This is not the question you should ask CapeHolidays. We suggest you read what our guests and owner have to say about us.

1. See what our Airbnb guest said about our Cape Town Accommodation here.
2. We are SuperHosts because we do well. See the criteria for SuperHosts here. See the above link to see our SuperHost badge.
3. We are not driven to be the biggest or largest Accommodation Agency in Cape Town. Our only drive is to be the best. This mindset is critical for our peace of mind and our homeowners and 1000s of guests.
4. Why would more than 50 owners in and around Cape Town allow us to manage their accommodation? We must be doing something right. 
5. Why would we be in this business from 2009 if we were to not trustworthy?
6. Why would owners recommend us if we were not remarkable? See this redacted email we received from an owner wanting an Airbnb accommodation agent in Simonstown.

When you list your home it has  ZERO trustability ; no reviews and no bookings. 

But, when we list your home, under our Flag – CapeHolidays, your home is seen as a SuperHost home immediately. Our GOODWILL becomes yours.

To be SuperHosts:

We must maintain a 4.8 star rating with positive reviews (more on criteria).  Something we have achieved:

As you can see we score 4.9 out 5 for every of the nearly 600 guests who reviewed us. Designed for success from 2009. 

For this reason, we are SuperHosts and very proud of it (see our profile at Airbnb). 

Obviously, we can, with confidence, say we are a successful professional Airbnb Agency in Cape Town.

Because of this Badge of Trust, we share it with owners who are willing to work with us and have remarkable accommodation. 

Unfortunately, choosing remarkability is not that easy. Why? Because the final judge is the very critical guest who paid to stay and have earned the right to review your home.

These guests come with high expectations. If your home fails at the first booking it will be uphill to recover. 

When we choose, the owner and/or the home, incorrectly we could lose our SuperHost status. Therefore, we must be supercritical before a holiday home is added to our portfolio.

Guests who book and see our SuperHost badge know:

1. Superhosts are experienced hosts who provide a shining example for other hosts, and extraordinary experiences for their guests.
2. When we reached Superhost status, a SuperHost badge automatically appears on our listing and profile to help guests identify us.
3. Airbnb checks Superhosts’ activity four times a year, to ensure that the program highlights the people who are most dedicated to providing outstanding hospitality.

In other words, SuperHosts attract more business because of established trust. This overcomes the lack of trust you have when you list your home from ground-zero. It takes time and lower rates to attract guests when you are new and competing with the masses out there.

I have said it:

We choose our owners and homes very carefully. 

We are a team working together and the sky’s the limit. And there is nothing like reading reviews from happy guests. Wait. You’ll see. It’s fun to bank good money while everyone is happy!

Read more on criteria to become SuperHosts.

The short answer: NO!

This is a common concern for new owners. As we implement our trust-building phase we use competitive rates to attract reluctant guests to stay and get reviews at the new accommodation. 

The Consequences of AirBnB’s Commoditization On Rates

It’s only after new owners become familiar with the painful reality and impact of AirBnB’s commoditization of the short term accommodation market, that they change their mind about our rate setting philosophy. 

After this introduction let me address the concern about low rates equaling bad guests. 

When we talk about low rates to buy trust we are talking about competitive rates only and not Rock-bottom rates. 

As you know, we don’t have the accommodation seeker’s trust yet, and we must use our only effective driver, namely rates, to overcome resistance to book. 

The guests who book initially are the same guest who may pay premium rate tomorrow. But with no reviews (trust) forget it. 

Only a remarkable holiday home at a bargain will do. 

In the market we operate, guests are not poor. 

Let me make a statement based on experience. 

Even if the rates are competitive you still get great guests. 

Now let me share why I say this:

The real risk is not bad guests but rather uneducated guests. With today’s social media profiles guests cannot hide any longer. 

And Forbes did a great job of explaining why guests’ requests to stay are sometimes declined more here.

We started our business in 2009. This was before social media. And many people left homes untidy as there was no recourse. Even owners got away with shoddy offerings. 

Today Your Social Profile Is A Valuable Asset. 

When a guest book and stay they review us. And these positive reviews made us SuperHosts. Trust! As guests depart we review them. And they establish trusting profile overtime. Today we all know the consequences of a bad review for both parties. 

Let me repeat: Even if the rate is competitive no guests will risk getting a bad review knowing other hosts will not approve them with a  bad previous review. 

The only risk for us is first time users on Airbnb. Unfortunately, they are not familiar with the implications of getting a bad review and how it impacts their future ability to use Airbnb. And some of them, ignorantly, will not leave the property in the same clean state they received it. 

