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If dropping prices perhaps drop for other times of the month but not inauguration?
If it had been Hillary you’d probably be booked already
But rule of thumb says as you get closer to the dates, your pricing should drop, unless you are waiting for the cheaper listings to get booked, so that you can then get bookings, which can also be a lucrative strategy if it works, and loss making when it doesn’t.
Hey it’s all part of the fun
In my area over Christmas, I took bookings at lower rates then my direct competition and once I was booked they later very close to the date got fully booked at prices that were close to double what my prices were!
They were empty through much of November and December then fully booked in December charging double my rate
Their gamble paid off, but I made good money too, even charging almost half of what they eventually did.
You just never know for certain with these things!
Agree it’s not certain. My strategy is to run at a slightly higher rate until closer to the time, however I’m at the bargain basement end and don’t struggle too much for bookings even with competing against 35,000 other hosts. I seriously don’t know how… on paper it looks like a totally lost cause.
Hey DC,
I searched for your place and I noticed you only allow 3 night stays. If I do a 3 day search your on first page of search with lots of views.
Why not try INCREASING the daily price significantly and then allowing for one or two night stays over that inauguration period and see what happens?
Either way given that you have so many reviews, superhost, and you are at page 1 with so many saves and so many views, you’ve really done all that could be expected of you and it’s working in all ways that matter except the booking that weekend!
Hey, thanks @AquaticQuests! That is encouraging. And that is the same conclusion I’ve come to - I’ve made sure my price is competitive, sweat over my listing, and offered a good product. There just must be a reason for this. I’ve worked hard ‘rowing the boat’ and now I just need the current to sweep me into the harbor.
(Does that analogy work?)
The 3 day minimum was suggested by other hosts. I may consider doing as you say. Thanks for the suggestion
The hotel that I mentioned in an earlier post (I use it as a reference as it has a kitchen, though only one open room and is not that much closer to town), is now sold out. So yes, people are indeed paying $609 to stay in 1 room with 1 bed.
I have had a few more bookings for this month so that’s encouraging.
Reading over the post I’m reminded of when I lived in Charlotte, NC, and had become engaged to my man who lived ‘inside the beltway’. I had a pretty house I had purchased with a friend, We kept it immaculate. Priced it fairly. No one came to see it. NO ONE. Not even during an open house when we were just across the street from the model (of a new development). People visiting the model parked in our driveway but didn’t come in to see our house (which was a different floor plan than the model).
Then, one person came - and they bought. So, ‘it only takes one, at the right time’.
I think @AquaticQuests is onto something. Try a 1 or 2 nt min, just for Inauguration Week and see if you get a booking, of course raise the price to compensate. I wonder if people are not looking for 3 nights? This happened to us with a music festival in Barcelona last year, we had 4 night min and could not figure out what we were not booked, dropped the min to 2 nights and were almost immediately booked.
Thanks. I started at a 4 night minimum based on other advise, and I think some hotels were doing that - I read it somewhere - but later research did not show that hotels were requiring the minimum.
I started the process, but I really haven’t had time to add all the information. I’ve got 3 kids and three jobs. And a cousin who’s very ill and requiring a lot of our time and energy.
Hotels like Homewood Suites are going for $609 for 4 - that’s just one room, 1 queen, 1 sofa bed. I’m about half that price with two bedrooms, 2 queens, and more beds. The cheapest hotels are $499, some of those have doubles, not queens. I’m at $320. People can have more rooms, more privacy, with the high-quality cotton sheets, lots of fluffy towels, etc., for at a minimum of $180 less. This is fair since I’m a bit out of town and a basement apartment - but my windows are full size - not small - it is not dark - there are plenty of windows in every room.
There are very few listings left in at my price point and none of them have any enough reviews to be meaningful, or, 3 stars. I have 100 reviews. There are 8 with IB on and, 23 with IB off, and only 2 if specifying super host. The average price of listings is $700. I’m less than half.
I use Homewood as they have a kitchen -most rooms in DC do not have a microwave or refrigerator - and they are only 8 miles closer to town.
