Air bnb - nightly base price?

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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Mouse
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Air bnb - nightly base price?

Post by Mouse »

Just a quickie.....can someone explain what this is?

I'm now at the stage of adding prices and this has come up first.

I haven't seen anything yet about weekly or seasonal prices....it won't let me get past this.

Is there anything I should know about setting prices....anything to fall foul of as a newbie! :shock:

Mousie (worrying she'll be caught out)
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Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Mousie, they've recently changed the pricing . I was searching for the weekly pricing option to update my own last week, and was unable to add any new ones, although I can still set the minumum stay to 7 nights. I contacted ABB and was told to add nightly prices and offer a discount for a week, or create a special offer when I get an enquiry. I've temporarily disabled my listing until I have time to look at it properly. I'm booked up until mid-September and won't be releasing ski season dates on there for a while yet.
ianh100
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Post by ianh100 »

I am starting to get more bookings from Airbnb but I am still trying to get my head around the best options.

I think you need to think hard about that base rate as I see many other properties listing a lower standard rate then adding lots of extra charges (Per extra guest, cleaning etc). The problem is when people search using the map the are drawn to the lower nightly rates.

We probably took the wrong approach of taking a short break price and making that into a nightly rate so that we did not get burnt with a short stay. The problem is that then makes a week look expensive and a guest doesn't get to see your weekly price in the early search stages.

You can set various minimum nights by season or specific dates but you have to remember to do this a long way ahead. We just learnt that as we had not set minimums for Xmas. We had an enquiry for 3 nights at Xmas leaving on Boxing day, we know we always sell that as a week.

Lots to learn....
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Post by Mouse »

:? Confused.com

Thanks for the replies.

So I have only weekly prices (thank god). Am I naive in assuming I just divide the weekly price by 7 to get my base night price?
If so.....which weekly price do I choose?

What is the purpose of the base price?

I worry that if I set the cheapest week ÷ 7 as my base price. ....does that quote that weekly price no matter what dates are selected by the enquirer!?

I can't seem to find any explanation on the air bnb site.

Mousie
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kg1
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Post by kg1 »

Hells Bells wrote:Mousie, they've recently changed the pricing . I was searching for the weekly pricing option to update my own last week, and was unable to add any new ones, although I can still set the minumum stay to 7 nights. I contacted ABB and was told to add nightly prices and offer a discount for a week, or create a special offer when I get an enquiry. I've temporarily disabled my listing until I have time to look at it properly. I'm booked up until mid-September and won't be releasing ski season dates on there for a while yet.
Well, that explains why I coudn't find the weekly option recently. I was beginning to think I'd imagined it. When will these companies realise that the more flexible they make their pricing options, the more bookings we are likely to get, therefore more revenue for them. Numpties!
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Yes, you are now 'invited' to add a discount for a week or months stay. It is worth checking because I found they had already preset the weekly discount to 10% for me! I only realised when I got a booking enquiry and couldn't work out why it was lower than it should have been.
Mouse, I find it is better to go slightly lower on the nightly rate then whack on a big cleaning charge to make up for the lower rates. That way you will appear in more searches as more people want cheaper accommodation.
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Post by Mouse »

Great tip LV....thanks for that.

I sent a message to them asking them to explain what it meant and explaining I have a 7 night minimum as I rent weekly. This is the answer;

My name is Adrian, I am a Community Expert and a Superhost from Vancouver BC and I can advise you on this matter.

It is necessary to set a base rate per night on your listing, even if you have a 7 night minimum stay. So, what I would recommend is to set a nightly rate that is a little more than 1/7 of your weekly rate - so for example,say you charge $1000 for one week as your low season rate, I would set my nightly rate at $158 and then offer a 10% discount for weekly stays. This way you get $1000.

For the higher priced times of year, set your nightly rates at higher rates that again, will equate to what you want to earn, once any weekly discount you offer is applied.

Whilst it is not essential to offer a % discount for weekly stays, it will help your listing be promoted higher in search results if you offer one, so I do recommend setting your nightly rate a little higher then offering a small discount.

If you have any other questions on this matter, don’t hesitate to ask.

So......that's why you got the 10% automatically deducted!

I have replied asking if he can explain the purpose of the nightly base rate especially if it isn't representative of the true price. Given he 'recommends' increasing it by 10% he is in fact suggestung we mislead the client.

Mousie....thinking she's fallen in to another dimension :roll:
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kg1
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Post by kg1 »

Ok so the choice is -

lower daily rate but add a cleaning fee

or

increase daily rate & give a discount for 7 nights.

I wonder who on here does which?
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

I've gone with the separate cleaning fee. Works better for short breaks.
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Post by Mouse »

Got a reply to my question....basically it is all down to algorithms used by air bnb that need to have you discount the nightly base rate by 10%. If not your property will be at a disadvantage.
He went on to say that as I only have a 7 night minimum then my enquirers would only see the weekly price not the nightly.
So why do it?! Because it's a one size has to fit all. They mustn't be able to deal with 2 different types of holiday (or maybe 3)

I wonder what % of their advertisers truely sell by the night and not the week (or short break).

It's a mad, mad, world! :shock:

Mouse
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Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

From looking on ABB to book things, it looks like a lot of them are for short breaks.
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Post by Mouse »

That's what I would have thought Hells. They seem to have moved far far away from their original business model, yet want to cling to it when designing the 'algorithms'

Mouse
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ianh100
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Post by ianh100 »

Some useful tips here. We get a few bookings but seem to always be a long way down the search list. We don't currently give a weekly discount so that could explain things.

I think we need to play around with discounts and cleaning fees to make the price look competitive.

I tried to book a place in lyme regis recently and found a practice on Airbnb that I really dislike. There were many properties that slept 4 or even 6 people but charged a not insignificant extra per person beyond the first or maybe second. In a couple of cases this doubled the actual nightly cost. We sleep 4+1 or 5+1 in our places but only charge £3 per night if they use the +1 option to cover the setup and laundry costs.
kg1
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Post by kg1 »

I've just increased prices for Nov & Dec with a discount for weekly bookings. Will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.
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Post by Hells Bells »

I'm going to have a look at mine tomorrow.
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