Pricing & revenue

Minimum stays, discounts and longer stays

Your price is set. Now the rules around it decide which bookings fill your calendar. How many nights a guest must stay, what you offer for a week or a month, and when you discount shape your income as much as the nightly price does.

This guide helps you set those rules so your calendar fills with stays that pay, and every night stays above your floor.

The short answer

Set a longer minimum stay when demand is strong, in summer and on busy dates, and a shorter one in quiet months. Watch for gap nights your minimum stay leaves behind, and open them to short stays. Offer weekly and monthly discounts if you can host longer stays well, because they mean fewer turnovers. Use last-minute and early-bird discounts on purpose, not by habit, and check that the price you keep after every discount is still above your floor.

Choosing minimum stays by season and day of week

A minimum stay is the fewest nights a guest can book. Too short, and your weekends go on cleaning between one-night stays. Too long, and the dates sit empty.

Armenia's year is uneven. The Statistical Committee counted 827,112 visitors in July to September 2025, against 386,741 in January to March. Let your minimum stay follow that shape.

Summer and busy dates

• Two or three nights minimum
• Longer for big events on busy dates
• Set early, before the dates sell

Spring and autumn

• Two nights at weekends
• One night midweek
• Shorter as the dates get close

Winter

• One night is often fine
• Weekly discounts do more of the work
• Price still above your floor

These are our suggestions, not rules. The day of the week matters too. Airbnb lets you set minimum and maximum nights under Trip length in your calendar, and customise the minimum by check-in day, for example two nights for a Friday check-in and one night on other days. Other sites have their own settings, so check each one.

Gap nights: open them, don't lose them

Orphan nights are short gaps between bookings, often one or two nights, that your own minimum stay stops anyone booking. With a three-night minimum, a two-night gap stays empty for good.

1. Look two to four weeks ahead. Gaps show up once the bookings around them settle.
2. Lower the minimum for those dates only. Let the gap be booked as it is.
3. Add a small discount if it's still empty. An empty night earns nothing, but keep the price above your floor.
4. Think about the cleaning. A one-night gap means two turnovers in two days. Check your cleaner can manage before you open it.

Weekly and monthly discounts

Longer stays mean fewer check-ins, fewer cleans and fewer empty nights between guests, so a modest discount can still earn you more over a month.

Airbnb lets you set a weekly discount for stays of 7 or more nights and a monthly discount for stays of 28 or more nights. Airbnb says discounts of 10% or more appear in search results, and every discount is shown next to the original price. On Revamp, you can create promo codes with a percentage or amount off, date windows and a minimum stay, which lets you reward longer stays on the dates you choose.

How to set them (our suggestion):

1. Work out what a turnover costs you. Cleaning, laundry, supplies and your time.
2. Count what a longer stay saves. One week-long stay can replace several short ones, and their turnovers.
3. Keep the discount within that saving. Start small. You can raise it if longer stays don't come.
4. Check the result. Make sure the discounted price, after commission, stays above your floor.

Last-minute and early-bird thinking

Lead time is how far ahead a guest books, and Airbnb offers two discounts built around it: last-minute, for bookings made 1 to 28 days before check-in, and early bird, for bookings made 1 to 24 months ahead.

Last-minute discounts

• Fill dates that would otherwise stay empty
• Most useful in quiet months
• Not needed on busy dates, which sell anyway

Early-bird discounts

• Bring in bookings for quiet months early
• Give you a steady base to plan around
• Best skipped for events and peak summer

Use both with care. If you always cut prices in the final week, guests who come back may learn to wait.

When longer stays make sense

Remote workers, families relocating for work, and people on long projects may want a month or more. Longer stays make sense when your summer is already full and you want steady income in quieter months, when you'd rather have fewer turnovers, and when your place works as a home, not just a bed.

What longer stays need

• A real desk, a comfortable chair and reliable internet
• A washing machine and somewhere to dry clothes
• A kitchen good enough to cook in every day

What to agree before arrival

• Cleaning and fresh linen during the stay, for example every week or two
• How utilities work: included, or included up to a limit
• How guests report repairs, and how fast you respond

Write all of this into your listing and house rules, so guests know before they book. Hosts with a live Revamp listing can find cleaning services in the trusted services list in their dashboard. Keep the booking and payment on the platform, even when a long-stay guest asks to arrange the next month directly. Rules and taxes for longer rentals may differ from short stays, so check with an accountant or the relevant authority before you offer them.

Keep the floor price in mind

Your floor is the lowest nightly price that still covers your costs. Pricing your first season shows how to work it out. A seasonal price, a weekly discount and a promo code can add up, so check the price you'd actually keep.

1. Know your floor first. Use the break-even calculator before you set any discount.
2. Test the deepest combination. Work out the lowest nightly price a guest could reach, after commission.
3. If it falls below the floor, cut the discount. Never lower the floor to fit a discount.

Minimum stay and discount mistakes to avoid

• A minimum stay that never changes with the season
• Gap nights left empty by your own minimum stay
• Weekly and monthly discounts bigger than the turnovers you save
• Last-minute discounts on dates that would sell anyway
• Early-bird discounts on event dates
• Long stays without a desk, washing machine or cleaning plan
• Discounts that add up to less than your floor

Your checklist

Minimum stays

• Set for each season
• Weekends set by check-in day
• Busy dates set early

Discounts

• Weekly and monthly decided
• Last-minute only for quiet dates
• Every combination above your floor

Longer stays

• Desk, internet and washing machine ready
• Cleaning and linen plan agreed
• Utilities written into the listing

Questions hosts ask

What minimum stay should I start with?
Our suggestion: two nights at weekends and one midweek for most of the year, with longer minimums in summer and on busy dates. Watch your gaps and adjust.

Will a long minimum stay cost me bookings?
It can, if guests can't find dates that fit. If gaps appear between bookings, shorten the minimum for those dates only.

How big should a weekly or monthly discount be?
There's no fixed answer. Start from what you save on turnovers, and keep the final price above your floor. Airbnb says discounts of 10% or more appear in search results.

A long-stay guest wants to pay me directly. Is that fine?
No. Keep the booking, payment and messages on the platform where the guest found you, so the record and any support stay in one place.

Do longer stays need a separate listing?
Not usually. Add what long-stay guests look for, such as a desk, washing machine, cleaning plan and utilities, to your listing and rules, then set your weekly and monthly discounts.