Hi! My husband and I are new to AirBnb this year. Our 2 bedroom home went live at the beginning of October. We got 4 bookings right in a row, all with 5 star ratings, and then NOTHING. We did not get a booking for the whole month of November. The property is in a small town adjacent to a very popular tourist town in Vermont. The house is right next door to a hiking trail, and minutes from two local ski areas. I’ve lived in VT my whole life and I know the tourist season here has gaps. The end of October through November can be slow, as well as in the spring when the ski areas shut down and before the weather warms up. Any suggestions on how to increase our bookings? The ski areas are opening now so I’m hoping we see an increase, and I know hosts sometimes get repeat customers and others by word of mouth. So am I just being impatient or what?
Maybe, you know your market best and there are ups and downs. One thing I would NOT do is follow any of Airbnb’s pricing tips, price competitively but do not underprice your listing. You will attract the worst type of guests and you will not really make enough money to cover your expenses. There is nothing wrong with lowering prices if it gets you the bookings to make your numbers, but you need to know what those numbers are.
Sit down and really figure out what you need to make in a month to cover expenses and make a profit, Treat it like a business. Businesses advertise, I use google pay per click to send traffic to my website. I am also on VRBO, when you use more that one platform make sure you get the calendars to sync correctly.
Good luck
RR
I think when I listed, Airbnb defaulted to deeply discounting the first 3 bookings, so price might have something to do with it. Is your price in line with your competition? What about your minimum stay length, cleaning fee, etc.? Do you have instant-book enabled?
Sometimes Airbnb has glitches that make your listing not show up. Try searching for listings in your area that should match your listings and make sure yours shows up. Make sure you are browsing using incognito/inprivate/private mode.
That’s awesome that you had such great bookings right off the bat!
I grew up outside of a popular college town in Vermont, and oh boy that tourist industry is up and down, as you mentioned. Parents’ Weekend? Ski Season? Graduation? Bike Tour Season? All businesses are busy.
You’ll see bookings soon. One thing I do as a host (in an extremely metropolitan area…my heart is still in Vermont but I’m physically not!) is sometimes set my prices low, but turn off Instant Book. That way, I see a bunch of bookings come in that I can weed through a little bit and discuss expectations with prior to allowing them to book - that also lets people who are brand new to Airbnb (as many visiting Vermont might be, actually - a lot of the tourist crowd in your state have timeshares, a seasonal family home, etc.).
In my current situation, making ANY money is better than having empty nights, and opening my prices to people who want to pay less but will behave excellently/clean up after themselves/leave a great review is definitely worth it.
Long story short, that’s my advice: Set your prices low, turn off Instant Book, and see what happens as people book their trips. Once your calendar fills up a little, set things back to normal. That’ll help with the anxiety!
And such great reviews!
Right?! I feel like some of my worst reviews came from some of my earliest guests…no idea why the negativity was there, but people definitely like to take advantage of new hosts who they think might “need” good reviews.
New hosts get a boost in the ratings and that probably accounts for those initial bookings.
I feel like I just answered this for someone a few days ago. Try using the search function and if no one else helps you maybe I’ll get back around here and look for it tomorrow.
Perhaps adding a list of things to do nearby off season right on the listing would help when there’s no fall foliage or skiing. As a local, you have better insight of what things are available off season like wine tasting, museums, etc. Think of things for folks to do off season when they want a weekend retreat.
On my listing, after the home photos, I have photos of places to see in the area so when they’re looking at my listing they can see at least ten things to do in the area. In addition, I have the online guidebook with additional places and restaurants.
Lastly, offer a deal, something like book two nights and get the third for free.
Hope it all works out for you.
Thank you for the tip! I added several pictures of area attractions. We did end up getting booked over New Year’s so I guess I just need to be more patient.