Will blocking weekend check-in affect my total reservations?

Hi all,
We have 7 properties, operated by my son who lately complains that he is busy every weekend.
In your opinion, if I block weekend check-in, will this affect our healthy business?
Thanks!

But what is the problem you are facing? Are you only booked on weekends and no bookings during the week?

Edit: I think I got it. Your son wants more free time in the weekend.

Yes it certainly will. It is the peak check in period in most areas.

If your son is unable to cope with the amount of work involved/doesn’t want to work weekends, why not employ a local co-host to help manage the properties with you.

Alternatively you could have self-check ins.

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Yes, he is complaining he is working all weekends. I suspect that it will affect business but I am not sure

This is what I am afraid of. Our occupancy is very high but I was hoping someone having had the experience could offer some advice based on facts. I thing Saturdays and Sundays we have most of our check ins

Why not hire a cleaner?

This is also an option, I was trying to see if somebody knows what repercussions blocking weekends would have

You could try it for a few weeks and see how it goes.

If you are a holiday destination, even for short breaks, people usually book over the weekend to make the most of the time they have available, and to extend stays. This will therefore most likely affect your bookings I am sorry to say.

Unless someone here has a rental exactly like yours at the same price with the same target market no one here could know. There isn’t one set of facts there are many variables. There are hosts who limit check in to certain days and also have a minimum length of stay. For example check ins only on Tues, Wed, Thursday with a minimum of 5 day stay so the weekend has no check in or check out. But their property is in such high demand that they can do that and be booked all the time. People adjust their holiday so they can book that property.

Since you have 7 properties you are in a unique situation. You can easily block weekends on one or two properties and compare booking rate to the other properties. And then come back and let us know what you learned with your experiment.

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Thank you for taking the time, you are right of course, I was thinking t do what you suggest, and see the results. I might start with the ones with the highest demand

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Good thinking. And do please report back to us so that we may also learn from you.

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The obvious repercussion is a massive fall in bookings if you have a lot of weekend check ins.

Have you run your booking check in dates for the last year to see how many are weekend check ins?

I am not sure why you would want to block weekends when you could look at self check in and a co-host happy to provide cover over weekends.

OK I did a 10 month statistics:
29% of our check-ins were on Sat or Sun. The total percentage of any two days in a week would be 28.6%.
Therefore, check-ins are not more during the weekends…
One of the 7 flats had about double the average of the weekend check ins

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I presume you are paying your son to do this? If so, I would tell him to hire someone from his pay to work on the weekends for him - and that he is responsible for their performance. It’s a great opportunity for him to be a manager.

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Yes, he is getting paid and what you are suggesting is also being discussed. I also think this is the only way - for him to manage things, to stay around for a long time. I think it will help him develop

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Since almost a third of your check-ins are on the weekend, it seems blocking weekend bookings wouldn’t work.

I really like @Helsi ‘s idea of an airbnb co-host, if there is one in your area.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1534/what-can-a-co-host-do

With seven properties to manage, I can see how working every weekend plus weekdays, would grow weary-some and a helper-bee would be helpful.

Dimitrios, I can’t speak for others, but it would be useful to know where you are and what your target market is. Like Dusty says, each one of us operates differently, with different properties, styles, seasons and demographics, including international. Are you in Greece by any chance? I like PitonView’s suggested way forward in terms of giving your son responsibility.

if you add Monday and Tuesday check ins, the percentage will be the same, a bit less than 1/3, as there’s 7 days in a week.

I think asking your son to manage a co-host would only work if you are confident in your son’s ability to manage a member of staff. Particularly if he has other priorities over a weekend.

I would prefer to have a co-host that I can manage myself - but perhaps I am a bit of a control freak but also know what my son is like :slight_smile: