Do any of you host repeat guests who come into town for work a couple days a week? I have a guest who wants to set up a long-term agreement to stay with me while in town for work—3 days on, 4 days off. I’m concerned that this will impact my income since it will leave only random slots available for other guests to book (many of my bookings are for 5-7 days, so this will eliminate a lot of potential guests). Also, I block one day before and after my reservations for cleaning so this could leave only 2-3 days free. Any ideas on how to handle this so I can get this guaranteed income but also maximize the occupancy rate of my room?
We’ve had this very scenario, but workers like this were our core business, so we decided to go with the long term stability over the uncertainty. We explained the impact it would have and negotiated a slightly higher daily price to offset the unbookable days.
We offered them the ability to retain the room over the weekend, meaning they had less to take home and bring back, and we’d do a linen change once a week. It worked well for us with two three month bookings.
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Are you able to do a quick turnaround? If that’s possible you would have more days available.
It would be best for you if he booked Mon to Friday
every week then the weekends could be made available for other guests.
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It’s a nurse who works nights, and I don’t know if her schedule will have any sort of predictability. I suspect it may change from week to week unless she negotiates working the same 3 nights every week. Depending on my work schedule, I may be able to do a quick turnaround some days and can unblock those days on my calendar.
That’s a good point–I’ll see about negotiating a rate to make up for potential lost income. I’m in LA so have the potential to get tourists, traveling musicians/actors coming for the studios, or people coming on business. I could probably fill some of the days but bet I would have a lower occupancy rate overall by breaking up the weeks like this.
I have someone who is coming to do a course over ten weeks for one night staying mid week for one night a week. A lot of my stays are short stays for weekends so I am happy to do this as it is off season.
It depends whether you need to maximise income. I don’t, I work on filling 10 days a month.
@Helsi Did you ask him to book all the nights through AirBnB or did you create an off-platform agreement after getting to know each other?
It’s a her:) and I have got her to book the first couple of stays through Airbnb and after that if it works out for both of us, we will come to a direct arrangement.
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Well since Airbnb gets about 1/4 of what the Guest pays maybe have her pay you the full amount so you benefit but she loses nothing?
I love my traveling nurses…the word can spread quickly if you offer a great hosting experience especially during slow times. But that being said, I always state that I will not hold or block rooms for any guest (have gotten burned a couple of times). If the room is available then please you are very welcome. But this is my business. If you want to pay in advance that is great, book the room but if not it is first come…first served basis.
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I call these guests commuters, and I love em. If they will be in 4-5 nights a week for a month, they pay for the month. If they need an extra day, no worries. I don’t clean or charge a cleaning fee.
?
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I like this idea—ask her to pay for the whole month and use the home whenever needed. I think it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll consistently get enough guests to fill the 4 days per week when she’s not here.
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I had a guest this past fall who booked much of Sept on Airbnb and then we switched to direct payment via PayPal (I would invoice him). I didn’t give a discount for all the stays but he saved on fees. I saved a lot of work on turnovers. However I also didn’t get any reviews during that period, he didn’t even leave one on Airbnb. I still opened available days which were on weekends so I could keep my listing active and not be pushed down in the search ranking due to being unavailable. I also wanted to continue to have recent reviews when his stays ended in early Dec. I was able to do this but don’t have much tourist market and my stock in trade has been the one night stay over the past 5 years.
I’d like to repeat that if you switch to them paying direct, no discount but they save on fees. I don’t know about charging more to make up for lost income, that would depend on a number of factors. There wasn’t another airbnb closer to his office than mine but I didn’t want to raise my price and have him choose a different place.
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We have a consultant that stays in a room of ours that has an independent entrance 2-3 days a week, but not every week. He just calls us 24 hours before and if the room is free he takes it, if not he has a plan B nearby. We know him so he is on direct pay. This has been very easy and has worked out well for us and him.