New listing, no bookings (2 days). The price is super low (set automatically). Please, is anything wrong? I know Its ultra-low season. Thank you very much for every idea! https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15255060
I donât see anything obviously wrong. I know we have had other Prague hosts complain that itâs slow. Two days is not long. I would suggest raising your price. Some people searching for an entire apartment might have their prices set above yours to filter the search results. Also your calendar is only open for 3 months. Itâs not too soon for foreign vacationers to start booking summer dates. But raise your price for summer to what comparable places rent for in summer.
How long has your listing been up? For perspective, I first listed on the 18th April 2016, and my first booking was for 11th May. They werenât exactly beating down my door.
I donât know if this is typical, it probably depends on the space, the photos, and location and a bunch of other factors. But if you are new with no reviews, it can take a little time to get going.
And having looked at your photos, I think they could be improved. Not that Iâm an expert in this, or anything like that. Some of those photos look a little cluttery. How large is your apartment? Does the outside of the building look good? If so, you could consider including one of that. Also, do you have a good view from out a window? You could include that.
Plus your price might be a bit low for the location. What are people around you charging for similar stuff? You want to try to be in the middle of the pack. Not too low, not too high.
Many thanks, price raised a little, with the summer I will wait a bit.
Faheem, many thanks. Its listed just for 2 days
Two days isnât that long on a low season.
I notice it states you have 3 beds, but you only list a sofa bed and king bed. So I would say that you have 2 beds for 3 people.
Ash, many thanks, fixed!
Oh my god⌠My listing has been up for twenty days and Iâve had no bookings. Since yesterday I was starting to feel very anxious about this; but now reading this thread Iâm positively freaking out⌠LOL
Seriously - I wonder how long have the more experienced hosts waited for bookings to start? Do you think thereâs some sort of average tendency, or is it entirely depending on local markets/seasons?
It only depends on the region. In all my listings, inquiries and bookings started some hours after the listing was online.
hours!!! Oh dear.
Is your area a well known tourist destination? Would that be the reason, in your view?
Oh⌠thatâs more like my case (listed since Jan 16th, no bookings yet). And please, do you happen to remember how may days after the listing was up the booking request got to you?
This is a new perspective for me, Iâm rather reassured to read this. So, in your case, would you say you didnât perceive the ânew host boostâ advantages so much?
As I said before in another topic:
Be âcreativeâ and get yourself a first excellent review. It isnât all that difficult , and will get you started . And it doesnât have to be at full price, you can send a special offer to your âspecial guestâ .
Two days is nothing ! It looks really nice, I would stay in your place any time.
Make sure to put in an extra cost for extra guests.
Yes, tourist destination. 95% of my guests are tourists, the rest expats who move here and are just settling in.
Right - I guess this must have a lot of influence.
I wonder if it is more normal for listings in places that are not primarily touristic destinations to wait a little longer to start being booked?
Iâm in SĂŁo Paulo (Brazil); big city, no beach or pretty attractions , mainly a destination for business/conventions/stop-overs (and theatre, museums, food-scene & shopping, for local travellers). I donât think thereâs anybody else in the forum from here? Or from other large city with a lower touristic profile?
Oleg,
Having just returned from holiday in Prague, let me give you a couple of suggestions. You should say where you are? I canât even tell from the map if you are in Prague 1 or not? I just stayed 12 nights in Prague 10 at a hotel. It was $51 USD per night over New Years. Now, their rates are $28. It was 15 mins from the center on the 6. Super easy.
So to give you some advice. You must change the title. It doesnât make sense. What is running?
You might want to say something about the interior and what the apartment has to offerâŚand how far to Tram. In the listing copy, say which tram. You might also want to get them started with a 90 minute pass and then tell them what station they need to get to to buy them. Our hotel sold those but we quickly discovered we got the best deal by buying a month long pass at the main station. Visitors to Prague donât want to fret about how to use the trams⌠know what I mean? Reassure them you can get them started with the 90-minute pass. Our hotel sold them, you could do the same or include them.
