Dear fellow hosts, does anybody know what is the intention of Airbnb to encourage hosts to offer “custom promotions” that require host to have 28-30 days of available open dates?
I was looking at some “custom promotion” thing on my dashboard. I didn’t see anything about requiring open days? Are you saying you won’t be offered custom promotion as an option if you don’t have at least 28 days available on your calendar? And if so, how did you find that out?
@KKC this is the message:
Not much available?
Right now, you don’t have many dates that are eligible for a promotion. To be eligible for a promotion, dates must be:
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Currently unblocked
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Unblocked for 28 of the last 30 days
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Not higher than your highest booked price from the last year
To make more dates eligible for promotions, you might need to unblock dates, wait until your dates have been available for at least 28 days, or change some prices.
I haven’t seen it but I wouldn’t be eligible anyway. But I would rather run my own promotions if I had to, rather than rely on Airbnb to do so. Much as I love listing with them, it’s my business.
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@jaquo well, as your business you may want to consider all options that may be available to bring attention to your business. If, for instance, Airbnb will somehow showcase your property and bring in more opportunities, why would you not be interested?
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Well exactly. I use all the available options that I want to use.
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I’m not seeing that text with my “custom promotion.” I guess they are using us a guinea pigs again.
@jaquo Jackie, you wrote: “…but I would rather run my own promotions if I had to, rather than rely on Airbnb to do so…”
If you don’t know much about this custom promotion, how can you possibly make a determination that you would not do it or that it may not be advantageous to you? As a business person, it seems odd that you would not want to learn your options before you determine that it would not work for you. Am I missing something?
How can it be more advantageous? I’ve got two apartments fully booked so I can’t see how it can be?
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@jaquo Jackie, ok, I understand, you have reached the pinnacle of success and you don’t think Airbnb can contribute to your already successful approach to business. Understood. , point taken, thank you for engaging with me.
MM, it might be me but I seem to see a sarcastic tone in your message? Forgive me if I’m wrong though, please. There are quite a few hosts here who don’t rely on Airbnb - I’m just one of them, that’s all.
@jaquo, Jackie, I wasn’t being sarcastic at all; sarcasm is not my style. You, on the other hand, sounded arrogant to me in deciding that you had already reached success and therefore have nothing to gain in any initiatives offered by Airbnb. We are here because we want to learn from one another, when you choose to respond that you don’t care about something new that Airbnb is possibly offering, you are not doing other hosts (who might still need Airbnb’s assistance in reaching the level of success you have achieved) any favors. Do you think that my reasoning is wrong?
I actually enabled one of these promotions this week for a couple of days. it was a 5% off and tag on my listing on the map and I don’t know what else. I was actually curious to see if it would help me get booked for this week. But then I was looking and saw there was a big supply of El Paso listings that are just as nice as mine, lower prices and also using the promotions. I don’t know how much demand there is but I decided to remove the promotion and actually put my price back up. If I don’t get booked I’m going to use the time to work on the grout in shower as it needs some maintence. I also looked and saw that I made $1000 in January and that’s more than I used to make 1.5 year ago in high season because I’ve raised my prices. So I decided I didn’t need this week booked that badly.
But I’m interested to know if you use the promotion if it seems to help you.
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I think that we were both misunderstanding each other. No I wasn’t being arrogant because to quote you, it’s not my style. When communication is in writing only and not face-to-face it’s important to be clear and I guess I wasn’t.
For people who are reading though, I do feel that it’s important to comment when Airbnb has a promotion to say that their promotions aren’t the only way to go. Indeed it’s better not to be reliant on them but have an element of control ourselves.
If that comes across as arrogant, I apologise.
Where do you find these promotions to add to your listing (it’s nowhere on my dashboard)?
I got an email this morning with different wording than what you posted, but I wonder if it’s part of the same thing. I can’t find how to add the promotions advertised in this email either…
"Get noticed like never before
One of the most powerful ways to get guests in your door is your price, but it’s hard to know if you’re setting a price that will grab guests’ attention and get them to book your place. How do you know you’re offering a deal that’s going to get noticed?
With promotions, there’s no guesswork. Now when you give a deal, you’ll get brand-new perks that help you show off your listing on Airbnb.
How promotions work
It’s easy: set a one-time discount for guests for a few days, and get special perks we’ve never offered before.
Here’s what you can get when you use promotions:
Strikethrough styling
Get it on your price in search pages and your listing (ex: $200)
Updated price breakdown
A new line item your price breakdown that catches guests’ eyes
Special callouts
A message on your listing page that highlights the deal you’re offering
Placement in emails to guests
A spot for your listing in the emails we send to guests who checked out your place"
@jaquo Jackie, the perceived arrogance was in your statement: “… How can it be more advantageous? I’ve got two apartments fully booked so I can’t see how it can be?”
C’mon, be fair, doesn’t that seem a bit arrogant? In a virtual environment such as this one, when fellow hosts are struggling to get any bookings, such a statement may come across as a bit…you, know, show-offy. However, I understand that virtual chatting comes with its perils of misunderstanding…
@GardenFairy I’m really curious if this custom promotion in in fact something that we, as hosts, can use to boost our business…
Very much so. I was only stating the truth. Anyway, let’s not bore people with this any more.
As far as I can tell, it’s just another way Airbnb tries to prod hosts into lowering their prices.
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Unblocked is not unbooked.
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