Studios listed as 1-Bedrooms

[Xena]

@KKC

That seems pretty good. I realize you probably aren’t going to have anyone looking to stay in your neighborhood on a snow weekend tonight.

I even raised my prices by $15 a night this week because I didn’t want to deal with last-minute guests who might be unprepared for our snow!

As we’ve discussed before, my location isn’t for everyone. I get a lot of guests who want to be near family they’re visit in my neighborhood, or want to be near Capitol Hill when the hill itself is booked.

I ended up blocking April but I do seem to be a few pages in for March. I have some things up in the air right now with my personal life so I’ve been opening my calendar just 1-2 months out. Most of my reservations are 2-weeks or less before arrival date. I use the strategy of pricing high and lowering my price as it gets closer. That allows me to book at a higher rate for special events when all the hotels are booked.

@KKC

So I don’t know if it makes you feel better or worse but with all the competition it seems like the fact that you come up on the first page of any search is good.

Thank you for the encouragement! I really am in an oversaturated market as everyone wants to cash in Seattle’s current boom. I’ve done everything I can to stand out: professional photographer and excellent reviews, most importantly. I don’t think I can do much more but wait for our new regulations to kick in and force some of the STR buildings to go back to being LTRs. I just wish I didn’t feel like I had to complete against budget places to attract bookings, but they are closer to the lightrail and freeway than I am (ironically, the places closer to the freeway don’t usually have free parking).

Speaking of saturation: there have been three other AirBnBs just on my block, to my knowledge. Two other basement apartments, and a small house. The house closed up about two years ago, as soon as there was a whiff of regulations coming, and has just sat vacant (occasionally the owners, who live in a nearby city, come and do maintenance). One of the basements closed after maybe six months due to family members moving in. The other basement is a new host and I’m not sure they’ll have the patience to continue long-term. It seems few hosts stick it out (even I took 1.5 years off), and with our new STR regulations, I’m hoping we will no longer see entire apartment buildings converted into AirBnBs.

[KKC]

@Xena

my location isn’t for everyone. I get a lot of guests who want to be near family they’re visit in my neighborhood,

I was in Seattle last week and would have loved to stay with you or @Arlene_Larsson. But the friend in Seattle lives near Columbia City and our (canceled unfortunately) concert was at Showbox SoDo. So her location was ok for that and absolutely free so I stayed there. I also looked at a couple of Airbnbs near my friend in case another friend from Portland came up for the show. There is a ton of availability at good prices.

[Arlene_Larsson]

@KKC

I was in Seattle last week and would have loved to stay with you or @Arlene_Larsson

If you’re ever coming to town again let me know!! Although we aren’t near light rail; we’re on Queen Anne, but we do have very easy bus access, a nice view and free parking. @Xena the Seattle market is just so over saturated right now. But cruise season is right around the corner!!!

[Militaryhorsegal]

@Xena

I use the strategy of pricing high and lowering my price as it gets closer.

I use the strategy of pricing low and raising my price as it gets closer. This way the bargain hunters who can plan ahead are a good fit for me and those that book later don’t have as many options so tend to pay my higher prices happily (which are not always too much higher than the average going but sometimes double or triple).

The main reason I do this is so that I get paid more fir when I have less time to to plan for their arrival. If someone books well in advance I have a much easier tome planning the rest of my life.

[JohnF]

Ancient topic and many posters not active any more.

Closed for housekeeping.

JF