Sounds though like you do quite well with higher prices and selling home made meals:)
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We do well but we certainly give our guests a better than average experience. Some people arenāt just chasing a cheap deal. We actually offer an experience.
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Which country are you in Yana?
Oh yes The Othersā¦
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In what way do you āoffer an experienceā that sets your place apart and allows you to charge higher than normal rates?
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We have pretty low prices and receive a very nice quality of guests. However, we are not a touristy area and are in the middle of nowhere. The people who use our AirBnB are typically visiting family, going to weddings or passing through on their way from Canada to Chicago (or vice versa)ā¦some business men. Weāve also had a local celebrity stay with us (a local news weatherman and his daughter) because they were biking a nearby rails to trails.
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USā¦ South Flordaā¦
Xena,
This is what Airbnb has to gain from low prices:
They want the traveler to make a bookingā¦ANY booking. Earning less traveler fees is better than the traveler leaving the site altogether. Once the ācheapā places are booked then travelers can only choose from the higher priced places. But at least the cheap places got booked.
Airbnb has removed the āstrictā cancellation policy from many listings who are on moderate or flexible. Also, some new hosts donāt even have the strict option available. The reason (in my opinion) is because a traveler is more likely to book a place with a more flexible cancellation policy. The issue here is that the host bears all the risk and gets zero money if the guest cancels within days of arrival.
So here we have Airbnb encouraging hosts to allow their calendar to be blocked off for months, only to have the reservation cancelled with not much time to re-rent last minute.
BUT - Airbnb still gets to keep the traveler feesā¦WE get nothing. So in essence we could have sold those dates to someone else and earned our money. But Air does not care. As long as Air earns their money.
If travelers are willing to pay traveler fees, it also means that is the price they are willing to pay for your rental = most people price their rentals too low. So Air and the other sites have picked up on this and they have come in to take the extra money the traveler is willing to pay. If we all increase rates, the sites can only charge so much for a traveler fee. Or they will charge us a bit more in commission. But that traveler fee is really money hosts are leaving on the table.
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This is dead on. Airbnb is more concerned with going from 1% of the entire accommodation market (hotels+hostels+bed-and-breakfasts+timeshares+vacation-rentals etc) to 10% of the market, and so far, the way theyāve won many converts is by offering a lower priced option vs. a hotel. So if they can get you to charge 30% less and that leads to a 10x increase in their market share, they come out ahead (even though you donāt). Obviously thereās an equilibrium, but being lower cost than hotels has been a major driver.
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i have one of the lower prices in my expensive town where $150 hotel rooms are commonā¦ so people can be desparate for a reasonable price place to stay. my house is nice but not with hotel room amenitiesā¦ no private entrance, or private bath etcā¦ so i feel good giving people a good rate and having it be a win/win. what i do shy away from is people finding it to be one of the lowest listings in town and then asking for a lower priceā¦ i reject all these people.i like it when people seem to think its a good deal and are ok with my house rules.i also highly prefer experienced travelers and take mostly only solo travelersā¦ so being picky with who i accept and offering a good deal works for me.
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My experience has been that: the times of my lowest prices were also the times of my lowest quality guests. I think that there is probably a wide price range in the middle where guest quality is all mostly the same. I expect that if I were to increase prices past my high-season top rate, then the guests would likely become onerous because their expectations had been set too high.
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Thatās how we feelā¦weāve had relatively high rates since Day One. Iām not looking for the budget traveler, and frankly, thatās not the type of listing we offer. The bottom feeders seem to expect a lot more for a lot less!. Iām not interested in 100% occupancy. Way more work than I want to take on for less than great guests.
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Not always ā¦ weāve had a few backpackers (low season at the moment price wise) and all they expect is to use the kitchen; to save money on eating out. Which I donāt mind, as long as they clean up after themselves! They also only tend to stay 1-2 nights so its a good way to make extra money in the low season.
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I often host older grandparents visiting their new grand babies in my neighborhood and they really appreciate a good rate, esp when they visit quite frequently. They have often been my most considerate, sincere, and appreciative guests.
Me too. Lots of grandparents and theyāre great.
The thing with Airbnb is that most people expect low prices than hotels on similar accommodations. In my case itās just a room near airport and cruise port.
I get mostly 1-2 days stays.
I tried to do 3 days minimum, higher prices. I ended up stay empty for weeks. My price is dictated by demand.
Now, when itās high season here, I manage to get long stays up to 2 weeks from booking.com ONLY for one reason: lower prices than the rest of hotels in the area. I can see how other hotels are booked, and I am usually is the last minute choice.
2 out of three guests can not undstand whatās the arrangement with us living in a house, but then they see we are never home and they have their privacy, they actually enjoy their stay very much.
Most of my bookings now come from booking.com, though I definitely prefer Airbnb guests, because they know what to expect and much more easy going.
But there is no way I would sell my rooms on Airbnb for the price I want.
I still get here and there few bookings with Air, but very few. And I know , unless I drop prices at least 30% , I will not get any bookings at all
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Yana just curious did booking.com have another site for places like a room to rent or is it on Booking.com it self? I just filled my profile on there and waiting for response. at 15% I would have to raise my prices as well.
Interesting and informative conversation. My case and place is somewhat unique, because I rent an island, so only ~affordability~ is the real ācompetitorā really. Nonetheless, after one year with AirBnB (couldnāt be happier), I am now experimenting with the concept that I rather rent less days a month by charging a 25% higher price and enjoying hosting more; i.e. less workā¦ Example: making the same money renting 18/30 days vs. 26/30 days per month. I maintained the same minimum 2-day stay so it does remain affordable to most.
A few other realizations has been the case also:, no more flexibly hours, too tricky especially when having back-back guests, also definitely I charge for extra quests (after 2) and that has kept the āgroup sceneā in check.
As to whether a higher price begets a ābetterā customer, hard to say in my case since I always been dealing with a clientele with some affordability already. I have noticed however, the guests from AirBnB have been the best for my business by far, why I am not totally sure.
Again informative thread. Happy hosting.
It seems in our case that it is pricing combined with booking length that gives some indication of the quality of guests who will arrive. A long booking and a low price (usually with a very large group) begets damage and bizarre demands.
At the same time, some of our nicest and neatest guests have been one night bookings when we worked out a relatively low rate due to weather issues at the airport.
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Generally, I am very comfortable with most guests, regardless of the price asked for by me. However, I did at times lower the price by 50 per cent at Airbnbās suggestion, and I did get more guests then. But I didnāt feel very comfortable in doing so, so I am not keen on doing this again. It just doesnāt feel right to almost give the service away for free. If the room is empty, I donāt really care. I am not going to starve even if I donāt have any guest.
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