** Booking / Airbnb cancellations how to avoid this? **
Following a question from Mélanie, I discuss the subject of cancellations: with the obligation to set less strict cancellation conditions (COVID obliges) you have seen the number of cancellations increase: how can we avoid this?
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Hello and welcome to this new video in which we are going to talk about cancellations, because obviously with covid, we had to make our cancellation conditions more flexible, and in this case, it can have a slightly indirect effect , is that we have more last minute cancellations, and that it is not necessarily easy to manage in order to continue to maximize our performance. If this topic interests you, you are in the right video. Stay with me, we'll talk about this. And in fact, this subject came to the table following a message sent to me by Mélanie, who has several properties. I have his email here, I'll share it with you in two seconds. So, if you have questions like that, don't hesitate to send them to me, either by email or directly in comments under the videos. It will always be a great pleasure to answer your questions. What I'm also going to share with you today is not to forget to download the free guide by subscribing to the private Facebook group seasonal rental prices and maximizing turnover. You have the link just below. If you sign up for this group, you will receive the guide to the six mistakes not to make for your seasonal rental. So, go ahead, feel free to click just below. Now there is almost no room to register, but there is also our webinar tomorrow evening which will take place; a webinar in which I share with you our best methods to double your profitability. There are already a lot of people at this webinar. Check it out, see if you can still sign up when you click. It's going to be tomorrow night, it's going to be super fun. I love these kinds of moments where we get together, and I share our best methods with you, so it's really a must. Don't hesitate to click, and see if you can still register.
So today, we're talking about the message that was sent to me by Mélanie. Mélanie says to me: “Hi Élise. First of all, thank you for your generosity…” Thank you very much, Mélanie. It's always great to read this kind of feedback. “…I set up a partial rental of the accommodation, and it worked. » A little aside, because I know what you're talking about, because I know that you mentioned it in one of the Lives. I had shared, at one point, the fact that on your pricing, especially if you have large properties, rather than pricing a property for the entire property on the number of people, it may be interesting to make a price from a lower number of people. I'll give you a concrete example. If you have a property for six, it may be interesting to price for four, for five, and for six. This will help you, especially during periods of low demand, to increase your performance and your turnover. So that's what you're sharing. You set up partial rental of the accommodation, and it worked. I know that live, you told me that it allowed you to make sales that you wouldn't have made otherwise. So that's cool. Congratulations to you. Well done for taking action, for putting it in place, because well, we watch videos we get information, but what really pays off is taking action, and you prove it with your message. So, it's great. And you tell me: “On booking, I modified the strict cancellation conditions. » So, I understand that you have put more moderate, even flexible, cancellation conditions, and you tell me: “I have implemented a 10% reduction for early reservations…” So, those which are made at more than 30 days. “…And you know what? For the first time in two years, I finally have reservations on booking. I didn't understand, it worked great for everyone, on booking, and not for me. I'm very happy, it's a good start. » Honestly, bravo to you. It's really great. Your email is really a good example, and it's quite inspiring, I think, for everyone, to see that in fact, when we take ideas one by one, and we put them in place, that paid. That's what's cool.
The next point, and this is where the problem lies, you tell me: “However, I also have cancellations…” And yes! When we make our cancellation policies more flexible, we may end up with more cancellations, it's true. “…So, my question is: how to manage booking cancellations? Should we have promotions on these dates?..." And there, you explain why you are asking this question. It is: “…I think that a customer who visited my offer two weeks ago, and who saw the unavailability of my accommodation, will not return there, and will not see the new availability. How to do it? » I will deal with this very last point, and then I will return to the overall question. Yes, a customer who visited the offer two weeks ago is not going to come back for the simple reason that he has probably already made his decision, he has already booked with a colleague, and he will not come back, that , it's clear. But in this context, I would say that ultimately, that's not really the problem.
How do I deal with this subject of cancellations? What ideas and recommendations can I give you to move forward on this subject? It is certain that when we make our cancellation conditions more flexible, we undeniably take the risk of having more cancellations. That’s clear. Now, the cancellation itself is not a problem. It can be striking when we say this: “Yes, it’s a problem, all the same, Élise. Why are you telling us this? » Well in reality, cancellation is not a problem, if subsequently, on the date that was canceled, we manage to find a reservation for this period without too much hassle. In this case, I think you will agree with me that ultimately, there are cancellations, but we have resold, so that does not pose a problem. So where we really have a problem is when we have cancellations, and in the end, we realize that during this period which was canceled, we remain empty, we are unable to re-let through following. So I'm going to focus on these cases. These are the ones that pose a problem, these are the ones about which we can, in fact, ask questions, and tell ourselves how to avoid this.
There are two different cases. The first case: we remain empty during a period which was a period of high demand, a holiday period, etc. It depends on where you are, and your city. In any case, a period of high demand, scenario one, or if it concerns a period of low demand, scenario two. We'll start with scenario one. In the event that we have cancellations, and we cannot find a reservation to fill the nights concerned, if we are in a period of high demand, there are several things. We must first tell ourselves that when we have a cancellation, we must still ensure that our pricing and all our optimization levers are correct. By optimization lever, I mean pricing, and the minimum length of stay that is required. So, if you see that this type of situation often happens to you, if we are in a period of high demand, normally, there is demand. So what does that mean? This means that probably, in fact, it may be your basic settings that are not good. It may be that prices are no longer in line with the market that week. It may have remained more expensive than everyone else, and everyone lowered their prices, for example. Or the conditions you request. For example, the minimum lengths of stay that you require, they are difficult to find in a relatively short time. So, in these cases, if you know that it is a recurring pattern, that when you have a cancellation over this type of period, you are not able to re-let afterwards, for me, the number one key , is to question the configuration itself, even before asking the question that Mélanie rightly asked, to say: “Should I put on a promo? How can I boost myself? » So point number one, ensure that our levers, our pricing and our required minimum length of stay are truly consistent, in line with the market, and also realistic with the time we have left to book. That's the first thing.
