CoIncidence? What do you think?

I would add a few more pillows to this bed? . You can get super cheap cases on Amazon to match any decor.
I have EIGHT, yes eight, pillows on my king size bed… I don’t have a headboard so I feel like I have to provide them with some extra comfort. :smiley:

yep, I put 4 pillows on the bed - all in nice white pillow cases. This was just after putting the bed into the room and throwing on the comforter to see how it would look, then getting the two pictures hung.

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When you have your new photos ready, you can set a specific minimum night stay that only applies to specific dates, and it will not affect your normal minimum.

I’m sitting in my car on a “stakeout” as I like to call it. Waiting for guests who were expected over an hour ago. Because I had some free time and was bored by Candy Crush, I started adjusting my prices by lowering them all by $1. I have had very few inquiries the last week, and I wasn’t necessarily thinking that this would do anything, but just killing time thinking, oh well, let’s see. Within 20 minutes I’d had three inquiries, where I hadn’t had one inquiry over the last few days. Possibly coincidental, but I’ve been doing this for 6 years, and Sunday late afternoon/early evening is always slow, it’s not usual for me to have many inquiries at this time on this date. For my money? Changing prices DOES give a pretty immediate small uptick. Totally unscientific, but that’s my story.

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What WAS coincidental was taking this action, then coming in here and seeing this post!!

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[quote=“faheem, post:7, topic:9692”]
I’ve come to the (largely unsupported by data) conclusion that messing with prices is basically a waste of time.
I agree 100% - I am in my third year of hosting and have not dropped my prices at all from summer this year and though I am not having guests during the week I didn’t when I lowered my prices in the past. I have had some people ask for discounts but I don’t waive fees or lower my price on request. @anon67190644 I do not think your prices are the reason your bookings are slowing since winter is my slowest season and I am in the Mid Atlantic. Also I agree that it is not worth the trouble of cleaning and washing when I am not getting compensated - I also agree with @faheem that predicable prices are important - I mistakenly hit pricing tips and all my prices went through the floor - very low - and I was in the middle of a booking and the guests was very confused and wondered why it was different for different for each day - ugh hard to explai

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I did not know we had that option! Thanks!

Yeah. It is even harder to explain to that guest how much your place costs if you set Smart Pricing.
Today it costs X but in 24hs might cost more or less. It depends on what the SM algorithm decides.

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I just reduced a bunch of dates by $1.00 to see what happens, and also lowered our base price by $1.00. Waiting for a booking . . . .

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Our listings are not often booked in advance. Our bookings are mostly a week or so in advance to last-minute. But when I see it’s getting slower, I’ll tweak the price a couple of dollars down, and we usually get booked right after that.

@anon67190644 - got a second one today! Would be so interesting to do some type of test to see if it’s the fact that we lowered our prices a bit, or some other reason…

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I think when you do get a booking or inquiry, that pushes you up in the results, which in turn leads to more bookings/ inquiries and so on!

So if you do not decline and keep your response speed stellar, it is possible to remain very highly ranked over a long period without lowering price, so long as bookings/ inquiries coming, you accepting them quick, and reviews mount up.
However the opposite is also true, the fewer inquiries/ bookings you make, the lower the ranking, hence the lower the bookings…a downwards spiral, and you then rely on the discerning travelers who are willing to do targeted filtered searches, or go through pages of listings to come upon yours!!!

Just my suspicions anyway

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Hi @AquaticQuests,

Yes, this is similar to my mental model of how Airbnb works. Though if that is the case, it’s easy for some loony to derail things with a bad review.

Good to ‘see you’ again, @AquaticQuests! How are things in your neck of the woods?

I do like that theory. However, as I’m obsessive about being professional and running a good business, I have always responded pdq to every request. I very much dislike, as a guest shopping for a place to stay, having to wait to hear from the host. Of course, I don’t respond in the middle of the night, but my phone is next to my bed, and as I often only sleep from about midnight to 5 or 6, or less, even those requests are responded to promptly.

But my bookings still hit a total void now and then.

Also I have been blessed with generous guests who have left very kind reviews.

So…don’t know!!!

I hear you DC!

I think the catch is even if you’re on the mark and quick at responding, as long as others are getting more recent inquiries and bookings then you then they leapfrog you, and the cycle repeats as you move down, until you get a booking or otherwise get your listing bumped up, in which case you can then use the inquiries and bookings to float back up the rankings!

I also think the quality of reviews don’t matter as much (in terms of how many stars), as do the views and inquiries when it comes to ranking.
There are some fake hosts in our neck of the woods that are clearly fake with many complaints and ratings near zero, but they appear very high in the listings!

To answer your other question, things for us have picked up quite abit probably because we put a new listing up :slight_smile:

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I’ve just had my third booking since lowering my prices. I’m going to try to raise them just a bit and see what happens. If it goes dead again, I’ll lower them again and see what changes.

I mean only by a few dollars, just to shake things up a bit.

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So is it just changing prices down or just changing? I just changed mine to see what happens. One of mine is usually $150 a night and they recommend $163 where they usually recommend about $60.

Ha - I never finished the process of raising the prices back up - and I got another booking. Luckily the bookings are for larger groups so the money is above average for this time of year.

Did you get a booking for that mega price already?

naw, I’ve got the dates for the inauguration blocked still. My gut tells me to ‘wait’. Plus I need time to do some research. I’ll let you know!