Are you renting your apartment on Airbnb and hoping to get the highest profit possible? If yes, this article will be of interest to you as we will point out simple yet effective ways to increase your apartment’s rentability. The first good news is that Airbnb is probably the right place to list your holiday rental as it splits its commission between the guests and the hosts that only pay a 3% on the total price of the booking.
Maximise your Airbnb profits for your Barcelona rental right now following these 4 steps.
Fully booked calendar vs. efficiently booked calendar
The first mistake is to aim for a fully booked calendar for the next three or four months. If your calendar is already booked for months to come then that is a sign that your selling prices are not high enough.
The math is simple it is better to be 80% booked at €140 a night than to be 100% booked at €100 a night:
| Occupancy | Price per night | Result per month |
| 80% | €140 | €3,360 |
| 100% | €100 | €3,000 |
This means that it is alright to have a calendar that is not 100% booked as long as the prices per night are right. And it is even better if you consider the cleaning and laundry cost that will decrease with a smaller amount of check-ins.
Moreover, the way guests use Airbnb shows that the majority of bookings are not made until at least 35 days before their arrival. A piece of simple advice could be to have higher prices for the months to come and to lower them as time passes by.
Minimum stays
The overall cost of a guest staying in one of your holiday rentals will always be the same, regardless of how long they stay in your apartment. For example, a family staying for one night will cost you the same in amenities, cleaning, laundry, and time to do the check-in and check-out than a family staying for a week.
By implementing a minimum stay for your holiday rental, you will reduce your costs and increase your overall profit. Of course, it doesn’t make much sense to have the same requirements in terms of minimum stay all year around. This, just like the prices, will have to be adapted to seasonality.
Keep an eye on special events
All major cities have special events that will drive the prices up for certain periods. Whether it is the Fashion Week in Paris or the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, these events will create peaks of demand that need to be translated into higher renting prices to make the most out of it.
Keep in mind to also adjust minimum stays for those periods. As they are likely to be the most expensive of the year, you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity by having gaps in your calendar. Implement a minimum stay that lasts during the whole event to make sure that every single night is sold.
Remember that it is not all about the price
If you want to make sure that your revenues on Airbnb increase, you have to remember that it is not all about revenue management. What makes the guest choose between an apartment and another are the prices as well as the reviews. If you want to be able to sell your apartment for the best possible price, you have to make sure that you have the best possible reviews.
Having the Airbnb Superhost status, or being part of the Airbnb Plus program is helping a lot to establish credibility and give the guarantee of good service. Thus, Airbnbs’ users will be more willing to spend that extra cash to rent an apartment with a 5 stars rating rather than one collecting complaints in the review section.
Just like in any other service, one must not forget that the selling price will set the expectations. The more expensive a service is, the more the customer will expect from it in terms of quality. Having that in mind, if you want to maximize your profit you must make sure that you also offer the best service you can.
