Book smarter, not harder - Help?

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Howdy!

I realized I am losing revenue by not working “smarter”.

Ex: I didn’t realize this weekend was a holiday weekend (both Valentine’s & Presidents weekend). I had booked a mother/son from Weds-Sat - 3 nights. They left Sat morning, which meant I screwed myself out of a potential 3 day weekend booking. (eventually I got Sat/Sun booked).

I’d like to know how other host’s work their holidays, weekend bookings to their advantage. I am in Miami - tourist haven- and want to maximize bookings that will enable me to have fewer guests (less work), but for either a longer period, or max my rates to take advantage of high peak times.

I normally price my listing $50-$54 per night, but think that’s too low. It’s boat show week here and I have a guest for 5 nights who told me hotel rates for the show on Miami Beach were $300 plus. We also have spring break season coming, and though I don’t really want the young’ins here, I’m willing if I price it right.

Thanks for your advice, friends :heart_eyes:

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day! Which is also my beloved son’s birthday!!

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I am n Hollywood. Watch what hotels are charging. And charge a bit less. Multiple days restrictions never worked for me. I rent often for 1 day but I charge more. This weekend I charged 117$ per private room. 55$ is very low.It’s only half the month I already made 4K. With 2 rooms. I don’t mind work more if I make this kind of money.

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Why don’t you want young people? They are the best guests I ever had, my favorite

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I meant groups of young spring breakers. Alcohol, drugs, etc. Wildness. I love youth. Responsible youth.

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Wow Yana…!! Good for you. May I see your listing? I’d like to compare. I am in the suburbs, though near very good expressways, Keys, and not far from airport.

Here are my listings:

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Miami (along with San Diego) is THE most profitable city in the US for Airbnb hosts.

The average Airbnb private room rate in Miami is $91 and has an average occupancy rate of 61%. With average monthly rent for a 2-bedroom being $1,879, this yields a 91% of monthly rent return.

In Miami, an Airbnb host could pay the full rent on a two bedroom apartment by filling one of the rooms for 21 days a month.

There are about 5,199 active Airbnb units with an average of 1.4 bedrooms in Miami. That’s a small supply compared to the 51,498 hotel rooms on the market. However, the 10 percent share of Airbnb units is the fourth-highest of any city, behind only New York, L.A. and San Fran.

You are very fortunate to live in a city that combines warm weather and (relatively) affordable housing :slightly_smiling:

To take full advantage of your fortunate situation, the key is really to stay one step ahead of the game. This means knowing of key events and dates for upcoming busy periods, and integrating this intelligence into your calendar planning.

How do you do that? Simple…

A basic Google search should do the trick.

Searching for something like “key events in [your city] [current year]” or “annual events in [your city]” should bring up a few different pages with useful information.

Below is an example for New York City:

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You could theoretically search for events forever, listing out every single event, both big and small, for an area as localized as your immediate neighborhood through to national holidays celebrated country-wide.

To maintain relevance, try keeping things useful but practical and compile a list for the top 10-15 key events that you believe are most likely to bring in extra tourists throughout the year.

When it comes to custom pricing for local events like a conference or festival, it’s important to be aware of these sooner rather than later and stay one step ahead of the game. Guests looking to attend these events will often try lock in their accommodation well before the event or its immediate run-up. If you increase your prices after they’ve already booked, you’ve missed the opportunity to charge more for your place.

Your best strategy is to lock-in these custom price increases at the start of the year once you’ve built out your calendar of upcoming events in your city. This is why conducting event research as early as possible is so important.

Using our example and looking at our calendar of local events, we see that the New York Fashion Week is happening from 11-18 February. If we lived in New York, we may wish to increase our prices knowing that there will be a greater demand for Airbnb listings in New York that week.

Pasted image1302×614 18.7 KB

Before increasing our prices for the specific event, it’s important to make sure that the sort of guests likely to attend the event are guests that would actually be interested in your place. For example, if you’re offering a shared room in a non-glamorous neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, a custom price increase for the New York Fashion Week probably isn’t for you.

