How much will business drop after summer

IM a new host,started in June; have been busy since we opened. I am not in a tourist town but we are 15 minutes from the beach.I am in a rural area. Most people come for family visit, weddings, business.How much of a drop in business can be expected after summer? Has anyone considered renting their unit from September to April and then reopening on airbnb from May to August? That way you will have regular income for the slow months and no hassles; a break from the business and then pick it up again in late spring when things start to pop?

I don’t see why you should break up for business for winter times, especially if you are not in tourist area but still get your guests anyway. Beach though is quite an attraction I would think.
I started hosting at the end of March thinking of renting ony 1 room in a house, but then I had so many requests that we rented a second room. I was booked back to back for 3 weeks and made 3K. I couldn’t believe it. What was supposed to be just a bit for my own travels turned into quite a salary.
But then spring breakers went back, and it slowed down significantly. Summers here are hot, very hot and humid. Now I am booked very infrequently. But stil I get about a 1k a month. If I rented my room monthly I would probably get 600$ a month and I would have someone here permanently, whichi really don’t want to do.,.
I don’t think it will be completely dead for you during winter. Just make a comparison for how much you can rent it out month by month and how many days you have to rent it out to make the same money. For me it comes to 10 days out of the month with Airbnb instead of 30.

@diamond54 - there are some highly seasonal markets where what you describe is fairly common. In Santa Cruz, CA, for instance, people will often list their place for university students from Sept-June and then Airbnb or VRBO their place during the summer when they can make 2-3x long-term rates.

Beyond Pricing has a ton of data and can probably answer your question very easily and show you the change in occupancy during the slow period. I can run the numbers for you and share them here. What city are you in?

I am located in Vista , California. The weather is pretty nice year round and we are not too far away from large hotels where they have conventions sept through May so I was hoping I would get business people staying with me. I dont really want to rent sept to May to a single tenant; I dont want them hauling a bunch of junk into the suite and also they could bring a bunch of friends in and I dont want that.

Yu are right, if people staying long term you can’t forbid them to bring friends. In theory yes, you can, but I practice I don’t think it’s possible. I am using Airbnb for at least 5 years as a guest. I always wanted to host but my husband was against it as he couldn’t comprehend how it possible to have people around the house while we are living there.
I made quite a research before I started hosting, reading hundreds of reviews and what I found it that MOST guests are out of the house most of the day. W e desided to give it a shot, and it was true, most people kdont spend much time in a house and also they don’t really use the facilities like kitchen or washing machines.
So, it was quite enjoyable and easy for us to host until I rented to someone for 3 weeks. That was a totaly different story. It was very invasive for us and uncomfortable as they totally occupied the whole house.
Now I put a limit of 1 week. May be I am going to loose some income but for us it’s better this way.

for me longer stays with airbnb are better; I dont have turnover and extra cleanings and also we dont see our guest much at all; they are in a separate guesthouse(thank god!). They get the front yard patio;we get the back yard patio. We generally do not interact at all except in the begining when we give the key and show them how everything operates etc(they never read the sheet) This prevents them from texting us at 11pm with questions. Then at the end of the trip we meet, get our remote back say our goodbyes and thats it…

@diamond54 - Vista, CA is a fairly small market (less than 100 Airbnbs) but there is definitely some seasonality:

This is fairly low occupancy, in general.

Hopefully that helps! We have tons more data like this on our Plotly page: https://plot.ly/~beyondpricing/

Hi, can you run a data for me too, please? I am in Hollywood, Florida.

Here you go!

Also, @Yana_Agapova - Beyond Pricing is live in Hollywood, FL so you can automatically update your prices based on seasonality by connecting your Airbnb listing and there’s a free 1 month trial: www.beyondpricing.com

Hmm, July, August is so far off. August is totaly dead. I had one day booked only so far.

Hehe, Bob, true. All Canadians who never tip. Brazilians come here for shopping only,always negotiate and want to sleep 6 people in 1 room.

Hi guys! The Abundant Host here.

Business will probably drop by 30% in September and then in October (in my experience) is a complete dead month.

Everyone is done traveling for summer by October, and planning their Thanksgiving/Christmas trips.

I would lower your rates NOW for Sept/Oct, so the people who are actually looking can find you. Even offer them a special deal if you feel so inclined.

Check out my site for more free tips if you like: theabundanthost.com

Have a beautiful day :slight_smile:

Diamond, Because you are a new host, you’ll still be subject to the ups and downs for a while. I wouldn’t worry yet that you don’t have any winter bookings. Winter is my high season and I don’t have a single one yet. But totally expect to be booked because that has been the pattern for the last five years. I’m typically dead in the summer.

You could try putting your place on Craigslist as a vacation rental when you find bookings waning. Yes, it’s more dicey but you are at least keeping it open as a rental. I personally wouldn’t book it to a long term tenant during the slow season because now it is set up as a vacation rental, and like you say a long term tenant won’t be a good fit for all the reasons you named… Also try Wimdu, FlipKey (be careful there) and other sites that offer rentals like Homeaway. Not all are as seamless and easy as Airbnb. FlipKy has sent me guests but twice now they’ve walked off the property because i had no TV or AC. (Hello, it’s Hawaii and you want to sit around watching TV?) Yes, it’s totally disclosed in my description but as we know, they book without reading. AC is never needed where I live (at elevation yet near our own private beach)… so bottom line, I am no fan of FlipKey. If someone writes, I tell them to look for me on that other website that starts with what you breathe, or I make sure they know exactly what I am so I don’t get the wrong kind of guest. Don’t need the aggravation.

That’s a long way of saying, you will figure out the seasonal thing,…lower your rates when it gets slow, list it on other sites or promote it to the right audience. Vista is North San Diego County, right? Winter is still nice there!

Way to insult Canadians. That’s right all 35 million of us never tip. If you’re trying to attract guests insulting a whole country is not on the top 10 list. I for one will make a point not to book with you on my next holiday.

The graph shown above does not have to be purchased. If you have the airbnb app, it has a small symbol that looks like a bar graph and it will give you the booking activity in your area. If you go to your calendar and pricing, it will give you suggested rates for specific days. I recently increased my rates on certain weekends they suggested and I booked them right away and made significantly more. It’s a little tricky to find that option, but it’s there and free.

Interesting news article on Canadian travel. We live in southern Canada on a huge lake and we have never seen so many tourists, both CDN and American. If Canadians make up the bulk of your guests, consider adjusting your rates based on the current exchange rate. Better to make some money than no money.

If the bulk of your guests are Canadian, consider adjusting your rates according to the exchange rate. Better to make some profit than none at all. We live in southern Canada and we have never seen so many CDN and American tourists before.

Thanks for insulting my nation. I am sure you have met all 35 million of us. Racist comments like this is a big reason Canadians may decide to vacation in Cuba or Mexico next time around.

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You know it’s true, CAnadians don’t like to tip. They even joke about it on national TV. Hollywood beach is 99% full of Canadian tourists, that’s why every restaurant adds tip to the bill. At first we asked, and the answer we got: it’s because of our Canadian tourists who never tip. Has nothing to do with rasizm. By the way there is no such thing as Canadian race

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