Show some photos of Prague in the snow!!! Itâs a selling point!! What an enchanting city. Your beer is awesome! We loved it. We will be back!
I just looked at your listing and learned you are in Bombaim, @faheem - so, a big city too. Maybe this starts to form a pattern; bigger cities, longer time to get bookings? Although certainly Bombaim is much more a visitorsâ destination than SĂŁo Paulo; there my analogy fallsâŚ
(what a lovely place you have by the way)
Hi @MaMa,
I donât have to remember, I keep all emails, including Airbnb ones. I donât think this is significant in any way, but I received the booking request on the early morning of the 9th of May (1:42 am), Two days before the commencement of the reservation. It looks like I accepted it almost immediately, shortly after 2 am.
This reservation was unusual in two ways. The initial request was completely blank. That has to date not happened again. The guests initially booked for 2 days, but wound up staying nearly a month, in two different visits with a short break in between. I didnât realise how unusual this was. Since then itâs been mostly short visits; with an average length of 3 days or so.
Theyâre Indians, and in fact local, a fact which was not apparent to me at the time.
Probably not. And I think people overstate the usefulness of this ânew host boostâ. It just meaning your listing is more visible. It doesnât mean people are going to book it. People decide to book from a combination of factors, including reviews, photos, what the host has written in the listing, and the host policies.
If you want some advice, Iâd not rely too much on Airbnb. If you have the time and energy, Iâd (a) list on other sites (b) start setting up your own web site (c) consider whether you will be able to advertise on social media. @jaquo is our expert on this. (a) and (b), at least, are conventional wisdom on this site. And I havenât done any of (a), (b) or (c), so this is a case where I should probably be taking my own advice.
I think it depends on the local conditions, including the local Airbnb competition. Bombay has (very approximately) 1200 Airbnb listings. And a lot of other places to stay which arenât Airbnb. But it also gets a ton of traffic - itâs a very busy place.
Thanks! It isnât really mine, though.
BTW, if you post your listing, folks here can probably give you tipsâŚ
Also⌠Oleg⌠the word âcyclopathâ comes up, and i think you ought to think of changing itâŚ
Itâs not really an English word and at first I thought I was reading âpsycopath.â Apartment is ideal for psychopaths!"
Just teasing you⌠but think about it⌠most of us going to Prague arenât going to run the bike trails in residential neighborhoods⌠we are going to see the castles, have the beer and walk along the Charles bridge! And much more!
Sell the location⌠AND the time of year! We loved the snowâŚAnd the beer, did I mention we loved the beer?
Oh yes itâs significant to me - it means you waited for a long time before any request even came to your box (not to mention, waited for the booking to start); but in the end all went well and now you are a successful host
Very interesting. Iâve been desperate about having lost this famous boost; but maybe itâs not my main problem. This is good (because, losing the boost was a hard problem to reverse, the others may be solvable).
I donât know how many Airbnbs they have here in SP⌠Iâm guessing many (I donât know how to find this out). Well in my close neighbourhood (like, three blocks all around my apartment) Iâve counted about 20 - most with lots of reviews and stars. The âmost starredâ one is just across the street in fact (this confirms to me itâs a good street, if I want to see the bright side).
Thank you! Iâm still a little shy for that step but Iâm working on it internally LOL
Really, thank you for your thoughtful answers.
Also, Iâm not sure I should be writing so much on this thread with my worries, maybe Iâm hijacking the OP? Sorry OP not my intention. Iâm not completely sure of the âwaysâ of posting in the forum yet.
Unfortunately, being a successful Airbnb host is like being a successful bandit in one important respect. Neither of them are stable professions.
I think https://smartbnb.io/ has some data (I donât know how accurate it is) about this. Check out the free report.
Sounds busy.
Probably not a big deal - this isnât the most orderly forum. Having said that, it would be entirely reasonable to create your own topic/thread if there was something you wanted to discuss.
And one more thing - itâs easy to search for your own listing on Airbnb. See where you are ranked. Make sure you are logged out, otherwise youâll automatically be at the top.