It also helps when you are an established host. A former coworker of mine just came by this weekend to see my place and we chatted for over an hour. He said he felt guilty asking for help since he would be my “competitor.” I told him don’t worry about it, he will never compete with me because I’m over 400 reviews ahead of him. He’s also on the other side of town, 20 miles away. I did tell him to figure out his market and go for it. He was already ahead of me on that as he is close to a racetrack/casino/small amusement park.
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I agree, we all have different markets. One of my owners has questioned whether she is her own competitor as she is working on releasing her third in the same street.
What is your position on this?
I believe the market can take it. She’s buying old, run down units in good locations so her purchase price is low and because they are small her renovating costs are reasonable. She has really tapped into a good location for people wanting to treat themselves to a short break from their busy lives.
I often get guests asking if they can go on cancellation lists for weekends and complaining they can’t get in when they want to stay as we are so booked. The weekends will be easy, the challenge will be keeping it busy mid-week. We have a large international student population that live an hour away and unlike when we were students these treat themselves regularly!
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I have two sets of friends that are ABNB hosts nearby. It was one of them who suggested that I ABNB my guest house, as it rarely got used. We all have similar target market and price range. It’s actually been very complimentary for when any of us are looking for backup. I’ve taken a few of his guests when he mistakenly overbooked and I’ve sent a couple of guests their way, when I didn’t have vacancy.
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I have the same thing going on right now. Pretty steady with few vacant days and now no bookings until Dec 19. The run up to Christmas is generally low season here in North America. Lately I am a keen observer of cruise and package holiday pricing tends and you can see this reflected in pricing right now. There are some amazing deals for trips down south. Also the first week right after New Years drops. I think it is due to the holidays. Also, as January rolls along prices gradually climb, peaking in mid-late Feb and then slowly falling again. This is weather related. Mid Feb is pretty much the depth of winter (and despair lol) and the worse the winter is there more demand. Being in a sub zero city I am pretty quiet in Jan, Feb but then it starts picking up again in March.