When they get hit with a bad review they never again treat any Airbnb place poorly. And if they do they get blocked. 

Our challenge is to make it as difficult for new guests to book without first qualifying (See Forbes article above) them and then we educate them on what we expect. 

To answer the question: No. Competitive rates are not the cause of bad guests. Bad guests are mostly new guests unfamiliar with their responsibility.

Many owners want CapeHolidays to manage their accommodation in Cape Town, Simonstown etc, list it with Airbnb and other; the problem is they may wonder if their home will make the grade. Some owners may have an inflated perception of value and expect the ultimate; obviously, when our knowledge of the market does not meet the owner’s expectations we sit with unnecessary conflict. It’s therefore not only the accommodation but includes qualifying the owner.

1. You can do our free qualifying quiz (here) on your own and get an instant report today.
2. You send us the best photos of your place. It can be cellphone photos. But it must show everything; the good and the not so good. As long as it’s everything.
3. Our interest is in remarkable accommodation. Guests must be able to see classiness when they view your staged and professional photos. See FAQs for photos and staging.
4. Old poorly maintained homes will not make it. Note: Guests are seriously critical.
5. Remarkable accommodation with great entertainment, pool, beach location, romantic setting, etc, quality easier because guests pay a premium to stay in a house with a pool.
6. The owner must qualify as well. We establish this by meeting with the owner and understanding her expectations. What incomes she expects against how flexible her rules are and if it is reasonable.

Read more here on how Agency.CapeHolidays.info does business getting 4.9 out of 5-star reviews every time.

Instant Booking is one of the features hosts don’t really have an option with. Airbnb gives you another option where guests can first discuss a booking. But still, you cannot decline if you don’t have a very good reason. And guests don’t like being rejected when your calendar shows availability. And if we cancel the hosts will never keep their status as a SuperHost (see more). 

Let’s get to the details:

• Instant booking means we must ensure 100% integrity of the calendar.
• Any verified guest can reserve the accommodation immediately if the calendar shows availability. 
• Any guest who instantly reserves do this by accepting our rules we set with the owner and the rules (T&Cs) by the booking sites like; Airbnb and Booking.com. 
• All reservations must be accepted by the owner as he appointed us to do it per our T&Cs.
• CapeHolidays don’t check availability with the owner before a guest do an instant reservation. 
• But what about owner reservations? The owner agreed to first check availability with the agent at all times and only then reserve the accommodation for his own use.  
• Owners cancelling guest reservations: cancellations carry no owner penalties only if the cause is a major disaster or something out of reasonable control. 
• Owners ending/cancelling the agreement do it in writing. All current/confirmed reservations are honoured. Any owner not communicating the cancellation of the agreement will honour future bookings. If these are not communicated and/or honoured the owner is liable for penalties. 
• All websites like Airbnb and Booking.com do instant bookings. This increases the chances of getting reservations. Read about Airbnb Instant Book here. 

What the above means is that everything works extremely well if the agent can ensure 100% calendar integrity. As agents or hosts, we cannot do our business best without instant booking. 

Great question.

If You Can Do It! Do It!

The Question is Can You? Or  Do You Want To?  

If you can list your accommodation on Airbnb and manage it yourself then it’s best you do it yourself because;

1. Your Airbnb management costs (change over cost) should be less as you will not have to pay to use our professional SuperHost Cape Town Airbnb management services.
2. You will have to perform at least 20% better the Cape Town average occupancy.
3. You may have a lot of free time and this can be an adventurous challenge to try out.
4. You may prefer to control who has access to your home as many homeowners don’t like being told by an agency how it should be done.

On the other hand an Airbnb Agent in Cape Town like Agency.Capeholidays may assist you better if the following are important?

1. From day one your home – if qualified – is in the hands of a trusted Cape Town SuperHost (read more here) with nearly 1000 5 star reviews.
2. I said, above, we at least get 20% more than the Cape Town norm. If it’s an extraordinary excellent home it may even do better. Have a look at Mbali at 87% occupancy where the norm is 34% by other hosts, Mbali was 40% when we took it over from another agency and then 27 days booked for December. Obviously I choose one of the best homes to share with you. 
3. Yes, the change over costs will be higher but your home is in the hands of professional Airbnb agents or Airbnb SuperHosts.
4. Flexibility, liaison and personal availability 24/7; you will not have to worry about going away and being online all day long answering guests, liaising with guests or handling critical guests.

After all that is said and done; we believe it’s better for a Cape Town homeowner to try to become a SuperHost if they believe they have the time and attitude. If not, they may always feel a bit of resentment and that will not be ideal for our Agent & Owner relationship. We have been there. It’s not ideal. But when we have mutual trust we make a winning team.  

