because it makes more money.
I saw that, well you will be gone 8 of those days so hopefully it goes well.
Gary
I was joking. And River Rock was just trying to say that being booked every weekend is good. 100% booked is nearly impossible to achieve and depending on your listing and price point big discounts won’t pay off as it’s going to attract cheapskates, people who stay in all day in your space because they can’t afford to go out. And after 30 days they get tenant’s rights in the US.
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I just landed my first non- weekend booking and here is how I did it.
I have a formula of using price tips plus a percentage, but I had been ignoring that for weekdays because even that was below my price floor.
I tried, instead of ignoring it, going below the price floor using the same formula for Sun-Wed BUT it’s a 4 day minimum (check in any day).
Boom. Within 48 hours of changing the summer this way, I booked 4 nights starting on a Saturday.
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Also, 30% is too much. You are giving away 4.2 days on a 14 day stay.
You can potentially end up with a house sitting vacant over a weekend you otherwise could have booked, but your guests figued out that it was cheaper for them to book those days that they don’t actually need lodging for.
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Maybe the OP should raise weekend pricing a bit at a time until the bookings taper off then adjust.
RR
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The OP told us nothing about his listing so our advice might not even apply. I tried mind reading about the illegal listing but he didn’t appreciate it.
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Yes, I don’t appreciate having someone assume I’m doing something illegal? Offering advice with an assumption is one thing, making rude remarks under an assumption with no actual advice is a waste of time for everyone.
My weekend pricing is roughly 2x the weekday, it’s a market where people vacation on the weekends, theres no business travelers or students etc. like in a city. As a result it’s incredibly rare for people to be there at all during the week, but occasionally it happens. I’m wondering how I can attract more of those people so that weekdays get filled.
Okay, bowing out now. Good luck!
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Your listing sounds a lot like mine.
Thanks for the advice, I’m kind of shocked that airbnb doesn’t have a procedure in place to make it so people can’t actually save money by booking more days. I guess I assumed they would have that in place so I didn’t think about calculating the discount to be below a days worth. In fact now that I change it, airbnb recommends a 43% discount on weekly rates. That’s absurd!
I really like the 4 day minimum idea with low pricing for weekdays… I’ll have to check that out.
Not sure I understand about not having a procedure? We offer 10% off on 4+ days and 15% on 7+ days. It’s in the booking settings.
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