All Forum Posts by: Brian Barch

I’m in Atlanta. Columbus has some strong dynamics…cheap prices, 3 F500 companies, military, hospital, kayaking enthusiasts, Kia car plant.

It has as many bad parts as good, so do your research, but I do believe if it is just about the investment, there’s some money to be made there

In general, I price myself 10-15% high outside of my avg lead time, and discount fairly aggressively inside the lead time.

This strategy attempts to capture both the planners who will pay a small premium to secure a good data ahead of time, and the last minute deal seekers.

In general, it seems many people don’t vary between weekend and weekday pricing enough IMHO.

2 ideas I’ve toyed with… in 2+ years I’ve never not booked a weekend. Can the prices go higher still here?

And 2, this idea that people will pay a higher prices simply by virtue of you charging a higher price. In other words, your price determines the perceived value in the guests mind, no different than a luxury purse fetching $1000 while another brand only $75, even though they are both made out of leather. 

I’m guest favorite, top 5%, all 5 star reviews…. What would happen if I did something radical like double the price? A part of me feels like some people might pay it! It would be an extreme high/low strategy. Price at $400/night, but discount down to $100/night within the final week….

Don't compete on price!  Compete on photos/amenities/good reviews; put all of your energy there.

I think these photograph well, but ultimately will lead to an underwhelming experience for many guests who underestimate the work involved.  I'm open to being wrong though....

1) continue to maximize and hone your listing over a 2 week period.  Don't assume all professional photos are the same.  If you need to get better ones, do it.  It will pay for itself the first month

2) Automate guest communication.  Airbnb CAN do this for you, but I recommend Hospitable which is much easier

3) I like Pricelabs for dynamic pricing, but worry about this in month 2.  

4) don't fret over bad guests, rather focus on all the things in your control that would discourage them.  Pricing, booking lead time minimums, the copy in your listing, etc

5) make small connections with your guests, which will lead to 5 star reviews.  If a guest shoots a message like "we are so excited to stay for our 5th anniversary..."  Make sure to chime in, wish them a happy anniversary.  Relate to them based on where they might be traveling from, suggest a local hike/restaurant/attraction you like.  These little things are the things that make guests feel connected to you.

The rest will sort itself out!

I simply just don't trust the news these days and have to look at my own markets and stats.

I think the part everyone is conscious of is we saw a post-covid peak that in theory will not return, and we made a gradual return to 2019 levels.

What I do think is true, per AirDNA, is that ocean and mountain markets saw the biggest increase, and now the biggest fall.... and now what's happening is many people, particularly older families who tried Airbnb for the first time, are realizing they never want to stay in a hotel again.  So now when they travel to Paducah KY for their kids traveling sports tournament, they are searching out Airbnb's instead of the Hampton Inn, in a town no one thinks of as an Airbnb hotspot.

For work travel I'll stay in a hotel, but for ANY and ALL family travel, there's no way I'm giving up having a separate room for each of my kids.

My mountain market revenue is flat-ish to up, but that's because I took over management from a PM and was able to do a much better job, so it's hard to get a pulse on my local market.

I use chatgpt. Works amazing honestly. Copy and paste reviews into the tool an ask it to summarize. 

I’m in the north GA mountains.

I would suggest the following:

1) better professional photos that highlight your listing

2) a persons photo as the host. People want to feel they are renting from a person and not a company

3) lower rates mid week. Use pricelabs with aggressive price drops close in.

4) some more color pops

A majority of PMs don’t treat the place as their own. Once it’s in their fold, they seldom monitor price, or respond to reviews, etc. if things are operational they consider that “good enough”. 

They also don’t know the little details, like where the wine opener is, and so you as the property owner still have to get involved.

and god forbid anything big happened like HVAC or plumbing, they will take 3 days just to get quotes.