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So, here’s the deal:
I live in the top most central area in Florence. I rent a spare (bigger room) through Airbnb to make up for the ultra expensive rent. Nothing new with that, many of us do this. Being this a low season, I have decided to lower my prices considerably, to only get suggestions by Airbnb to lower them 40% more. If I was to go closer to what they are suggesting, not only I would not make any money, but I would end up losing money. I understand that this is low season, but the costs during the winter are actually much higher due to electricity and gas bills.
What really has come down to is: me lowering the prices, getting young or really cheap guests (always 2 guest) spending much less for 1 night at my place than they would spend for a meal for 1 person; people who literally stay most of them time inside doing nothing, who completely disregard the house rules and then even give 4 star ratings with ridiculous excuses…
And Airbnb still thinks I should go much, much lower. What the hell??!
Then there are all the ongoing annoying emails by Airbnb asking me to add discounts (28%++), lower the prices and what not.
I wish they would allow us to uncheck their soliciting emails. They are such downer…
It doesn’t matter how low you go, AirBNB will suggest lower. Test this out… seriously. Pick one random day, and set the price to their price tip. Then an hour later, check that date. They will now be suggesting something much lower.
Ha. This is exactly right. I did just as you suggest about two weeks ago and voila! About an hour later I get a “price tip” to lower my price yet again. No thanks. I also get a laugh from the “someone was looking at your place, but booked another, cheaper place”. The last one said the guest found a place that was $4 cheaper. It was almost worse than if they had said $30. At $4, I briefly thought "oh, so close! Maybe if I lower it a bit more… " NO! Snap out of it! Don’t drink the Kool aid! If someone picked the other place just to save $4, I probably dodged a bullet. But the more likely scenario is that the other listing just better fit their needs. And I’m ok with that.
I also hate it so, so, so much. BUT now I have a new thing I may hate more! Their RED label on my listings that says LOW LISTING APPEAL. Oh, really, Airbnb? My listing has low appeal? Could that be because one is CLOSED until May and the other is booked either by me or my other platforms?
@CatskillsGrrl -
Where do you have the red label that says low appeal? I keep expecting to get one on mine. We booked 265 nights in 2017, but only about 50 through Air, so I suspect they don’t like us too much.
O just ignore them. Most of their emails are not personal. It’s automatic messages.
Why do you think you will get “cheap” travelers with low rent and what exactly you mean by “cheap travelers”.
I had an insurance adjustor staying with me recently who was making 900$ a day but preferred to save and stay at more reasonable accommodation spending saved money on other fun things.
I am not poor either by world standards but always looking for the least expensive accommodation in my travels as I work hard for my money and careful how I spend them. There is nothing wrong with that. Actually I am cautious of people who don’t value their money and spend it on silly things and end up not so good financially. I would never be a business partner with such people as I don’t rust their mental state😂.
I find it amusing when I have almost the entire month of January (our “August” in the Southern Hemisphere) booked at premium prices I get suggestions from Air to halve the price on the 2 days out of 31 left unbooked. For me that is a hard no as a couple of nights off is better than what they are suggesting. But as I’ve put up the prices over the last year, and got bookings, so have their suggestions followed, albeit with a lag of about 6 months.
But also consider that The Algorithm needs to be fed and just considering their suggestions, click on the silly button to see them, and then reject them, seems to keep It happy that you are taking them seriously.
It’s called “the race to the bottom”. I get 80% of my bookings through Air but occasionally Stayz (an Aussie outfit who spend a lot of money on tv advertising). Anybody but Air I add 20% to the price. I just started on Bookings and got a booking within 2 days. I’m actually quite nice and suggest they use Air next time as the price is lower. I’ve found there is a certain group of older travellers with money, bless them, who prefer to pay more and so avoid Air.
@PitonView only I see it, of course. Although, frankly I wouldn’t put it past Airbnb to signal guests in some way, the bastards. But I rent my place almost as much as is possible in my market. I just had my best year ever in terms of booked nights and income.
I’m on Stayz too and I’m not even sure where they get the money for TV advertising as they’re my least booked platform. I started hosting in June and opened up a booking.com listing in October, got my first booking around a week later and was fairly slow until December. Since then we have received bookings in December alone. It is a lot more work with payments etc however it seems to be paying off as our Airbnb listing has only had 1 booking in more than a month.
The only time I got that note was when I turned off instant Book while I was doing a long haul flight/travel for a day. But you seem fairly booked I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens to my listing as my other platform bookings pick up.
I am trying to work out how people pay on Bookings? I don’t have any credit card facilities as usually Air deals with the payments. I presume they can pay cash? If so how are they forced to pay if they cancel too late for a full refund?
Yes, you can get them to pay cash but we don’t live on site so I kind of make up my own rules…
There is a really good discussion topic on this site.
I do use Stripe.com and it’s pretty good and easy to use. I make sure guests have to enter their credit card details, cvc and address. Having CC details would be the only way to ensure you can charge them if they do cancel.
And the not so subtle “low listing appeal” which in my case is entirely related to price…why would I rent my 5 bed victorian mansion for $121 a night…especially when i am booked out on other sites until the end of February …?
