Writing
I’m coming up on 10 years as an Airbnb host in Riverside, CA. 2024 was my strongest year, last year was decent, but this year has been noticeably slower.
Like most hosts, I prioritize guests who take care of the home. I live in the property when it’s not booked, and I’ve had a 3-night minimum for years to discourage parties—it’s worked well. I also prefer longer stays since I relocate to my desert home (about 100 miles away) when the Airbnb is occupied.
I’ve gradually increased my pricing, but I’m still slightly below comparable listings. I’m a Superhost with almost all 5-star reviews, and I get a good number of repeat guests, so I don’t believe the property itself is the issue.
I’m interested in hearing what’s working for others right now:
Pricing strategies in a slower market
Discounts for longer stays
Last-minute booking adjustments
Incentives for early reservations
Or is the market just slow right now?
I’ve experimented with most of these, but I’d value current, real-world results from other hosts. What’s actually moving the needle for you?
I feel your pain. I’m in the same boat. Been hosting since 2017. This is my worst off season ever. Basically no bookings. I feel I’ve tried everything. You just can’t force people to travel. And there’s just a point where dropping your prices just doesn’t make financial sense.
Hopefully, we can vote this administration out in the midterms, and then of course in the presidential elections.
We are doing OK, actually. We have a lot of one night stays and I realize that’s a lot of work in terms of cleaning and laundry etc. But I’d rather have lots of one night stays than big gaps in my calendar.
Other than my fear of guests having parties, I can’t really allow single night stays because I stay 100 miles away when my home is occupied. I do get guest bookings back to back sometines which means I have to travel 100 miles, clean, then travel back. It’s doable but only once in a while. I have hired house cleaners for these situations but it’s so random that I haven’t found anyone that is reliably available. I just added a 22% discount for longer stays and turned on “Smart Pricing” (again). I’m also on VRBO which has actually been giving me as many bookings as Airbnb. Thanks for the replies everyone.
What do you consider to be “longer stays”? You may already be aware of this, but Airbnb is not set up to protect hosts in situations that can arise from longer stays. For instance, if the stay is over 28 days, Airbnb charges guests monthly and if their subsequent payments don’t go through, Airbnb just says “too bad” and leaves it up to the host to make the guest leave. Which can be a nightmare in places where guests become tenants after a month, meaning they have tenants rights and you’d have to go through an eviction process. I would be especially concerned about this with long term bookings, as it seems you have no local co-host to monitor what is going on at your Airbnb.
Good luck with that - I don’t see any more voting going on in the USA for the foreseeable future. Like he said “come out and vote for me this time and then you won’t have to do it again”
I’m well aware (Realtor here). It’s a gamble no doubt. I’ve had very good luck with long term Airbnb guests and I’ve also had long term conventional tenants from hell. (I own 6 CA homes). My last long term tenants were raising dogs, a LOT of them! Long story, suffice it to say, it was a nightmare.
Sorry about my above post, I get a bit moribund every now and then when I look at what’s going on over the pond and the ripples spreading out around the globe.
OP I know it’s no consolation but we’re empty most of the time over here in the UK, had two stays so far this year and only two booking further into the year. We’ve been discussing dropping the whole commercial side of the space and offering it to a refugee family instead - there’ll be plenty more heading to our shores soon enough.
No problem, I try not to get political or religious online, or in person for that matter 