Length of Stay Trend or Experiment?

[Michael Greenberg]

Fellow BP STR Owners, would like to read your opinions:

In my microcosm active STR market, a recent study of my local competitors on Airbnb I saw to see a trend of required longer stays. Two specific multi-property owners are requiring 5-night minimum stays across the board and based upon their calendar (although the bookings could be coming from other OTA's) it is working. They are also providing 25% weekly stay and 35% monthly stay discounts. I scratched out the math and if their calendars are accurate, this is a really smart strategy financially, but also could weed out the riff-raff as @Selena Walsh post this week discussed. So I'm following suit - but not exactly the same. Since my focus is on maximizing revenue and profit (occupancy comes along for the ride), I have taken my properties and are requiring the following length of stays:

My minimum stay is set to two nights so Tuesday (I don't get Tuesday requests) and Friday are left alone because I also restricted Saturday check-in and check-out.

Minimum stay by day of week is now set to:

Sunday - 4 nights

Monday - 4 nights

Wednesday - 4 nights

Thursday - 3 nights

I then lowered my rates for the weekdays to capture more revenue but priced below majority of the competition; e.g. if Property A was $100 per night for a minimum 2 night stay = $200.  Now the same property is requiring (4) nights at $75 = $300.  I adjusted my weekends slightly to encourage longer stays as well and since there are not check-in/out Saturday's, this is capturing more than my original 2-night requirement.  Leaving my minimum stay at (2) still helps my search position and broad searches.

I added weekly/monthly discounts slightly different per property to capture more days/$$$ but not as aggressive as 25%/35%.

Best,

Mike

[Julie McCoy]

I'm doing something similar, though it's based on my own desire for less turnover vs. trying to get more bookings.  I stay about 95% booked so there's no incentive for me to offer weekly or monthly discounts.  My minimum night stay is also 2 nights (though I'll allow single night bookings if I have an "orphan" night) but I want to encourage longer stays.

The strategy I'm taking is, if someone is booking a few months ahead, I'm requiring 4-night stays.  Then, as the calendar fills up, I'll change the settings to allow shorter stays that will fill the "holes".  (I NEED to make it so you can't check in/out on Saturday but I haven't implemented that yet)

@Michael Greenberg's way is probably more efficient, LOL - when I get time again to really futz around with my properties again, I may very well adopt that strategy.  Thanks for sharing!