Is there anything missing on my listing?

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

Hi guys, could you take a look at my listing and see if there are any flags?

We usually have a hard time getting bookings (usually we get same-day bookings, it seems when all the other places are taken).

We offer tons of amenities, our apartment is in a good location (close to tech companies in silicon valley and restaurants/stores are within walking distance), and price is similar to nearby places. I'm wondering if there is anything we are missing?

There are rooms that seem to offer less stuff, had worse reviews, and they are more expensive. They get more bookings than us.

Any feedback will be appreciated. 

[Mc4]

I strongly believe AirBnB algortihm is glitchy. I do believe AirBnB loves acquisition of new hosts and once they have won you, they have no interest in retention. They want the quantity of hosts so they are busy promoting the new comers or somehow acquring them.

I have been a superhost and infact with an almost perfect listing as well, but my unit remained empty after the big tidy highs with airbnb's booking inquiries (no cancellation, no bad reviews) but the booking stopped in one of the most busiest season.

They have added too many features from last minute discount to early discount to everything to discount and discount, the value and effort a host puts into and if you do not subscribe to one of them, their algorithm will screw you over.

I also recently read on one of the forums that you rating is at 4.5 or below, they stop sending you inquiries completely. I am at our busiest season here and my listing is getting no booking as well. Very sad situation. I hope someone has some solutions here.

I have heard getting your place wishlisted by others helps. I am happy to help my fellow hosts who wants their listing wishlisted, as long as you have a decent listing with favorable reviews :). If you like to return the favor, if you like my listing, please wish list mine too...

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15788977?preview_for_ml

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

Your place is lovely. I'm really surprised you don't have bookings, is your price competitive to nearby listings? I lived in Boston for 4 years and I always tought it shouldn't be a problem to get bookings there. Students, events, tourists.... It's a very active city that gets a lot of visiors. You are in Harvard sq, how is it possible that you don't have bookings? Hopefully you get some in May for commencement. 

I wishlisted you. I'll be in Boston Sept-Dec and my brother-in-law is in Harvard. I'll keep your place in mind if anyone in the family visits. This is my listing, I'd be happy if you wishlists it:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16912951 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mc0 I think you are right... sometimes we get 2 bookings or inquiries a day and then 1 week of silence... it seems our listings are moving from the first page to the background and back.

Since Airbnb presented Collections (and we don't fit in bussiness nor family collections) our bookings dropped significally. Luckly, we don't have Airbnb Plus yet.

[Mc4]

Thank You @Bruna-and-Siana0 I was in Santa Clara last week. I used to live there :). I have no idea why my place is empty. I have been a host for several years and there is infact a demand problem here in Harvard Square. Contacting AirBnB has proved very useless. They do not help. Rates are very much in par but I can't afford to reduce it to what airbnb is asking for and what airbnb suggests is not the going rate here in the market as well.

Happy to host or meet when you are here. I wishlisted your place as well and I will share it with my friends in South Bay. I really like how itemized and clean your description is. I am going to adopt some into my listing as well. Thank You.

[Sarah977]

@Mc4   I looked at your listing and it is super nice. And all your guests have given you great reviews. I would humbly suggest, however that you change the wording of your request that guests contact you before making an instant booking or putting in a booking request. It's the first thing people read when they look at your listing, which I realize is your intention, but maybe state it a little differently? Like "As hosts, we like to get a feel for all guests who are staying in our home prior to booking to ensure that it will be a good fit for both us and our guests. Please send us an inquiry message before booking or requesting to book, we will respond promptly. Thank you for respecting this." or something along those lines. 

Myself, I won't use instant book, I feel the same as you about getting a read on guests first, and I do find I mostly get Inquiries first, even though I don't request this in my listing. This may be because I'm in a tourist beach town, where most guests are flying in, so they want to make sure they don't get any nasty surprises when they arrive. It's not like they can just jump in their car and go elsewhere easily if they find it's not what they imaginied.

[Mc4]

Thank You @Sarah977 . Your suggestion is wonderful. The one that you saw on the listing was a suggestion by a guest itself but I like yours so I am going to change it to that :). Yes, I can imagine the stress of hosting in a beach town. AirBnB do not want to understand any of these. They keep warning and take you through a process when we opt out of instant book on how we will be affected. Its a torture :). And they do not stand by their instant book policy of penalty free cancellation AT ALL. You are penalized when you cancel the booking which came through instant book. So if you can afford to stay out of instant book, that's the best way to go.

