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Sorry for being slow to reply here!
Everyone’s insights are generally spot on. It can vary by a number of factors.
The one thing to keep in mind is that even if YOU are booked up very far in advance, it doesn’t mean that’s necessarily the average time in advance people book. Often, that’s because you are underpriced.
I’ll have a little more to share around this question, though, very soon and will share with the group via Blog post!
Not in my case 
1.5 - 2 years in advance. Absurd.
I am getting tired of this argument.
I want people booking with me because THIS is where they want to be, and the home that I am providing fits their needs. I don’t want people who feel they had no other option, nor do I want anyone to feel that they haven’t gotten a good value. I also want planners. Who travels from Germany with 15 days notice? No one who will stay in a shared home. My life is better when I have happy people staying with me. Grumpiness fills the house with really bad vibes.
So I am pleased to be booked through the beginning of November. And hope to be booked through December by the end of September.
You bring up an interesting point @anon67190644. There is a school of economic thought on price, which is ‘always charge what the market will bear’, otherwise you are undercharging. I guess I am old school, I charge what I would be happy with, at the same time the guests are thrilled with their good fortune and the whole mutually-happy symbiosis is more relaxing and fun.
And that is why I can’t afford an Epi-Pen and just try to avoid being anywhere near my allergens like bees. Mylan has bought into this strategy, raising the price of this life-saving drug, from $100 four years ago, to $600 today.
I don’t want to be that person. So far, I have only had really pleasant people, who treated both me and my home with respect. Why would I want to mess with that?
Thanks @ianmchenry
If indeed it is true that the average lead time for bookings varies by location/district, then your guidelines (50% booked within X days, et al) should also be optimized to each location - X is now 30 for any listing, but perhaps it should be 45 for say, Havana (more international/preplanning guests) and 15 for Las Vegas (more domestic/lastminute guests)?
An analysis of booking trends in each city would be instructive, I’m sure. This would be well received by your customers.
Well said. The difference is it will be a little longer that we have to wait for the same money. I do ~try~ to keep hosting fun, and when I get to the dock with returning guests, its always hugs and warm handshakes.
Actually, we look at demand on a hyperlocal basis. In Paris, we have over 50 different neighborhoods that we cluster together to determine demand in just that area. Definitely send us a note if you think some prices are off and we can show you the data behind the scenes about whether those days are booking up or are in low demand.
Christmas is often misunderstood because demand and prices only pick up after Christmas (leading up to New Year’s Eve). Here’s an example from 2015 in Paris:
If you actually look at hotel prices, too, you’ll notice they don’t start going up until December 28th or so and are actually some of the lowest of the year over Christmas.
Hope that helps!
Hello @ianmchenry and thanks for the information. My Beyondpricing dashboard does tell me to increase my price when there’s an event at Palais des Congrès (for instance from 16 to 19 Oct). Palais des Congrès hosts events for 3,000/4,000 persons and is 40km away.
I sincerely doubt that there is an increase in demand for my listing in such cases (I think that 3,000 visitors are able to find an accommodation within a few blocks from Palais des Congrès) whereas my dashboard does not acknowledge major trade fairs like Prêt à Porter or Maison & Objet (with 60,000 to 70,000 visitors).
We typically get reservations less than 30 days out. We maybe get 20% 30-60 days out. We do have a few major concerts, conventions, that book 3 months out.
I agree with @Barthelemy Beyond Pricing, has some glitches with pricing. We too have issues getting price surges for random events, but not surges for events close to us. I just manually alter the price and move on. Overall I think BP is good, not great, and if you invest a little time playing with it, I think it is well worth their 1% commission. We are definitely running a YR/YR increase with less bookings, so that is good.
Now another reason to go back to Paris! I want to go.
@Barthelemy this is a bit off point with regards to how far in advance guests book, but could I ask you… how did you get intel on how many visitors are expected for each major event in your city? I’d like to look mine up so I can sort of build a demand and pricing forecast model of my own knowing that this and this event happening near me will draw a certain number of visitors etc. Perhaps the info you have is publicized and became randomly available to you via the media and just for these few events in Paris. Or maybe there is a site or another resource that has this sort of info (# of expected visitors) for most major events throughout the world… and especially in the US.
Hello @skylar, I have contacted my local tourism office which has plenty of information and statistics about who’s visiting and when and why.
I think it’s the first thing a host should do to get an accurate idea of the local market.
For events like trade fairs, all the major congress venues in Paris are operated by a single company (VIParis) which publishes a lot of information, I guess this kind of information is also publicly available everywhere as these operators just love to brag about how successful their events are, so you would just have to find out who’s the major congress operator in your area 
True. I have just put my prices up for November 2017 because there’s a month long conference here for 125,000 people.
I’m already getting inquiries for 2017.
I have bookings up to September 2018, but not taking any more beyond that time.