Let me qualify: When is the best time for an owner to stay  at their property if they want to maximise income? 

Obviously, if you are not interested in a high return then it does not matter when you stay.

Let me pack it out for you:

•  About 25-30% of your income will be generated between 15 December and 5 January. This is peak time. And people pay a massive premium for our remarkable Cape Town accommodation. It is therefore ideal if you do not to stay between these dates.
•  The most popular date is 31 December.  Most peak time reservations include 31 December. Let’s say you stay over Christmas but depart on the 27 December then you can still get peak rates over 31 December. However, if you stay over 31 December but not over Christmas – forget it. People are reluctant to stay over Christmas for long and are not really willing to pay a massive premium. 
• Winter is nearly dead. If you do it well you may get some income at 30% peak. If you are willing to do winter then it’s the best. But winter is winter. (May to end August).
• September to 15 December improves. The weather is better. But no fireworks. And ideal if you can stay over this period.
• January is better than the other pre-peak summer months. If you want to stay then try and stay after 5 January.
•  February is after peak the most popular.  The rates are not peak but occupancy is very high; higher than December January. 
• March and April are again slower and not a bad time to come and enjoy your home.

How to set prices on Airbnb?

Let’s start with what is maximise income?”

Maximising income is quite simple if you follow a strategy that works. This means you should focus on occupancy and not setting high rates, and on getting more reviews (trust) and  eliminating all resistance to book . Read the FAQ (1) where I discuss high rates and time-to-action (demand).

To set prices on Airbnb it depends on the number of reviews we have and the established demand.

Assuming we list a new property with no reviews and the owner wants to maximise income annually; we go through the following with the owner:

1. After we have qualified the accommodation as being remarkable we discuss the owner’s income expectations.
2. It’s critical to know what annual income the owner expects (Read more here on why we  must  know this). 
3. We use the owner’s annual income, plug it into our income calculator and see what seasonal Airbnb rates and occupancy are required to achieve it. We start off using 35% occupancy as a guide and we adjust the rates to try and achieve this owner income.  If we can generate the annual expected income at 35% occupancy  and the rates are very competitive we know we have a great opportunity to meet or exceed the owner income expectations during year one. If during year one, we need 40% occupancy or higher to achieve the owner’s income goal, we know this owner – agent relationship may not last very well. Either the owner should lower her expectations or we would decline.

Airbnb Pricing Strategy Philosophy Part 1 

Airbnb Seasonal Rate Calculator Part 2 

Case Study 1: Airbnb Annual Income Expectations: Simonstown Villa:  

Let’s consider the following email from a new owner with a lovely 4 bedroom accommodation in Simonstown. She would not be able to manage her home or market it. This is what she told me after I asked her for her annual income expectations:

New Owner

The financial data was as follows for the period May 2018 to June 2019 – 12 months. The loft room was booked for 191 nights at an average of 752 rand per night and generated 143697 rands for the year. The garden suite was booked for 181 nights and had an average nightly revenue of 1419 and generated 256921k for the year. Total revenue after booking sites costs was 400618k. New Owner

This is really an achievement. 

Agent CapeHolidays

Interesting. And your logic makes sense. Obviously we need to see the home. And I believe if it gets foolproof remarkable interior with lots of flexibility like 8 single beds (can be made in Kings), for example, then it should exceed our own expectations.

These are the homes we prefer.

Looking at the figures you shared  the owner is doing 50% occupancy  during the year for both properties. Excellent. And a good sign. This means even higher occupancy/rates during summer as winter is relatively dead. The average Airbnb occupancy for this area is much lower. Obviously ours are on average 20% higher and winners a lot higher. But it took about 12 months of building trust with each property to get there.

New Owner

I would consider this a benchmark to use and hopefully surpass as the entire house would now be available at time that we are not there, this obviously also depends on when we plan to use it too.

For now my view is that we should be able to add a further 200k to the value above. To answer your question we would expect to achieve a minimum of what has been achieved historically and add up to 100k on top of this after costs and achieve a gross 550k before your 20% costs. This is a view based on the data we have, I am sure you will have a view, please could you give us your opinion and experience.

Reasonable! Who would argue?

Agent CapeHolidays

Due to various issues (like meeting expectations) we only start off a new home if we can achieve the owner’s goal at 35% occupancy. This does not mean we will not try and beat it. But agreeing to a new house where 50% occupancy is required, to achieve the R550 000 goal, then we may disappoint you before we start. And that’s not fair on you. Agreeing at the  kickoff stage to higher occupancy  than what is our norm will cause pressure to maximising rates rather than  working on getting trust, and adjusting rates to address occupancy based on supply and demand during the first 12 months.[/su_highlight

I must say that I am confident we can achieve 50% and higher occupancy to meet and exceed R550 000 but why make a promise just to keep the owner happy? Why not rather exceed expectations after 12 months?

