Seasonality & Pricing on Airbnb & VRBO: A practical approach to optimize for seasonal demand and rake in profits.

• Seasonality is dependent on your market

  • Some markets are flat demand all year

  • Other markets have one peak season ‘Ski towns when the slopes are ready to be skied on’ often are more empty in the summer months when there is no snow

  • Some markets are constantly busy

  • Florida, which I am most familiar with, has the following seasonality by rule of thumb

    • Slow is September when kids return to school / middle of Hurricane

      season

    • Christmas, Passover, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving Holiday, Spring

      Break are Peak

    • High season is summer when everyone is on summer vacation

    • Normal demand is the rest of the year with some exceptions...

  • Events do impact demand though, think for example, the Superbowl is coming into town, or Mardi Gras in New Orleans! That would be a reason to hike rates to match demand

  • Action steps: Peak season can be 2-3x your base rate, check comps. Some smart pricers block their busiest days until 90 days prior. While risky, you can charge as much as a 35% premium (or more) because there will be a lack of desirable inventory closer to the date. Again this is in some markets

  • If you are empty 45 days out, lower prices, if you are empty 2 weeks out, consider lowering prices if it makes sense for your finances to get booked. Remember do not price too low though, or you can attract a party crowd.

  • Do comparable analysis frequently (as much as once a month) to stay on top of trends. If you subscribe to the podcast, we will give you access to a comparables analysis worksheet

Optimizing Your Base Rate for Maximizing Regular Earnings

Episode 1 of 7 of our mini-series 'Airbnb Pricing Hacks You Need to Grow Your Bookings'

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Show notes:

• Under conditions of ‘regular’ demand how much to charge to maximize your profitability

• Neglecting one factor will hurt big time

  • For example, comparing apples to oranges will not make any sense and you won’t get any bookings and each night you stay empty is burning cash.

• Get off to a great start with a strong foundation

• Analyze comparable listings first, then go from there

• Think of your market as a 5-10 mile geographic radius and then go on from there

• Here is what makes a good comp set

  • Similar bedroom and bathroom count

  • Don’t compare budget to luxury

  • Apples to apples - condos and homes are not comps…a 3br single family to another 3br single family with similar furnishings and similar location is a comp.

  • Gather 6-12 to make a good comp set

  • Find the average and median rates across both weekday’s and weekends

• After you figure out comps lets move to strategy - the fun part

  • Match and charge a reduced rate to drive highest occupancy

  • Match market and deliver better

  • Charge a premium and deliver highest quality

The small details matter. Don't forget the small details like restocking or checking your inventory. Assuming your cleaner or cohost is handling it sometimes can be a huge error. In today's episode I share a story from my friend Hannah's recent guest who gave her low marks on Airbnb because of the lack of attention to detail.

Attention to detail is everything.

• Being focused on a niche can help bring the riches

• Pet friendly example

• Event-friendly rental (think family reunion, team gather and not a party house)

• Escape to nature, getting away from computer screens - you can market this ‘unplugging’

• Business travelers

• By focusing on a core audience, they are more likely to enjoy and return. You can charge premium rates (as much as 25% more) when you have a niche focused rental that is executed the right way because you are speaking directly to emotion, desire, and need.

John and Tim talk about saving money on these high energy bills...

● Electricity prices jumped 16% on average the past year...

● Compounded with soaring temperatures, this is going to put a damper on profits

● Phoenix AZ has 6 months of summer of above 100 degree weather

● Actionable steps:

○ Control AC (still giving the guest some control, but automating when windows or doors are open a shut off toggle, etc)

○ Smart lights

○ Change air filter

○ Seal holes and gaps

○ Check that your water heater thermostat is set optimally

○ LEDs and efficiency bulbs

Is superhost status worth it in 2022?

What is superhost status ○ The "superhost" designation on Airbnb is a sign that an Airbnb host has gotten

consistently good reviews over at least a year of hosting. Airbnb checks the status of hosts four times a year to ensure that a superhost badge is still relevant for each host.

○ - Host a minimum of 10 stays in a year ○ - Respond to guests quickly and maintain a 90% response rate or higher ○ - Have at least 80% 5-star reviews ○ - Honor confirmed reservations (meaning hosts should rarely cancel)

• Is it worth it? Yes most of the time. It adds visibility and trust.

• Here is when its not worth it. When guests are being unnecessarily difficult or you are

• Losing sleep over it...

