Bookings super light this winter

1

I have a listing in Aspen CO. Last winter i had 95% occupancy at this time.

I am at around 45% as of this time. We had a terrible year last year snow wise. So i know the resort bookings are down across the board because of the bad taste it left in peoples minds.

So i have some issues with AIrbnb pricing recommendations.

  1. They are telling me that 5-10 people looked at my place but booked something $250 less for Jan The problem with this is that they lump Snowmass Co in there with the Aspen Listings. Snowmass is an entirely different market, different customers and price point. So I dont think that info in accurate.
  2. Which begs a different question, are bookings just that weak that people are not coming here.
  3. I Dropped my pricing for Dec, pre Chrstimass by more than 50% and I am still not getting bookings. The ave guest books 2 months out, so i dont know if this price drop would even help, since there are not a lot or people doing quick trips.

I have an airdna account and have been trying to decipher some data. I am in the 50% price point so i guess i am answering my own question here.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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2

IGNORE Airbnb pricing suggestions. They are generally useless, and not based on any real world information about your area, listing, etc. etc. They’re all about the overall number of bookings the hosts have, not how little we make from those bookings.

We’ve been light so far this year too, but are booked pretty solid of Jan/Feb/Mar which is the height of Snowbird Season here in Florida. I don’t believe in dropping prices like I drop my hat. I spent a good amount of time scoping out the ‘comps’ in my area, and my prices are good. Not cheap, but not over-priced for what you get where we live. But then I’m not a megalisting host trying to rake in as much as humanly possible.

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3

good info. thanks for the info

4

Are you on other listing sites? I get half my bookings off of Vrbo.

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5

What other sites are you listing on?

Are you advertising on your local tourism site?

Have you got your own website/social media?

It’s always good to diversify the channels you use to market your place, rather than rely on a single marketing channel like airbnb.

6

i dont list on any other sites, but now thinking i should.
No website, or local tourism site.

7

To add to the other answers, Airbnb’s pricing suggestions are unfortunately not very helpful (rather use pricing optimization software). Also, it is a good idea to list on other sites as some of the other answers have pointed out. You can also tweak your listing description so that it more closely aligns with what guests are searching for during this season.

8

In my market this is usually a dead time unless we have snow on the ground. Snow brings the tourists. I find folks in the U.S. don’t usually travel in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas if they have obligatory travel for the holidays. I try to use the time for house maintenance.

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9

same here, we are usually dead until the 22nd of Dec. But, i have no bookings for Jan, and we have the best snow we have had in 12 years.
So i am nervouse.

10

The U.S. stock markets aren’t helping matters.

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11

Right, our orangutan president it not helping matters.

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12

My friends in the EU, Mexico, Oz & North America, whom have high end listings with ABB, bookings are down, my advice is don’t get too dependent on the platform.

13

Then you need to use other marketing channels to reach your target customers.