Our Motto

We don’t have to be the biggest accommodation agency in Cape Town or Simonstown! No. We only want to be the best!

This implies that we   can walk away; as we are not trying to win a deal at all costs. No.  We rather shake hands and walk. Ensuring we will always look the owner in the face knowing we did what was best for both parties.

The simple answer is that we manage all unique and remarkable Cape Town accommodation (see the areas we cover here).

We never said it must be luxury. Not necessarily. All we want is for guests to say Wow. Like these reviews (more here).

But back to your question:

 If we consider peak rates ; our large homes rent for as much as R45000 per day, while small two-bedroom apartments about R2000 per night.

You can see the rates vary a lot. But let me just warn you; don’t get too excited looking at R45000 per night. Outside of peak this home will rent for a lot less. And very few homes will ever rent for R45000 per night.

You can read more on how to qualify your home here.

Dear New Owner,

Let me explain.

We use the owner’s answer to the question to verify if we can meet the owner’s expectations.

It’s very common for the owner to say;

Correct! We are the experts!

Let me explain.

For example: 

How do you try and figure it out? 

It’s not science. You cannot fail. Just go with your gut. 

Trust us on this. 

P.S. We are not real estate agents who want to make a quick buck. Our relationship must last for years.

We received this email from one of our owners asking if we can accommodate other agents who want to share our Cape Town accommodation:

We have a friend (from Austria ) who specializes in renting properties here in Mauritius to a close network of German and Austrian clients. As you have 100% sole mandate and control over the calendar if she booked via you at BNB rates, would you share a small portion of your commission with her? She says they also like Cape Town.

Excellent question, “how much can I make on Airbnb?” when you intend to list on Airbnb. But what about the Airbnb income calculator?

You get some great Airbnb profitability calculators; they tend to only use your property address and the number of bedrooms to calculate your Airbnb profitability. Well, let’s look at….

Airbnb’s own free calculator. For example; look at a two-bedroom in Cape Town. Airbnb suggests a monthly R26 531 (or +R300 000 or $22000 per annum). This is optimistic, to say the least. What about occupancy? I see the norm is a low 37% occupancy. Did they calculate this income at 100% occupancy? I just have too many questions. And you should as well.

Personally, I believe the calculators may be designed to lull you into listing your accommodation as very few people in Cape Town would not list their accommodation on Airbnb if they can get the above. You may even consider buying a property because of the high potential Airbnb income. Mistake.

We believe you must crawl before you run. And let’s rather be conservative.

And consider other factors as well.

Your potential income cannot be based on your neigbourhood and number of rooms only; yes, it’s a good start but what about the host’s attitude towards guests, your rules (minimum stays, cancellation policy, discounts, etc.), your location in relation to the beach (or related major attractions), pool, jacuzzi, features, willingness to invest in staging and professional photos? And the list of critical Airbnb income drivers grows.

It is for this reason that we developed an in house Airbnb quiz to try and determine if your Airbnb accommodation will make money. No bull.

The quiz, obviously, depends on your honesty. But the verdict will be better than using an Airbnb profitability calculator.  It may not answer your question; How much can I make on Airbnb? Calculator. No. But when you get the results from the Airbnb Profitability Quiz you will know; if your Airbnb accommodation will make money or not and what you need to correct it.

Get The Free Airbnb Profitability Quiz here.

You should invest in Netflix, DSTV and other streaming applications. This assumes you have invested in  uncapped Wi-Fi . Uncapped fast internet is non-negotiable.

What streaming apps should I have for my Airbnb?

• Netflix
• Showmax
• DSTV NOW
• YouTube
• Music streaming
• Games – (not streaming).

How do I get Netflix on my TV?

The best choice is a smart TV (more here) with built-in streaming functionality. If you don’t have a fancy smart TV then you need to see if you have a HDMI slot on your TV.

Click here to see what an HDMI slot looks like.

If you don’t have an HDMI slot on your TV then rather buy a smart TV. However, if you have a spare HDMI slot on your TV then either get an Apple Box or Android Box (we recommend this Android box. It’s more expensive than some but reliable and you can add DSTV).

How Do I Install DSTV on my smart TV or Smart Box?

How to install DSTV is not always that simple. Most boxes come with pre-installed DSTV, Netflix, and others. But if it not then it may be a bit of a problem. Unfortunately, the Smart Boxes or Smart TVs are limited as to what you can download and install. These limitations on Android boxes/TVs are due to Google. Why? I don’t know. 

