We’ve bought a house on the river in Warrandyte, but we’re not planning to live there for another couple of years. So, in the meantime we’ve put it on Airbnb. (Check it out here if you want to sticky beak … Trish is a Super host, just sayin’.)

A couple of months back I was showing someone a picture of the house, and so I searched for it on Airbnb and then had a look around the listing.

I have since received six emails from Airbnb with the subject “Is this Warrandyte home still on your mind?”, linking back to the property. They have sent essentially the same email on September 8th, September 23rd, October 8th. October 18th, November 3rd and November 7th. (And yes Airbnb, that Warrandyte home is still on my mind).

Six follow up emails in two months. I have no doubt that they have done lots of split testing and have optimized the number and timing of these emails, looking at the number of bookings versus the number of unsubscribes for each follow up email.

I get that they are a business and not a practice, and that they can flirt with the line between persistence and stalking a bit more than we can.

However, on the other hand I think it’s easy to err a little too far the other way.

If someone is engaged in your sales process, or has expressed interest in one of your programs, it’s worth following up. Be classy about it … but stay on it until they actually say thanks but no thanks, that Warrandyte home isn’t for me.