Low Bookings

[New-Street0]

Has anyone else noticed a decrease in bookings recently? We had some pretty steady bookings in the past few months but now it's crickets aside from a monthly booking outside of Airbnb. Our views have also suddenly declined. Any advice  or feedback from hosts in similar situations would be greatly appreciated!! 

[Alex]

Hi @New-Street0,  

I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through a slow moment with bookings. With the support of other wonderful hosts in the Community, I’m confident we can turn things around together!

I'll tag some hosts who might have great ideas to help improve this situation. We're all here for you!

@Shelley159, @Marie8425,. @Ahmed1048, @Polly164, @Nathan146, @Katarzyna87, @Maria22471 and @Joey28. 

Thank you everyone in advance and I hope this helps!

Best, 
Alex

[Marie8425]

@New-Street0 

I would suggest most Guests use their phone app and that is a small screen so a busy cover photo doesn't display that good on a small screen.

Your calendar has limited availability which the Airbnb Search is not partial too.  

To address that:

Make sure your updating your listing regularly.  The Airbnb Search says active Host which is good.

Airbnb Custom Discounts Airbnb will market your Sale days.  You can focus on days you available.

Using Airbnb Instabook will also give you an Airbnb Search Boost.  You can turn on and off you can increase notification time so you have time to vet and  you can increase your minimum days stay your listing doesn't look like 1 nighters.

If views are decreasing usually changing title and cover photo

If views but not conversions then tweak description.

The Custom Discounts are great because they display Insights Views and Bookings.

[Shelley159 · Accepted solution]

Hi @New-Street0 

In private mode I find you in the middle of page 3 for 4 guests when I search Downtown Macon, 10 to 12 June. Your cancellation policy is not very search-engine friendly, so you could probably move up a bit if you're willing to change to flexible cancellation. 

As @Marie8425 says, turning on Instant book can give you a good boost.

The other things you could consider, are 1-night minimum stays (not sure if you're willing) and opening up the blocked dates from September (you can still set a 3-month availability window to prevent Instant Bookings if you use Instant Book).

Your price for 4 guests is not too high compared to other listings that rank well, but If the tweaks above don't help to move you up far enough, unfortunately you'd have to fiddle with price. A low price is really the search algorithm's favourite thing. 

[Marie8425]

@New-Street0 

My experience with my listings on price is be very mindful.  Airbnb Search does love lower prices but your selling to an actual Guest not a computer.  If I am shopping for something of course price is a factor.  If I am presented two items that appear similar but one item is priced a lot lower than the other, I wouldn't necessarily think that is a good thing.  It presents more as a cheaper version which may then have negatives.

Always review your pricing in your market but sometimes lower sometimes 1 or 2 dollar price increase gets me a bite.

You have to strategically plan because you are dealing with a computer and people.

[Zheng49]

Yea I feel like usually it's good to be competitively priced, but not so low that people think that it's a budget stay. I wouldn't want to be the lowest priced, because that tends to attract the wrong type of demographic in my experience. 

[Marie8425]

@Zheng49 

I totally agree because too cheap you get the bargain hunters.  Because a cheap price, I am looking at everything a little closer.  Cheap dish detergent, that's why cheap price.  You do help create the mindset of your Guests.