No Bookings - Slow or slow season?

[Kate2083]

Hello All,

I am very new to this community, and eager to learn and develop our potential as a host and listings to reach more guests.

I have always used Airbnb and so finally excited to be a host on this platform now also. Sadly, since our properties have gone live, we've received little to no bookings, which is extremely disheartening. The properties are great, had direct bookings. But I would really like to improve our Airbnb bookings and host status.

We are in a very seasonal place in the UK which doesn't help, but we have professional photos, pricing review in line with our competitors, good copywriting & 100% response rate within 1 hour along with accepting/ pre approving all requests. 

I am looking for advice from experienced hosts and operators who can shed some advice for how I could improve my listings or attract more bookings, I am eager to take advice on board to improve our visibility, and welcome feedback and any support. 

Thank you in advance and best wishes. 

Kate

[Elaine701]

@Kate2083 

Hi Kate,

So I've looked at your listings, and I don't see anything that would be driving guests away. One listing has three 5* reviews the other has none. Both look clean, bright, and attractive to the right guests. 

To me, your pricing appears ok, it's not too high, not too low... But I can't speak for Portsmouth or the UK market in general. I know from past experience here in Mallorca that British travellers tend to be more price sensitive, but nothing in your pricing suggests you're way out of the ball park. 

I don't know if you have many guests from abroad, but I recently read an article that said tourism to the UK has declined substantially since last year. That may be part of the problem you're having.

Otherwise, if you've gone completely dry, then you can always drop your prices. But be advised: cheap attracts cheapness. In our experience, the ones that pay the least tend to be the most problematic. So, dropping your prices carries risk.

But it may help keep you booked. So, if you drop your prices, I'd suggest a few precautionary things:

1. If you're using instant book, turn on all available filters: verified ID, photo, good review history. It's no guarantee, but it tends to weed out the worst of them. 

2. Anyone that doesn't qualify for instant book will need to either "enquire" or "request" a booking. This gives you the opportunity to ask some questions, and try to get a sense of what character of person is trying to book it, and their answers (or lack of them) can speak volumes about who you'd be handing the keys to.

Look for inconsistencies in their answers compared to what they're booking. Example, how many people? (rhetorical question). You'd be surprised how often somebody books for one but his intending to bring 3 or 4. Cheap attracts cheapness. 

3. If you don't feel comfortable with any one of them, don't be afraid to scare them off.  If your prices are low, you'll be a magnet. There will be more. 

4. You can do this for a while, but you should aspire to stay at the top of the price chain consistently. The only way you can do this is to always get glowing 5 star reviews, and it seems you're on your way already.

With 20 great reviews, you can start to raise your prices. I'd be mindful of things like your amenities, such as bed comfort and styling (guests judge you first on your photos, so do whatever to make your place stylish) . Listen to guests, they can tell you a lot about what's less than ideal. Then... Improve it. This will lead to you bring able to consistently command a better price, and in general, get better guests. It takes time. 

I think you're on your way. There will always be down times. Just get careful not to go too low with the price. You may have to test this and see what attracts bookings, but not overwhelmingly. Just be mindful of who's booking at that price. 

I hope that helps. Best of luck to you! 

[Helen3]

Hello @Kate2083 

Before you set up your STR business did you do any research around demand and supply for properties of your type in your area. As you know it's low season in the UK and that combined with Omicron and Covid more widely has meant there is a massive reduction in travellers in the UK (not sure who your target market is).

If you are getting direct bookings successfully why not invest more to market direct bookings and also use other STR platforms.

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Kate2083 

I agree with the points that @Elaine701 and @Helen3 have made.

Also, have you tried to see your position in the searches? Try doing this from someone else's device if you can so that your cookies do not skew the results. New listings are supposed to get a boost in the first month, but I am not sure if both your listings have passed this period.

A current guest is moving to a nearby listing because I didn't have the capacity here to extend her stay. When I looked at the listing, apart from her booking, every single night for the next six months was showing as available. I really couldn't understand why. The listing was newly renovated, spacious, conveniently located and reasonably priced. It had decent ratings and about 30 reviews.

I could only imagine that it was showing up very low in the searches. The guest told me she only saw it when she used the map to search very specifically for this neighbourhood.

[Vanessa16]

@Kate2083

Hi Kate,  

I’m not too far from you , Ferndown near Bournmouth and I am worried too because I haven’t received any enquiries or bookings for months . 
I’ve been a super host for 6 years and last summer I was fully booked. 
I’ve checked on another computer my listing and researched similar properties in the New Forest and Bournmouth area and I am less expensive than everyone else so price can’t be the issue. 
I’d be very interested to know how others in UK particularly the south of England are doing with bookings at this time. 
I realise with Covid , times are not exactly normal! 

I hope you get bookings soon and wish you well for the season 

Vanessa 

[Karen3240]

Hello I am in Canada. I am finding the same thing with slow bookings and really none this last two weeks. I updated the photos and added some house rules and honest incite to the home ie cluster flies wondering if this is a problem. I did it so we didn't get low rating for cleaning.

[Jo-and-Ron0]

Morning everyone, we are experiencing exactly the same. We are in a very popular and beautiful town in North Wales, UK, have consistent 5 star reviews, have chopped £20 per night off May to see if that will help. We are currently virtually empty May and June, ok for July and August (but they came in ages ago). I’m aware another two up here are experiencing exactly the same. I don’t think it’s Covid as we’ve pretty much free movement now, I think it’s the massive increases here in food, fuel and energy costs. Any advice gratefully received!

[Jillian136]

Does anyone think it is the new platform that Airbnb has launched?  I find it more limiting to search with flexible dates. I wonder if they have changed their algorithm as well. 

[Huma0]

@Jillian136 

Yes, a LOT of people think this. Search for 'summer release' here and you will see why.

[David9385]

Hi, I just started my Airbnb in Malaysia since July. The Occupancy rates started off with around 60% to 75% in 3 months which is encouraging. We achieved superhost within 3 months and that's a huge boost to us. However coming to October, I realised our sales have been extremely slow, for the whole October we only received 3 bookings or 10 days.

However I started to explore other STR platform and somehow we managed to fill in most of the other days. Currently we are around 85% take up rate and my opinion is building up your direct sales and explore other STR platforms.

Since October is a slow month for Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, I did make some price adjustment to create more sales. I agreed if you drop it too cheap, you are going to attract cheapness. You need to benchmark against the average price of your area to see if your pricing is on par or not. 

All the best.

P/s i do feel that AirBnB sale is slowing down lately.