You have a very nice listing and very good reviews too. I wish listed your place 🙂 and I updated the wordings on my listing. Many Thanks 🙂

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15788977?preview_for_ml

[Sarah977]

@Mc4   Thank you for wishlisting me! My listing has been going down in the search rankings lately because I don't use instant book and we're heading into hot humid low season here where I might get only one or two bookings over the summer months, so not a bunch of Inquiries or Booking Requests lately. That's fine with me- I go to Canada for a month and don't use hosting as a way to earn my living- it's more icing on the cake to have some extra cash. Plus I have had wonderful, interesting guests from many places and made some new friends. I'd rather have 15 awesome guests in a year than 100 "okay" ones.

What was really cute was that my ranking actually went down right after I got the email congratulating me on achieving Superhost again- thanks a lot for "appreciating" me so much airbnb!

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

@Mc4 I'll let you know when I'm in Boston and we should try to meet. 

I agree with @Sarah977, I would rephrase it. I think you should be able to get bookings in May. Boston and Cambridge gets very busy with MIT, Harvard, BU, Northeastern... commencements. Maybe you should decrease the price to get a first booking? Once you get one booking, AirBnB seems to place you higher in the ranking and then it's easier to get more bookings. 

Your apartment is gorgeous and the location is perfect. Do you rent it through other websites? Maybe you want to charge a bit less/night to get more bookings so you end up making more money at the end of the month? We are currently charging less than this month last year. Our room is much better now. However there is so much competition that we keep decreasing prices while offering more amenities and we still struggle to get bookings. 

[Mc4]

@Bruna-and-Siana0  Would love to meet 🙂

So, when the listing get stuck, I do reduce the price to get that booking. And I have. And I keep tweaking and doing all the nudges to get some inquiries. Nothing is working now :(.

I do not focus much on other websites. FlipK is one that I tried and it is really really poor. Once in a while it gives inquiries for that busy period like graduation. Do you have other suggestions of any other competitors?

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

@Mc4 We only use AirBnB. I think the other popular place is VRBO which I think it is more for entire houses and longer stays (not entirely sure). 

We all try the same tricks to get bookings. Being ranked on the first page seems to be key to get bookings. I understand that AirBnB wants to promote new listings to encourage new hosts. But what about the superhosts? What about experienced host who continuously get 5* reviews? Most of us provide better experiences than someone who is starting! That should be taken into account and they should rank us better or promote us. 

[Sarah977]

@Bruna-and-Siana0   It's outrageous to me that a newer host who uses instant book gets a higher ranking than experienced Superhosts with all 5 star reviews and glowing written reviews. And a bunch of those new hosts won't even make it- they have no idea what hosting entails, think they can just go sleep on a friend's couch and rent out their bedroom, without any decent cleaning, not knowing how review system works, or much of anything else. Some are just tenants themselves who have no permission from their landlords to list on airbnb, and when the owner finds out what they're doing, they'll get evicted. In 6 months, if not sooner, they'll probably be delisted for low stars, cancelling bookings, etc.

I don't know why airbnb thinks that we'll continue to strive for Superhost status when they don't provide any obvious benefits to us.

[Rachel0]

@Bruna-and-Siana0 Hi, just had a look at your listing.  It looks lovely and I personally don't think that it looks too monochrome.  I notice that you have had 129 views this week but I also notice that you have not updated your calendar for 21 days and I did read somewhere that listings that are updated each day tend to rise up the search rankings.  Also, you only show the next 3 months availability which may be limiting the amount of enquiries and bookings you are getting from people who live far away.  You may have your own reasons for limiting yourselves to a 3 month period but lots of people who are travelling from Europe or Asia will want to plan way ahead and you won't get seen when they search.

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

Hi @Rachel0, thanks for noticing about the calendar. What is it consider an update on the calendar? We update our prices regularly and we just had a booking yesterday, wouldn't that be an update? 

21 days ago I blocked 2 days of the calendar (friend's visit). I'm surprised that a booking or change in the price is not considered an update. 

[Rachel0]

No, I don't think that getting a booking or changing a price automatically counts as a calendar update.  You need to actually visit your calendar page each day and the system counts that as an update.  You can check by going into your "preview listing" page and it will say, underneath the dates "Calendar updated today."  

[Lisa723]

I frequently travel to your area on business. As you say hotels are expensive. So most business travelers will have a high spending limit and not be paying themselves. I have used Airbnb for relief from the monotony of South Bay hotels but I look for the really special private places I can get for my hotel budget, pool houses, etc. I would never book a room with a shared bathroom for this kind of trip. So in a way the price of the area is not in your favor and you are not appealing to most business travelers. Also not offering a flexible cancellation policy is a problem. And if there is any way to get the kitty litter out of the bathroom do it. When you get earlier bookings who are the guests? What appeals to them and how can you emphasize/enhance that?