The second thing is that if your prices were consistent, if everything was well configured, but in the end, you still remain empty, that means that potentially, in fact, we will perhaps say to ourselves: “ I had made my cancellation conditions more flexible, but in fact, I risk too much making them so flexible, because I frequently have cancellations that I am unable to resell later, nights that I do not unable to resell afterwards. And yet, my prices are good, the length of stay is consistent. » So, in these cases, we may have to give up this flexibility on the cancellation conditions, and say that for example, instead of being cancelable and refundable up to one day before arrival of the traveler, it must be cancelable and refundable 5 days before the traveler's arrival. It's always a balance in fact between "what do I gain in terms of additional reservations by being flexible, am I going to attract travelers more", with conversely "what I gain a loss of income because my cancellation conditions no longer protect me? ". It is the balance between “I am commercially attractive”, and at the same time “I protect myself against a shortfall”. Here are two scenarios: either review your pricing strategy and your length of stay, or say to yourself that it is perhaps your cancellation conditions that you need to review, because you are too flexible, and you cannot allow it. There, you will notice that in fact, I am not taking up Mélanie's idea of saying: “I am going to give a promotion. » Why don't I take up this idea again? Because in fact, if we are in a period of high demand, I remind you, we are in a scenario where we have a lot of demand; Normally, there is no need to go on promotions during a period of high demand. So, in my opinion, point number one already solves the problem. So, for me, promotion is not necessarily the lever that we are going to use, to slash prices at the last minute. If we have demand, there is no reason why it should not come if our prices are correct, and we are not too greedy when it comes to minimum stay lengths.
Afterwards, there is a third solution, but in general when I talk about it in seasonal rental, everyone gets angry, protests, and says to me: “But it's not possible, it's anything. » I like to talk about it at the limit to make the exchanges a little spicy: it's overbooking. In fact, overbooking is a lever that is used a lot in the hotel industry, which allows, when we know that we are going to have a certain number of cancellations, to go, in anticipation, to compensate for these cancellations that we have. ready to have. The final objective is obviously to finish 100%. It is true that it is a lever that you can use, but in very specific situations. You must already be sure that you always usually have a certain cancellation volume. You also have to have a certain number of assets for it to make sense. On a property, it is still more complicated to do. So, there you have it, this is something I'm talking to you about anecdotally, but which is only reserved for a small scope of seasonal rentals. We have to do the research into the figures, upstream, to ensure that we are in a situation where it makes sense and that it is not risky to overbook. So. So this is a bit of a professional tool which is relevant, but which must be used and handled with expertise. We're going to say that's it. So there, we talked about: what happens when we are in periods of high demand?
Now, if we have this scenario over a period of low demand, that's different. In fact, if we have cancellations that we cannot rebook while we are in a period of low demand, it can be much more frequent, and this is not necessarily linked to the fact that our prices are not are not the right ones, or our optimization levers are not sufficiently adjusted. It may simply be linked to the fact that there is no demand, since as its name suggests, we are in a period of low demand. So, in these circumstances, in fact, we go directly to this arbitration which is to say to ourselves: what am I losing? What do I gain? The disadvantage is that when there are not many requests, display something which is more commercially attractive, which will give more confidence to our traveler, by which I mean flexible cancellation conditions , this will allow you to capture additional reservations. And in times of low demand, we don't have a lot of reservations, so we're happy to have them, these extra reservations. So, it’s still an important point. Arbitration is not easy. In my opinion, you really have to do the math, to see if you have the reason to say to yourself: “The month of January is a weaker month. When I was under strict cancellation conditions, I managed to fill 50% of the month of January. This year, I am switching to flexible cancellation conditions in January. » Depending on the number of additional nights that we sold, it is a trade-off to say to ourselves: “I sold ten additional nights, and in the end, there were four that were canceled, and that I failed to resell. How much is it worth? What am I losing? What do I gain? » With numbers, the question is often quickly answered. I think you know this phrase. When we see the figures, immediately there is no debate, the case is closed, we all know what decisions to take. I think it's the best thing to see where you make the most money in both scenarios.
Regardless, there is one point that is still important, and that is that a cancellation hurts. A cancellation, obviously, we are biased because it upsets us, it makes us a little anxious, it's a little stressful. We say to ourselves: “Am I going to be able to rent again? » So, there may be a slightly inflated, slightly extrapolated feeling of negativity about cancellations, whereas when we do the calculation, ultimately, the number of cancellations is not that excessive. So, to finish this video, I would just like to remind you of an important point: you need to have the numbers in front of you to make decisions. Sometimes we say to ourselves: “I have real cancellation problems”, and then when we do the calculations, we have had three canceled stays out of the last six. It's not so bad if you have a relatively limited number of cancellations. And if some of these cancellations manage to be re-let, in the end, that means that it is probably not necessarily necessary to shake up all of your settings, and to give up, precisely, this attractiveness that represents flexible cancellation conditions today, even more so, because today, we are making this video together, we are in the middle of covid, currently, it is essential for travelers to be secure on the fact that reservations will be cancelable and refundable.
So. I hope that this video on how to avoid cancellations will have interested you, and will have helped you, too, obviously. If you have topics that are blocking you at the moment, or that are thorns in your side, that are preventing you from sleeping, do not hesitate to write them to me in the comments. I take note of your ideas, your requests for topics in the videos. This will feed into my schedule of upcoming videos to provide you with the answers and help you. So. I wish you a great day, obviously, and I'll see you tomorrow for the next video of the week. Take care of yourself.