With the exception of holiday bookings…
- How far in advance do Airbnb travellers really book their stays?
- Is Airbnb more of a short-notice thing?
Depends on your property- I have weddings booked up to August next year
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My plans are always changing, so I don’t have too many months in advance available on my calendar. I started the current listing in Feb, and opened up the calendar till August, but now I only open up 2 months in advance. I tend to be weekends only, as it’s a seaside town, and a lot of these trips are booked within a couple of months of the actual holiday. Not like planning a long haul holiday to a different continent.
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Depends where you are really. For example Im in a busy city centre in the UK people come for work/events/holidays/conferences. I too open my calendar only 3-4 months in advance as I like to check for events etc and ajdust prices. My weekends are usually booked at least a month in advance and the weekdays even same day bookings.
We are live in hosts and rent out 3 rooms. We have our calendar open 3 months in advance.
A rough estimate:
1 - 3 months in advance: 1%
15 - 30 days in advance: 15%
8 - 14 days in advance: 25%
5 - 7 days in advance: 25%
3 - 4 days in advance: 20%
1 - 2 days in advance: 10%
Less than 24 hours in advance: 4%
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@Fahed you’re London, aren’t you? You’d get a significant amount of tourists from abroad (especially this year, seeing how the GBP is), so they’d book in advance, to tally up with flights.
Im in Brighton, and may well catch the odd day trip, booked on a whim two nights before!
The only challenge with tourists is that, with a 5 bedroom property, we’re more likely to see them during school holiday periods. Outside of that, it’s likely to be business travellers (I guess).
Wow! So most of your bookings are within a 1 month horizon?
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well, Summer weekends booked out quite quick, then as we got nearer the time July and August filled mid week. October is empty at the mo, but I’m confidant most weekends will fill
We’re a seasonal destination generally speaking.
Anything from 2 days out to almost a year out. Average – a month or so. June/July/August and most of Sept are almost always totally dead. I keep the calendar open a year out. I have two bookings for February 2019 that were made in May 2018.
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I am an urban listing and get guests on work and university trips, friend and family visits and a few tourists and event visitors. My booking profile is very similar to Guthend’s. If I can remember when festivals are, or popular international Tai Chi or Yoga workshops I can get away with putting my prices up.
Not really so. I have foreign tourists, particularly older Americans, outside of the school holidays who don’t want to be surrounded by children, others coming for a rural break whilst visiting London, or even using the high speed train for day trips up to London and avoiding London prices.
How big is your place?
I have bookings up to April next year. (Not fully booked - there are still gaps).
I have a previous guest who stayed recently and has just enquired about a stay next August, although she hasn’t booked as yet. Note that November - May is the tourist season here so I have bookings every month until April,
However, and just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, I also get same day bookings.
Although I’d say that most guests book at least six weeks in advance. But our Floridian resort is unlike many other locations.
We let three bedrooms, two of which are a family/friends travelling-together-suite and bathroom, the other with own shower room. Remember we do live here too, and don’t accept children under nine for quite real “safety” reasons. Our second guests had a two year old who fell down the stairs, left unsupervised. Parents can be safety reasons too! It does mean the end of August can be very quiet, but it’s time for a rest by then anyway. We have a mix of advance bookings, mainly Americans/Australians, and last minute getaways from Europe (Calais/Eurotunnel is close) and London.
We have two full apartments. Balloon Fiesta is the big draw here. We open our calendar for it about 6 months out and it fills quite fast. We are already fully booked for it. Outside of this we usually get people booking about a week out. We are close to the freeway and do a lot of single night stays for people traveling across country,
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Mine really varies. I do have a few guests booking in advance, but most of my guests arrive within 48-72 hours. Usually they’re in town for work, or have decided to take a last minute break.
Where you are located in your city makes a huge difference, and that’s true for hotels too, not just AirBnBs. I mentioned in a post a few months ago that I use to work in a nice hotel that was a five minute walk from one of the biggest hospitals in western Canada. We used to get a lot of last minute guests who were family and friends of people who had just been taken to the hospital. Airport hotels also get a lot of last minute bookings from people whose flights have been delayed or cancelled.
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I’m at the Jersey Shore so it’s seasonal. Guests start in April to book dates for June, July and August.
Just got a booking for September next year
What’s your cancelation policy?