• Tips to maximize superhost status: Consistently deliver great guest experiences Respond fast and work on communication skills Maintain your property and upgrade it when needed Request reviews from your happy guests Damage control when you do get a negative review

• Can you lose superhost with one bad review? Yes absolutely if you do not have a lot of reviews, one or two can knock you out of superhost status...

Data From AirDNA

• Quality of reviews was the second biggest impediment to achieving Superhost status. Of the 345,000 hosts with sufficient bookings in 2017, only 37% (129,000) had a rating of 4.8 or above

• The remaining 112,000 hosts did not qualify due to either a low response rate or canceled bookings.

• Our findings are clear that hosts earn significantly more revenue on Airbnb when they receive the Superhost stamp of approval.

• The uptick can be seen in these key performance indicators:

• Experiencing an 81% higher occupancy rate

• Earning 60% more revenue per available day

• A 5% improvement in listing traffic

• Putting in the necessary time, effort, and strategy toward elevating your host status makes a difference in your short-term rental profitability. This is further validated by Airbnb’s recent announcement regarding the launch of Airbnb Plus. The company is making a continuous effort to classify and reward hosts who provide consistent and exceptional experiences.

Generate buzz for your vacation rental and drive direct bookings with Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

Check out this real life example of how I posted for Tim and generated several inquiries...see the comments to see engagement and prospective guests show their interest in booking the Toy Story home:

• Example Image 1

• Example Image 2

• Example Image 3

• Example Image 4

This is a primer on generating direct bookings with facebook. The links below are youtube tutorials that I find helpful for beginners:

Creating a facebook business page

Using facebook groups and communities

How To Find Clients in Social Media Groups - Win Clients Without Pitching on Facebook

Facebook Tutorial For Posting On A Business Page

How to Use Facebook - Complete Beginner's Guide

Here are topics we will touch on:

• Set up a Facebook business page and good page URL

• Linking your website

• Including a call to action

• Make page message clear...

• Connecting instagram

• Promoting your FB business page on your page and with friends

• Posting on facebook for your vacation rental

• Using communities and groups to generate direct bookings

Hope this helps! We will do many episodes on the topic of Facebook marketing. Please review and leave us a comment in the review on what topics you would like us to cover! It helps us a ton - we want to help as many hosts as possible.

Tim shares his experience with Hurricane Ian in Florida with John, who just lived through Fiona in Puerto Rico.

Reflections on Hurricane Ian and Fiona...

Do not forget this simple way to get direct bookings (saving you thousands in the process) - friends, family, and casual conversation! Always be your vacation rental's best cheerleader...

An example of this so often overlooked is letting your friends and family know you have an awesome place, offering them the ‘friend’ discount to their friends as well. Ask them to share it. One host I know secured 12 bookings this way. 4 from friends, each friend told a friend, and so on. Best of all, no service fees so the guest won, host won, everyone won

Every conversation you have about vacation, bring your place up in a non-braggy way. Not like, I have a place in the Hamptons...no just like ‘I love going to my vacation rental in Florida its a great way to unplug and be with my family, I started renting it to others and they feel the same...” drop this in conversation, always be selling...

Think outside of the box. Events, sports teams, conventions...do not let airbnb do the selling for you or they will take a fee off of ALL of your business.

Promote your business to the realtors you know and offer them a commission. You may think this is the same as Airbnb, but its not...you can drastically lower what you pay in service fees if you think of it in terms of wallet share. If you pay a realtor $250 for referring a client of theirs to stay with you its better than the same booking paying out $750 to airbnb...best of all once you have a couple great real estate pros that you know they will do the selling for you. Make sure you give them the tools to help you do this...

All in all, the actionable advice is to spread the word the old fashioned way!

John and Tim discuss what consistency means to them and how it relates to thriving in short term rentals. How to think about consistency...can you believe that no one wanted Walt's Mickey Mouse cartoons at first - but he kept on trying. He kept on asking...

Walt Disney struggled with bankruptcy, borrowing money and subsisting on beans from a can for YEARS until he had a hit with the Mickey Mouse cartoons in the late 1920's. His now famous movies: Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi were a bomb at the box-office when they first came out.

Walt was committed to "plussing". His word for constant improvement. You may experience setbacks, losses, mistakes, pitfalls However, over the long haul it is the small things you repeatedly commit too, that become habit, which will ultimately bring you financial success and personal satisfaction through this business. It is a great business, but it rewards those who are unshakably consistent.