Optimize occupancy using different strategies for Airbnb vs VRBO

[Marylin OShea]

Hiya BP community - I am an investor & STR host in Annapolis, Maryland. I have been hosting my SFH property in both VRBO and Airbnb for nearly two years. Had a record year last year and I am thinking with a bit more optimization it could become a 6 digit gross earner. (And it's only a 3br/2ba home, maybe 1,700 sq ft. We have a few prime weeks that really help in Annapolis!)

Have you come up with a strategic way to use VRBO and Airbnb for the same property but with different goals/pricing tactics? Perhaps focus one on shorter stays (Airbnb), and the other on longer stays (VRBO) in order to maximize occupancy? 

I am trying to fine tune this without the use of external tools. Curious to hear what you've learned if you tried something like this?

I am computing my stats to show avg stay duration and avg nightly rate for each platform and will be happy to share with those who are willing to trade intel (either here on the forum or through direct message).

Happy Hosting!

[James Alderman]

@Marylin OShea what do you use for your pricing strategy?

To maximize occupancy with longer stays, I like to overprice my nightly rate by about 25% compared to the market, and then I use an increasing discount depending on the length of stay. For instance, a 2-night stay may get a 5% discount, 3-night 10% discount, etc up until a 40% discount for a month long stay. You can set this up with the multi-calendar in Airbnb, though I'm not familiar with VRBO's tools.

This strategy discourages shorter stays and encourages longer stays. I will discount the nights right next to existing bookings to encourage a potential guest to fill the whole vacant block, which happens quite often.

I'll combine this with dynamic pricing to maximize revenue. I've been using this approach for the last 4 months and have seen my LOS increase by 2.5 nights and seen a nice revenue increase.