Verifying Your Pricelab Setup: Minimum Stay Settings

Hey all, the next step in verifying the correctness of your Pricelab setup is to check your minimum stay settings. We often see some common mistakes made by users. Many times their minimum stay is not in line with the market. What this means is that the minimum stay is either too high or too low compared to what the market expects. There may also be conflicting minimum stay settings, which can create unbookable gaps. Furthermore, many people don't set a minimum stay at all, which can be detrimental as minimum stays are an effective way to optimize your revenue.

If you wish to understand more about this, we recommend visiting our Quick Start series where we discuss the importance of minimum stays and how they can be used to optimize your revenue.

Determining Market Alignment and Unbookable Gaps

Now, let's discuss the first two points. How can you determine if your minimum stay is misaligned with the market? And are you creating unbookable gaps on your calendar?

Step 1: Check Neighborhood Data

1. Go to your Pricelabs account.

2. Navigate to the neighborhood data section.

3. Scroll down to see the average length of stay for your market.

4. Click on the average length of stay to view the average minimum length of stay for your market on a month-by-month basis.

For example, in New Orleans, the average length of stay is about three nights throughout the year. However, in a ski market or a very seasonal market, this could vary significantly. If the average length of stay in your market is three nights and you have a five or seven-night minimum stay set up for your listing, you may be missing out on potential bookings due to this restriction. Ensure that your minimum stay settings are in line with the market.

Step 2: Adjust Minimum Stay Settings

1. Go to Edit, then navigate to the main stay settings.

2. Click on "Help me choose a minimum stay."

3. Pricelabs will analyze the data for all the listings in your market and suggest a strategy for the best minimum stay settings for your listing.

4. Consider the recommendations, such as a default two-night minimum stay and a three-night minimum stay for weekends. Also, consider lowering your minimum stay to one or two nights for last-minute bookings.

5. For bookings made more than 90 nights in advance, a three-night minimum stay for both weekdays and weekends is suggested.

More often than not, it's best to follow Pricelabs recommendations. If you're not comfortable with one-night stays, you can click on "Apply and customize" and adjust any part you're not comfortable with while keeping the rest.

Orphan Gaps: Optimizing Your Calendar

Let's now discuss Orphan Gaps, a powerful tool for optimizing your calendar for bookings. An Orphan Gap is a gap night or nights between two bookings. To avoid creating unbookable nights on your calendar, ensure your settings for Orphan Gaps are appropriate.

Example: Avoiding Conflicting Settings

1. Click Edit and go to your minimum stay settings.

2. Set your far-out minimum stay to be five nights for bookings three months in advance.

3. Set the Orphan Gap setting as the length of the gap between one and two nights.

4. For a one-night gap, the minimum stay should be one night, and for a two-night gap, it should be two nights.

However, this is a very good example of conflicting settings. If you receive two bookings for five nights, three months in advance, with a three-night gap between them, your gap setting does not account for these three-night gaps. It only accounts for one- and two-night gaps. Therefore, if a three-night gap comes 90 days in advance, it will essentially become unbookable, because your minimum stay rule does not apply to that gap. We want to avoid creating unbookable gaps in our listings, as this may result in missed potential bookings.

The best way to check for unbookable gaps in your calendar is to scroll up and look for a red symbol that says UNBOOKABLE. If you see this symbol on any of the dates in your calendar, it means there are conflicting settings that prevent these dates from being booked. Please ensure you have as few unbookable gaps in your calendar as possible.

That's all about minimum stay mistakes for now. See you in the next one!