Boosting STR Occupancy - Lake Arrowhead, CA

[David Brooks]

Alrighty - I'm just started on year two with my STR on the mountain. Straight out of the gate in October of last year and for the six months that followed, every weekend and holiday was booked - but come April, vacancy dropped to nil and hasn't picked up yet. I have lots of views (though AirBnB says it's far less than the "similar properties" in my area), but even those seem to be dropping for both my property and the market in general.

As we head into high season, I'm looking for some insight from seasoned veterans in the market - is this typical? What is your occupancy like, both in winter and in summer - and how do you manage to get people to both book and stay longer? Even with what I presume is my "new property" boost combined with COVID craziness, my occupancy over the first 12 months seemed far below what I would have anticipated. 

Would love any words of wisdom - thanks!

[Melissa Bovee]

3 suggestions:

1. Are you a "super host"?  It is very helpful to maintain because it gives you better search results and more people see your place.  If you are struggling to get sufficient bookings to achieve it, I would lower the price and go out of my way to make sure everyone is happy and leaving good reviews.  Once you get the designation, you get more views etc and can raise prices back up. 

2. It is worth it to get professional photographs.  Listings with good photos market much better, not just because they look nicer but also because customers feel like they are doing business with a professional.  (There is always the slight fear when renting from the owner that the place may be shaddy / not clean / etc etc, so professional marketing goes a long way to ease those things). 

3. Make sure to study your market.  Pay attention to your competition to make sure your price is competative season by season, weekends vs week days.  I origonally did research to set my prices and when I started using dynamic pricing I was shocked at how much I was undercharging for the high season weekends.  Also, it was eye opening to see how discounted things need to be in the low season.  The last thing you need is to be charging hundreds more than the identical house next door and no know it. 

Good luck to you!