So, yeah, we have a decision to make. I don’t want to be overly arrogant but I don’t see why I should cut my price further. The hotels are not cutting their prices. Some are actually headed up. Travelocity reports that DC is 90% booked (don’t know if I believe that or not).
Thanks for your suggestion! My gut tells me to ‘hold tight’. And I think I have data to support that as well.
The bottom line is people flooded the market with new listings just for the inauguration - listings that were in town. A lot of listings kept their prices at their seasonal rates for several days after the inauguration. When the Post came out with the article that Airbnbs were going for premium prices for the event the market really exploded with listings. Lil’ ol me out here in the suburbs just didn’t have a chance, I guess.
Where is Homewood? In town?
What was that place I was looking at last year that you talked me out of (thank you)…I wonder if they are booked. They were in an up and coming neighborhood (never a good description) but actually would have been closer to Kyle on 2nd street, Capitol Hill. Glad I didn’t book it though, zero personality! Homeless hanging out in he lobby was mentioned in the reviews.
I think a lot of people search based on price… And the Inauguration of the orange clown is skewing things. Wait until after it’s over to make sense out of everything ?
Then I think what Felix said… That the Air photographer told him the Dc and surrounding area was getting 3,000 new listings a month or some incredible thing.
It could be a combo of all that, yet you would think more people would want that hot breakfast and you are an established SH with great reviews… A good value too.
Hold tight and pray for good weather. Fingers crossed here.
I hesitate to chime in because my rental is so different from yours but…I had someone book and then cancel for our Labor day music festival. On Thursday I got a Friday reservation and on Friday I got a Saturday reservation. I didn’t lower my prices. I wondered if I’d get dinged on value but one couple told me all the hotels were double my (20% higher than usual) price and they were so surprised and grateful to find such a nice place available at the last minute. I told them it was only due to a last minute cancellation. LOL.
This is exactly what happened. I think I recall this also happened with Super Bowl. Because there is no cost to list at all, now anybody can list their place and move out of their house for a few days. And likely people who weren’t even considering renting out their house, all of a sudden did consider it even after the election. Sending you positive energy
Happened to us in San Francisco last year during the Super Bowl (for the record the actual Super Bowl was an hour away, even though it was called the SF Super Bowl). We didn’t booked bc there were TONS of new listings, and also since we are in SF people that were actually going to the game wanted to stay in San Jose by the stadium. I also held firm on my price and did get a last minute, ‘desperate’ person, but we didn’t feel like dealing with it and declined.
I think you should hold tight and lower your min to 2 nights.
No booking for the inauguration yet, but we did get a booking for the march, the day after, at almost 3x my (very low) winter rate. It’s a group of 5 - yay!!! It’s a first-timer (aren’t they all) and she’s very excited to be coming and excited to stay at her first airbnb!
I’m a planner, a list maker, and accountant. Getting accustomed to the unpredictability and vicissitudes of this business is going to make me grow.
I did change it to 2 day minimum for the day before and of the inauguration, kept that price at $325, lowered the price for the night before to just 2x my regular rate. Let’s see!
I bet it books!!!
Personally, there are many of us in the resistance who will not even watch on TV the horror of an unstable corrupt tyrant get sworn in. To actually plan to attend in person is either someone who really supports this crackpot or who wants to protest… Both of those may not necessarily have a lot of money or wish to stay more than one night. Just speculating here.
When we were getting a lot of advance bookings we deciddd to up our min from 2 to 3 nights. We were really surprised at how much our inquiries dropped. We do get a lot of folks passing through or it just makes it harder to fit their search dates probably. So we went back and bookings went up again.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that when I try to put extra conditions on specific date ranges the AirBnB software gets really wonkey. For example I wanted a 5 day min for thanksgiving which should have been easy. Finally I looked at it closely and it was forcing the guests to check in on Sunday only. I couldn’t get it to work properly so finally took that special condition off.
Good luck! Now that you got one booking I bet you get morestrong text
