Hello my YouTube friends its Richard founder of short-term rental secrets
.com and Airbnb super host today's episode is how to deal with slow season
it's October that means it's neither summer nor
winter and if you have a vacation rental like I happen to have it's the slow
season and what to do about it here's a few additional things that you can think
about 1 try different platforms if you've only listed on Airbnb and you've
never done any other platform because you're so busy during your busy season
you can't handle multiple calendars guess what in your slow season you have
more time more energy more resources and you need more booking so it's a time to
experiment with home away with booking.com
with flip key go speak to some local property managers in your area again
you're trying to drum up revenue wherever you can find it's a great time
to experiment also a really good time to get super creative and what I mean by
that is even in seasonal communities there's things that are there year-round
institutions colleges universities businesses and that's the time to go in
and speak to their human resources to their faculty see if they have visiting
professors that come into town if they've got training seminars whatever
it is go and try knock on the door pound the pavement do the legwork and go find
out if they ever have any people and again it's not going to be something
that's gonna fill your calendar necessarily although it could but all
we're trying to do is get through the slow season and 2 3 4 bookings could
make all the difference in the world when there's more demand than there is
supply prices go up when there's more supply than demand prices go down so
during the busy season what you want to be is one of the last people to book
right you want to be able to sit with your calendar empty and open and be
uncomfortable when everyone else is just saying give me that one give me that one
give me that one and the reason is during busy season you want people to
book you last at the highest rate possible because the more that you make
the more profit the converse is exactly true during slow season you no longer
want to be the last to book now you want to be one of the first to book and the
way that you are going to accomplish that is by driving your prices down
earlier than everyone else and possibly lower now don't do it if it Sun economic
so to draw this out as an example let's say during the busy season you command
$200 a night and your competitors are fully booked
and they do 150 a night good that extra $50 is all profit for you now in the
slow season you don't want to go to a hundred and fifty or even a hundred
maybe you need to go to 75 or 60 there's a price that will clear the market even
if there's only four people coming to your town they need to stay somewhere
and so if you've got the great reviews and your super hosts and all these are
their wonderful reviews and you're priced right they're gonna book you
first try as best as you can to schedule all of your maintenance stuff during the
slow period that's when you have the painting done that's when you have the
new carpeting installed that's when you do the roof work you never want to do
things during your peak season and I think that might be kind of obvious but
since we're running a business and we're thinking forward let's just start to
plan that on our calendar every slow season is when we do our repairs and
maintenance and that's when we schedule the cleaning crew to come in and do all
of their stuff also we just did a video not too long ago where people were
asking about how to deal with friends and family and people that are asking to
stay at your Airbnb and I suggested that you let them stay there when it's
offseason when it's convenient for you so to the extent that you have people
and obligations and people that have asked this is a really good time when
you have zero revenue to say hey come use my house my cabin my beach house
whatever as long as it's still like nice they're gonna appreciate the offer and
if they turn it down it doesn't matter you've now generously offered your house
they turned it down recognize that your revenue and the way you report it on
taxes is annual so you might make ten thousand dollars during your peak period
ten thousand dollars and like say August and then zero and September and zero and
October just smooth all that out take a look at your annual revenue divide that
by twelve and that's how much money your revenue is generating and that's your
budget so make sure that you don't go out and spend aggressively or think that
that's income and then get really disappointed when you have zero the very
next month just smooth it out do it yourself keep your expenses within that
budget as well and that's that I'd love to hear your comments your suggestions
your feedback again we're a community here so the more that you engage with
one another both here the YouTube comments and over at our Facebook group
the more we can learn and the more ideas we have in the more revenue we put in
our pocket I hope you liked the video and if you haven't subscribed please do
so I think I've said this before in fact I know I have I'm trying to get to 5000
by our one-year anniversary and every subscription help so you can help me
you