I’ve been giving out quotes of $60-70/nightly. Down from my rate of $135. This is for a full two bedroom place to themselves with all new furniture in a good location. They want pricing down to what my actual monthly costs are. Just annoying at this point! Anyways what’s your "super special " pricing for over 30 day stays. How much % do you typically mark off. Even people who want to stay 2-3 nights are asking for discount pricing.
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I would book directly with a lease over 30 days. No reason to use Airbnb and pay all sorts of fee’s.
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Weekly discount is 10%, monthly is 15%. I rarely get any bookings more than a night or two and no requests for discounts. Last guy to request a discount was about 2 years ago. He wanted to arrive at 8 am, sleep and shower and then leave in the middle of the afternoon for $20 cash direct payment. I declined and reported him to Airbnb. Raise your price 10% then you can give everyone a “discount.” LOL.
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I do not want tenants and if I did would not use AirBnB, need a contract.
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Using homeaway and it does seem they want the hundreds of dollars in fees to be covered by us.
In the States you can get in trouble with 0ver-30 stays, depending on where you are.
WE do High Season/Low Season pricing; no other percentages. Our High Season rate is $95 per night and tapers to $65 per night during Low Season. Low Season guests don’t get the variety of chef-prepared breakfasts that High Season guests do – from 15 different brekkies down to 6 or 7 (unless you’re a ‘friends & family’ guest like folks here).
Hi @Kathykins
My discount for a week or a month is 10%.
My costs are no different so no reason to discount further , still do a weekly clean and linen change, still have same utilities, still offer refreshments.
So no extra discounting particularly when you are already at half price.
Don’t take long term bookings then you won’t get those asking for long term discounts.
I have never had those on short stays ask for discounts (actually sorry once in three years and I declined the booking straight off the bat).
Can’t comment on Homeaway as I only use Airbnb - as do many who use this Airbnb Hosts Forum.
Maybe you are getting those penny pinchers because your rate is too low. Better to get fewer full price bookings.
I do monthly discounts only for low season. When to rent by daybwould be almost the same as per month.
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We give a small discount for a week or more but do not accept stays of longer than 27 days. We do not offer discounts ever other than the automatic weekly one. I don’t object too much to people who ask for discounts because their logic is that it doesn’t hurt to ask. I refuse and most will book anyway.
But over the years, I’ve started to think that asking for a discount - without giving a good reason - is disrespecting my business acumen. I know how much I charge and that’s how much I need to charge to have a viable business.
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We don’t do discounts. Our rates are already low enough, and we don’t increase our bookings or revenue by providing discounts.
We only accept stays for less than 28 days through Airbnb.
I have noticed an uptick in folks who ask for discounts, and we just politely tell them we already provide our best rate. There is always someone else willing to pay full price, so there is no benefit to me to negotiate with them.
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Hard to work in absolutes. Many times a discount may help each party out. Filling a gap period perfectly to up occupancy. Long stay that allows for less time managing turnovers. Stays during slow season that usually go unbooked. Amazon changes prices on a single product upwards of 100 times a day. I don’t have time to do that, so if someone comes asking for a discount I will definitely see if it is to my benefit to accept. If not, I say no.
I am just saying what works for us, and for us, absolutes work well. We rarely have problems booking up, and we don’t ever have a need to discount. We charge a cleaning fee and the remaining overall cost of hosting does not decrease with longer stays. In fact, as people settle in and become more comfortable, they use more water and other resources at the home, so we make less money per night, on average, with long term stays. There is absolutely no advantage to us in providing them, especially at the high percentages that Airbnb suggests, unless we wanted to change our normal nightly rate to something 20-40% higher than what it currently is - which would probably lead to fewer bookings overall.
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This is the time of year we start seeing inquiries for internships. I swear there must be a handbook for this…
They are generally all sweetness and light and don’t mention a discount until the third message. Then, once they feel they have a connection, I get the sob story about how they are poor students, can only afford “X”, but they’ll be great guests—promise!
I’m sure this is all true as I was once a poor, well-behaved student, but I am now a poor, cranky adult and cannot afford to rent my place for half price in the summer.
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I’m in the UK so the 30 day rule does not apply. I have had contractors stay for 16 weeks. I discounted to 50%. They pay extra for a 3 hour clean weekly and launder their own sheets and towels which I specially provided.
My break even point after all bills is 40% occupancy. Therefore a 50% over the slow season works for me.
Standard monthly discount is 10%. Nothing for weekly unless they ask then I might consider or not
But they don’t know that. In many countries it’s ok to negotiate . In some countries it’s actually not very smart to not negotiate
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So true. After years of participating in the annual community yard sale, I noticed a pattern to negotiating by culture of the shoppers. So I guess I’m stereotyping here, but one group starts near the posted price on one item. Another group low-balls the item they are interested in and expects a haggle. Another group gathers up a big pile of items and offers something ridiculous, like $2 for the lot, to get things going. This, particularly the last group, highly offended my spouse, who spent time doing market research on EBay and such to price everything as if it were in the Goodwill (thrift) store, rather than marking up to negotiate down.
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Americans are known to not negotiate. When someone at the market in countries like Morrocco or other “poor” countries see us white peoples or even better for them , from US, they name such an outrageous prices that I am familiar with that just laugh. An example how I bought bed spread in Morrocco that I didn’t even need. First price was 125$. After he saw me laughing, he asked me to name my price. This is when fun started. I said:15$, he rolled his eyes and said I am a terrible person . I said, ok then I will leave. He said 35$ ( yes it’s after first price of 125$). I bought it for 20$.
Few days later I went to some shop and saw the exact spread even the same color for 12$.
In many countries it’s a cultural thing to name very high price only then come down 80%.
I know how it is in US and here I don’t negotiate but anywhere else you should see me .
In Kenya I stayed in Airbnb and from 60$ a night negotiated to 25$ because I know to pay someone 60$ for night is really high. They put these prices hoping to get someone from States or European.
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I agree and am in the same position as you. Longer stays cost the same as I provide clean bedding and towels weekly and clean the property, so why would I want to discount them?
There is no value for me in a discount, I receive all the bookings I want or need at a price that I am happy with. I am not reliant on Airbnb to pay my mortgage, so I am fortunate that I don’t have to always look to maximise bookings.
Amazon sells FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) not services @Brandt There is a cost to them of not selling goods, so of course they are very price responsive. It would be a little silly to try and compare Amazon to being an Airbnb host.
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Longer term stays can up occupancy in some situations. If i have more stays the possibility of weird gap days increases for me. I also don’t have to manage multiple turns, check/ins outs/.
To understand the reasons one would discount for a one week stay compared to (typical for me) 5-6 one day stays consider this:
1 review written vs 5 (this could be a negative if you’d like more reviews)
1 inquiry handled vs 5. I could automate this but prefer to personalize each response.
1 turn over/room clean/laundry day vs 5. This is about 5 x more laundry and more time I’m required to be home. I don’t have a cleaning fee but one turnover averaging one hour vs 5 or 6 hours cleaning means I’m doing a lot less work for a little less money.
1 waiting for check in vs 5. I have self check in allowed but prefer to be here to show them into the room
Downside to a one week stay: guests tend to be in the room more overall hours using more utilities. There is no time between 11 and 4 when no one is in the room. Room is definitely dirtier.
No one should feel obligated to discount though. Don’t get offended, just say no. They can find another host who discounts and you can find a better guest.