What's up YouTube it's Richard found of short-term rental University and Airbnb
super host today's videos a question we hear all the time is it a good time to
be an Airbnb host or is there too much competition well here's one guys take so
yeah of course there's more competition it's natural it's healthy it's what
happens as markets mature this is a very rich opportunity and a lot of people are
finding out that it's a great part-time gig
full-time gig investment opportunity co-hosting opportunity there's a lot of
demand a lot of people are staying in Airbnb so people really enjoy it so
therefore there's a lot of hosts gravitating towards the opportunity and
this channel is actually helping a lot of people do it also so yes there's more
competition but that's not a bad thing so by way of background this is a
natural evolutionary process in every market known to man there's always sort
of the early people that get there and then there's the influencers and then
there's the early adopters and then it becomes mainstream and then it Peaks and
then it goes down the bigger point is what we're seeing on Airbnb we see in
every single market in every single new idea it goes through a very similar
phase and so this is totally natural and to be expected the question I think is
how do you take advantage of it so in my opinion generally speaking the people
that do best in all market conditions are either the very low price people or
the very high price people so you've got people that are wildly successful like
IKEA they're the cheapest in the business and they continue to be the
cheapest or Amazon and they thrive there at the very low end of the price
spectrum and so they drive the price competition downward but they succeed in
it they are able to run so efficiently and effectively that they can work on
very low margins most people can't most people don't write in such a tight
ship and therefore they lose money so they can't compete with that and then at
the very high end of the spectrum you have hotels like the four seasons or
Tiffany's for jewelry and they tend to do well almost irrespective of the
market condition they may do better in a boom market and do worse in a recession
but they continue to do well they don't drop the price of the diamond from
$100,000 to $50,000 to clear it they have a brand and a
reputation to protect and there's still people with money that want to spend it
we're the biggest competition gets hurt is when you're in the middle of the pack
you never want to be in the middle of the pack in my opinion you want to
differentiate yourself as much as possible so that you either price higher
or you want to have such a clean operation that you can price lower and
make money but if you're in that middle of the pack which most people are that's
why it's the middle of the pack that's where you have the biggest price
competition and it has to be apples to apples so you have to take a look at
what a one-bedroom in your community goes for or a two-bedroom whatever
applies to you and let's just pick an easy number $100 as more competition
comes in somebody will be listing new they'll give that 20% off that Airbnb
recommends or they'll price low which is a strategy that I recommend and they'll
drop the price to 99 and somebody else will come in at 98 97 now if you're
still at a hundred and you're not offering anything spectacular you may
have fewer bookings initially remember that this is a two-way street supply and
demand the one thing we're talking about is supply of inventory on Airbnb there's
more supply of inventory coming on Airbnb that's driving pricing pressure
down but don't forget we talked about market cycles ups and downs peaks and
troughs so there may be more supply coming on the market now but that's
being met with more demand more people are enjoying the Airbnb stay and the
lifestyle and the ability to travel with family and have two bedrooms connected
or a kitchen or whatever so while there might be more supply today that's likely
to get absorbed by more demand especially as the lower prices intrigue
people to stay in an Airbnb that wouldn't otherwise do it and then if
they get great hosting which is the purpose of this channel they're likely
to do it again and again and again and in fact they may only travel on Airbnb
on a go-forward basis so I just want you to realize that whatever pain or worry
or anxiety you're feeling right now is likely going to pass I'm not saying it's
going to get better a hundred percent I'm saying it's likely to get better and
what I'm urging you to do is to figure out what you can do better so that you
don't face seeing price resistance and that you can
offer more services so what can you do first again you have to understand who
it is that you're trying to attract and I'm just gonna try and give an example
that people can apply let's say that you're trying to attract golfers and I
don't know a lot about golf if you read my emails you know that I'm
just starting the game Charles and I are gonna play I'm excited about that but
let's just say that you're trying to attract golfers and you're not on the
fairway the guy who is on the fairway always
gets booked first he's been lowering his prices a little bit you're not getting
quite as many bookings and you're feeling the pressure to decrease your
price now it's really hard to compete with somebody's on the fairway but he
may not care as much as you he may not have the right creativity or ideas as
you do and he may not have the same personality so try and think about
things that you can do to encourage golfers in your description in your
photos you can offer I don't know on the Xbox the golf game you can have the
little putt in a cup like my boss used to have in his office you can photograph
that or say it's available you can have a scoreboard or PGA Live if there's a
television channel that has the Golf Channel whatever it is just know who
you're trying to attract know why they're coming and then do everything in
your power to make that experience like real and something that they welcome and
they want and they may start to choose you over the fairway the fairway guy may
be managed by a property get four star reviews and they don't really care and
the cleanliness isn't there and it's just sort of generic I know firsthand
when I say in Airbnb I can tell very quickly about a host that really cares
versus one that's just you know on autopilot it doesn't really matter to
them so much so be the guy that it really cares because you'll get more
bookings and more five-star reviews and more commentary that people trust about
the quality of the experience and that'll help you increase your prices in
the face of more competition a lot of the things that we're talking about on
this channel are really applicable so make sure your photos are up to date
make sure that your title in your description your listing and use
keywords and put yourself in the people's shoes that are visiting you
what can they walk to what can they do who stays with you who's it best used by
and then Charles did a video not too long
know that I thought was really helpful I suggested that he changes photos from a
dull gray winter scene to a beautiful summer scene as we went into summer and
he did and I think that that was really successful so we have to constantly be
looking at our listings refresh change take new angles take new photos add new
flowers do whatever it is to get more attention because the rest of the pack
that's in the middle of the pack they're doing nothing
they're just complaining they're sitting back there saying oh this isn't quite as
good as it used to be I don't know why and they're thinking about quitting now
when they quit that helps the bloom in the bust cycle again then all of a
sudden there's less supply and the same amount of demand which drives prices
back up so I want you to persevere I want you to work on your property and
get as much money as you can right now but recognize that some people will drop
out other people will come in but it's just a standard boom and bust cycle so
those are my thoughts again it's a point in time I'd love to hear your thoughts
and from those of you that have faced competition what have you done
how have you increased your revenue have you maintained your revenue what are
your thoughts what are you seeing what are you thinking I really love the
comments below because we can all read them and we all benefit as a community
so please go ahead and share with us I'd also love it and really appreciate a
like and to subscribe hope you're well have a great day Charles and I have a
lot to do and we're gonna go golfing too