On the Smart TV or Smart Box, you can access Google Play where you should be able to get Netflix and DSTV Now and install it. See how to install DSTV Now, here.

 What is cool is that you can add your Home DSTV account credentials to your DSTV Now application and watch DSTV on this device for free. You don’t pay extra.  Ideal for guests and excellent for reducing costs .

This means you don’t need to pay DSTV at home and at your Airbnb. If you want to be a scrooge you can even leave it for guests to use their own DTSV account login details but this will limit many British and other foreign English speaking guests who like to watch DSTV and DSTV sport.

The same is true for Netflix. With Netflix, I don’t suggest you install it with your account details. No. Each guest familiar with Netflix should use their own account credentials. 

Do This! And you have just invested in more 5 star reviews.

I just received this concern from an owner. Basically saying, how do I find my accommodation on Agency.CapeHolidays.Info searching Google?

I just type Cape Holidays into my browser. Friends have done the same and have the same experience…i.e. they can’t find my house. I’m sure it is taking me to the old site then. But if so it is taking anyone entering Cape holidays there…this may affect the marketing of the house negatively.

My answer is not short but I’ll limit it as far as possible:

Thanks for your question or rather a concern.

Unfortunately, the way you search or friends search for a specific home, using Google, is no longer the way we try and market accommodation.

Let me also say that your inability to find your home as described  has a very limited effect on your occupancy. 

We operate like Pareto.

We had to learn to focus our attention where it really matters. It does not help we focus 95% of our efforts on something bringing in less than 5% return.

BTW. We are not in the business of leaving money on the table. As you know, there is no reason to  plod along a route that is not profitable, not easy, or without unnecessary investment in a loss while trying to conquer Google SEO. 

Today, our website is like a business card today. It’s a place where we share our listings but don’t expect any massive income or traffic from it.

The general competition by big powers like Google, Airbnb, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and others are severe. And we have to decide which is the most effective and the less evil of the lot.

An accommodation-agency-website generates very little sales today. And those inquiries you get are not only not qualified they are poorly informed, and most tend to be cheapskates who are not familiar with Airbnb  Booking.com and others. If today and you are not familiar with Airbnb then I am skeptical if you can afford to stay with us. 

We do SEO but  Google rather wants us to pay them dear money to get attention . If you look at a search within Google you’ll see about 50% of the page is taken by Google ads.

Trying to win the search engine optimisation game is like a keen school boy trying to play Springbok rugby. Google wants you to play rugby but the dice is loaded in favour of Google. You are competing against Google’s money making goals. The more successful you are with free SEO the less successful is Google. And they are there to squash the daily living light out of you. 

When you pay Google Ads you get what you want and ask for. We can pay Google on your behalf. But we decided against it. Why?

 Google demands money irrespective of success. 

We have taken a conscious decision to let Airbnb and others pay Google. And they do advertise. And we benefit indirectly.

 With Airbnb, we also pay but it’s controlled. You pay only for a successful reservation. The same for other listings sites.  

We have focused our attention since Airbnb took over and Google started aggressively selling their adverts, on marketing via listings sites (Airbnb etc). And using our website as a business card.

Today we are professionals at it with a success record we can be proud of. Like being SuperHosts managing more than 50 Cape Town Airbnb properties an achieving between 20% and 50% higher occupancy than the norm. 

Therefore searching for accommodation and finding Agency.CapeHolidays.Info is not really how we any longer try and market your home or any home for that matter. Any enquiry we get from our site is a bonus. 

If you want to share your home with friends it’s better visit Agency.CapeHolidays.Info find your home and send your friends a link to your listing (Link here https://agency.capeholidays.info/listings/5-bedrooms-accommodation-simonstown/)

BTW if you search the following you’ll see your home in 11 spot.

Have a look at all the Google ads and other stuff Google adds to make this more and more difficult to market via SEO – as you indirectly suggested.

Search via Google for Queens Villa Simonstown.

PS. With your home running at such high occupancy shows we are doing it right. And next year with all the additional reviews it will do even better. This house is and will be a mass success. But we cannot not focus too much (any) attention on completing with Google.

P.P.S. We prefer to find ways to focus on identifying 20% of any drivers  bring us 80% income. Today Airbnb brings us more than 90% of our reservations. Not only is the process simple, and reliable it also brings the best out in guests. Airbnb guests are a different breed than guests from agency websites. This is because of social profiles populated with reviews from hosts where they stayed.

This was a great and important question to ask but any Accommodation Agency should be open to new ways and criticisms from owners. And we welcome it. 👍