I have not always agreed with Jacquo, but I have never known her to be sarcastic or aggressive. She does, however, have a wicked sense of humour
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Come on, be fair. Jackie tried several times, nicely, to express that she was not interested and likes to manage her business her way.
Your feelings are a direct result of your persistence. You simply did not like the honest answer. Pull an Elsa … “let it go”.
I don’t even look at the suggestions from Air. I am not interested in the race to the bottom, price wise.
RR
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On my dashboard, I’m also seeing new features for promotions…one I wanted to try but didn’t because it is too focused on the next four weeks. Here’s what it says:
Before I got to that screen I saw this screen:
I would like to try an early bird discount, but not the one they suggest because they say it won’t be shown to guests…??? huh??? then what’s the point? I’d also like to tie an early bird discount to a strict policy for cancellations, which is not what I generally have. (Hey a girl can dream…)
Here’s the wording, which I don’t really understand, for the current early bird discount:
Early-bird discounts can be applied to any reservation booked 1-36 months ahead of arrival. You can add multiple early-bird discounts (offering a bigger discount to guests who book far in advance of arrival). These discounts won’t be shown to guests.
Has anyone used this successfully and can decipher the language? You put in a number for the months ahead and then what happens?
I have used this & as far as I can see you choose a % and dates that you want this to affect. And on my calender it then shows those dates with the nightly fee discount already on, so I assume for a guest looking at my booking calender that is also what they see.
Can you just open an Incognito/InPrivate/PrivateMode browsing window and check it yourself? It would be interesting to know for sure what the guest sees.
I have seen the notification for promotions off and on for several weeks. A couple weeks ago, I saw a notification box similar to what @Atlnative shows with the “4 available promotions”, I wanted to see what it was about, so I clicked it and it said no promotions are available. Very confusing.
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Not to sure. I check mine daily at my calender. I do feel tho, that you may as well just alter the nightly rate manually, because as folk like the word ‘Discount’ & as it most likely does not show up as a discounted wording what good is it…
I’ve done some playing around with the various promotions and testing them. One thing I’m certain about is they bump you up in the search rankings immediately. I’m discounting the minimum allowed to get (some) of the other perks. I’m still priced slightly higher than my competition.
I access mine on the Calendar page in the upper right. Promotions are changing almost daily it seems, including “No promotions available at this time” status report.
@MissMiami - Some of us are very reluctant to participate in AirBnB’s “promotions”. In every single case I’ve seen that they have offered me, it required me to lower our rate. That doesn’t feel like a “promotion” - it feels like a discount. The more we participate in their “promotions”, the more they push them, the faster the race to the bottom on pricing = vicious downward cycle. 
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I absolutely agree. I won’t give Airbnb the satisfaction of getting me to lower my price, which is already a great deal. And that they boost your search ranking if you succumb just pisses me off more.
Ha! Yeah, no kidding. I guess I’ve temporarily joined the race to the bottom. I did the promotion because I was going to have to lower my price anyway. The ever growing over-saturation of ABB’s in my area has everyone here scrambling to be competitive. There is only so low I will go though and I think I’m there - I’d rather just enjoy my days off!
The suggested price tips for my private room/private bath with private entrance and full use of my kitchen, set in a lush tropical garden, is what a hostel room shared with 3 other people with a shared bathroom goes for in my town.
Airbnb seem to be under the impression that hosts can’t think of any other ways to make money. I could babysit and make more money than what they suggest I list my place at.
And I just love the “Attract more long-term bookings by offering a discount for 7 days”- I don’t want long-term bookings- my max is 2 weeks and most of my guests book a week-10 days anyway, no one has ever asked for a discount, and all my guests have said they got great value.
Whoever programmed their computer bot should be forced to scrub out toilets, search for stray hairs, and try to wrangle duvets into covers all day long for a week or two.
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As an FYI, I got a 1 person, 1 night booking last night at 7 pm for a 9pm arrival. I removed the promotion but I had lowered my price to $45 from $50 for one person. I currently have a $5 extra guest fee. I don’t know what the supply looks like at 7 pm but I’m sure there are some hosts who don’t take same day bookings that late. So pricing according to market and remaining as open and flexible as possible probably works as well as promotions for me.
Of course there are other variables like where I show up in search. For Wed for one person with SH and IB filters on I’m in the middle of the first page. There are some less expensive listings and some with the promo tag but it’s mixed. I think, or want to think that I get a bit more savvy traveler as I have the most reviews and highest ratings if not the lowest price. So they pay 5-10 more but with less risk. Those of us who have been at it a long time with good ratings will always have some advantages over newer hosts.
Last thing, it was a 3rd party booking. Woman with 35 reviews IB’d for her partner who is literally on the road 2-3 hours from my house. I could have said “oh hey, could she make the booking in her own name?” I’d possibly lose the booking. I understand why people don’t take these bookings but this is another example of how I maximize my bookings even when it’s slow.
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Doing the promotions didn’t bump me up much, as I’ve always been on page one of 300+ available homes. I’m usually anywhere from #1 to #8. Immediately after applying the promotion I would get bumped up anywhere between 2-4 spots on the page.
(Filters applied are: dates, number of guests, type of place)
Edit to add that I’ve yet to be booked on any of the limited dates that I’ve “promoted”!
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@PitonView I just “signed up” for a “promotion” – I agree, it’s just another way to get us hosts to reduce our prices. However, as I have a gap in my calendar, perhaps I get the gap filled…wish me luck!
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So true!!! Here’s what I’m seeing today as an incentive to race to the bottom. No way, ever. I priced it after careful review of my competition and local hotels.
Yeah, they make you do a huge discount in order to get “a spot in emails”, which I don’t care about. With my current 7% discount, all I get is the “strike through”. Still I’m higher than like properties and only 10 bucks less than a really nice hotel that was just remodeled. Ugh. Race to bottom continues.
Aha, not higher than highest booked price. Thats why the base price shown before the promotion looks weird, I didn’t know where this price come from. Thanks for sharing