You have taken all the necessary steps to create a clean, bright, functional space, beautifully furnished with stylish details, that will leave every guest completely satisfied.
Your booking schedule is quite full, but you have identified some gaps that detract from the overall impression of your property’s occupancy. What actions can you take?
What are Gap Nights?
Gap nights are the periods (days/nights) between two bookings during which the property remains vacant. For example, if your property has a check-out on Tuesday and the next check-in is scheduled for Saturday, the gap nights would be Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This, of course, results in lost revenue for those specific days.
The Importance of Gap Nights
You should not make the mistake of ignoring or overlooking gap nights. These periods can be extremely beneficial, even if it may not seem so at first glance.
Every additional booking, even if it involves just one or two nights, contributes to increasing your property’s revenue. Similarly, each gap night represents lost income. As you can understand, filling Airbnb gap nights is a crucial aspect of maximising your property’s occupancy.
Ways to Manage Gap Nights and Strategies to Fill Them
Many guests travel for business purposes, such as a two-day seminar or training taking place away from their workplace. Other guests may wish to attend a festival. These are the main types of visitors who can take advantage of your property’s gap nights, and whom you can target as a group to fill these vacancies.
If your gap nights coincide with a seminar or event happening in your city, this can work to your immediate advantage. You can look for artistic events and seminars typically held in hotels in your area and create special Airbnb offers for those days.
One measure you can take to minimise gap nights is to adjust your booking terms for your property. For instance, you could reduce the minimum number of nights from three to two or even one, allowing more travellers to choose your accommodation for a stopover in your city.
Another way to minimise your property’s gap nights is to offer discounts for these nights, providing guests who check out and leave a gap with an enticing price for those vacant days.
For example, if your nightly rate is €100, you could offer the gap nights at a lower price, encouraging guests to extend their stay at your property. This means you have filled part or all of that specific period of your gap nights, earning money that you would have lost had you not reduced your price for those days.
Another attractive approach to draw guests to your property is to set up a last-minute Airbnb offer for the gap nights. Just think of how many times during the day we are tempted to check a social media post about last-minute deals or “limited stock” offers (if it’s a product) or “for a limited number of places” (if it’s a service, like ticket prices). There’s always an enticing appeal to secure something that’s part of a limited-time offer.
If, however, you do not wish to lower your price, you could choose to upgrade your services at a special rate for those specific days. Your goal is to fill the gap nights and satisfy your guests, and as we all know, no one can resist a better price, a deal, or an upgrade of services they desire at a reasonable price.
How to Attract Interest in Your Property’s Gap Nights
If you are looking for ways to pique visitors’ interest in the gaps between your bookings, you can check the platforms where your bookings take place to see if there is a clear display of gap nights. Many platforms allow you to showcase gap nights in a way that attracts potential guests.
Additionally, using various tools, platforms provide the option to vary the nightly rate based on factors such as overall demand in the area. You can opt for dynamic pricing instead of setting a fixed rate for the entire period.
Similarly, there are messaging tools available that allow you to offer guests the option of early check-in, which will be greatly appreciated when they arrive in the early hours and need to wander around with their luggage until your designated check-in time.
The same applies to late check-out. Your guests can receive a message extending their stay if you have a gap night, with the option to confirm through that service, automatically and effortlessly.
In conclusion, whichever method you choose to reduce or minimise gap nights, you are sure to gain unexpected profits while optimising the short-term letting experience for your guests.
By choosing Sparrow for managing your property, you can rest assured that with the right tools and by adjusting the booking policies set by each short-term rental platform, your property will achieve maximum occupancy.