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Starting is not a formality
My plan was simple: good location, sensible equipment, attractive price, and automate everything possible. The money was supposed to flow into the account on its own, and I was supposed to move on to the next project.
This way of thinking is very tempting because it gives a sense of control. In reality, it's the opposite. At the start, you don't have data, experience, or intuition based on facts yet — you only have ideas and an Excel that assumes the world will behave rationally.
The first month quickly verified this approach.
Booking platforms promote new listings, so at the beginning everything looks like success: thousands of views, quick inquiries, and first reservations coming in almost immediately. Psychologically, this is very treacherous because it gives a simple signal: "it works."
I lowered the price to fight for the first guests — exactly as most guides and friends advise. The price was supposed to be just for the start. The problem was that price is not just an incentive. Price is a filter. And I simply turned off that filter at the beginning.
The effect was predictable: the calendar filled up with cheap weekends, weekdays remained empty, and single-night stays started blocking sensible bookings. Instead of flexibility, chaos appeared, and instead of control — constant calendar checking and a feeling that this model is not optimal.
The worst part was that each of these decisions "stayed" in the calendar for many weeks. A poorly sold date is like a poorly signed contract — you can't undo it, you can only wait it out.
First cancellations and the feeling that the system is against you
The first cancellation always seems more important than it really is. Not because it causes a real loss, but because it appears before you have a reference point.
Only when I looked at the data from a year's perspective did I understand that cancellations are simply a permanent element of this market. In my case, about 22-23% of all reservations were cancelled within twelve months, which means that on average every fifth reservation doesn't happen — regardless of the offer quality or the guest's intentions.
Importantly, these cancellations are not evenly distributed. They most often concern reservations made well in advance — more than 30, 60, or 90 days before arrival. Last-minute reservations practically never cancel — they are almost entirely fulfilled.
From conversations with other hosts, I now know that this stage looks very similar for almost everyone. The details differ, but the mechanism is the same.
This was a breakthrough moment for me. I understood that the first cancellation says nothing about offer quality. It says a lot about how easy it is at the start to draw wrong conclusions and start reacting instead of observing.
The problem is not the cancellation itself, but the reaction to it. Many hosts — myself included at the beginning — try to "fix something" then: change prices, tighten rules, turn off Instant Book. The data clearly shows, however, that cancellations are built into the model, and nervous calendar corrections usually only make the situation worse.
Start is the stage with the highest cost of mistakes
The start is the most expensive moment for improvisation. Every decision costs more than later because you don't have momentum, buffer, or distance yet.
Only after some time did I see that the start is not for earning. It's for setting up foundations: stay rules, calendar structure, and ways of responding to events.
The most important lesson from this stage was simple, though painful:
"The business starts before publishing the listing, not after.
If I could go back to the start today, I wouldn't lower the price just to "check if someone will come." I would focus on making the calendar logical and decisions calm and consistent.
Short-term rental is not a sprint for the first reservations. It's a marathon where the first kilometers determine whether you'll finish without injury — because every hasty decision stays in the calendar for weeks.
WORTH REMEMBERING:
- The most common mistake: emotional reaction to the first market signals.
- One sentence to remember: at the start, you don't optimize profit, you optimize decision stability.
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