Slow season: how low can/should we go?

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Thanks for your reply and suggestions. Early on, we decided that short terms stays are better for us with less wear and tear on the apt. Our max is 7 nights. Guests frequently remark that the place looks like new and I attribute the newness, in part, to having short term guests who are out all the time and not cooking.

Remarkably, we were solidly booked through October and are now waiting to see how November will go!

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Supporting prior comments about avoiding prices being too low. I just learned a valuable lesson.

Short version:
Highly competitive market, off-season, two condos, already had lowered (but not smart pricing) rates for off season. 2 week test of “smart pricing” for one unit. both units booked. “smart pricing” guests thus lowest rates unit were not guests I could recommend with gusto to another host. They found fault with small things and did not call or follow trouble shooting guide when Internet & netflix not performiing as expected. Guests in higher priced unit were wonderful.

I went back to my higher but still off-season pricing.

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Not really sure you could consider this experience of 2 bookings in different units ‘validated’ results however interesting!

25

@ Emily —You are correct, it was not a true experiment. However it did match what others on this forum have warned about (lower prices; harder to please guest). Plus the lower rate didn’t increase my bookings. I received the same days of bookings on the non-discounted unit as the discounted unit.

Bookings didn’t increase + harder to please guests + less money earned = me not wanting to bother with smart pricing.