If you wanted further advice on how to determine your optimal pricing to maximize your Airbnb earning potential at different times of the year, click here.

SOURCES:
[Padlifter; A Step-by-Step Guide to Unlocking Airbnb Pricing Success](http://padlifter.com/free-hosting-tips/pricing/a-step-by-step-guide-to-unlocking-airbnb-pricing-success/#research)
Smart Asset; Where Do Airbnb Hosts Make the Most Money?
Miami New Times; Miami is Now One of Airbnb’s Top 5 American Markets

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wow thank you for this insight!!!

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Great info Evian! I’m in Fort Lauderdale just north of Miami - have you any tips for me about how I can make the most of Miami’s popularity?

I keep a close eye on local events here in Lauderdale and adjust prices accordingly, plus give guests a personalised ‘what’s on’ calendar for the duration of their stay. Should I include Miami events? If Miami is so popular (deservedly) then how can hosts nearby make the most of their opportunity?

Thanks!

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Hi @jaquo,

There are a ton of things you could do to capitalize on your location.

What is your primary challenge / problem?

For example, are you not receiving many listing views? Are you receiving listing views but not many booking requests? Do you have high occupancy rates but not making a ton of cash with Airbnb?

Each problem has a specific set of recommendations you can implement to fix, but doing so requires first identifying where the problem actually lies.

What would you say is your principle challenge?

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I began in November and know that we are in peak season now but undercut myself to get reviews, I have to test the low season waters to see where I am comfortable with. But I know my high season prices and I am adjusting Nov to April of next year according ling with holidays keeping in minds that I can adjust for a flood of new hosts.

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Hi @Evian_Gutman,

I’m in more or less the same situation as @Carmen because I started hosting in December and it’s high season here so bookings are excellent, as are listing views. Therefore maintaining occupancy in the summer months will soon be my biggest challenge.

Also like Carmen, I have our pricing lower than similar properties in the area to build up reviews and word-of-mouth advertising. So I don’t want to reduce the price for the summer months — also I too have raised them for the next high season.

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@Evian_Gutman I think I love you.

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It’s also my birthday! HB to us all Valentine babies!

Sure you can raise your rates for special events. I raise mine during the holidays and for Ironman, when everything, I mean EVERYTHING, is sold out. I never charge more for weekends because most people visit Hawaii in blocks of time. Oh for the spring breakers, make sure to get a cleaning fee and security deposit.

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@LadyChristina - it’s hard to keep track of all of the different events and especially to understand what impact they will have on your prices. Some holidays often don’t even have an impact, depending on where you are (Thanksgiving in San Francisco is a good example).

The easiest way is to just plug your listing into a site focused on helping you price, like Beyond Pricing (www.beyondpricing.com).

Here’s a preview for one of your places: https://beyondpricing.com/preview/9595847

You can see the price increase for the upcoming Ultra Festival, which still has an impact even in your slightly out of the way neighborhood.

You can always preview 3 months for free.

Hope that helps!

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No worries Carmen. Most of this was an extract from a blog post I wrote called A Step-by-Step Guide to Unlocking Airbnb Pricing Success.

If you’d like more free Airbnb hosting tips, feel free to check out my blog over here :slight_smile:

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Me too. The question is, is he single?!!

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Hi, Christina, i dot know how to post a link here, it does not work for some reason.
The difference between mine and yours that i have private bathroom for each room. Thats a big thing. My guests are looking for private bathroom and wont have it any other way. I also do not have TVs in rooms.
My house seems bigger than yours and rooms are bigger. But other than that
its just a room, nothing super fancy.
I am also near airport and cruises. I am booked often last minute because I am on IB. Thats why i check airport hotel prices and make mine cheaper by 15-20%. Because now they are so high, i still do well.

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