Zero bookings on any properties after Jan 1 2020?

Answered!
Amy850
Level 2
Niwot, CO

Zero bookings on any properties after Jan 1 2020?

I have no bookings for the 2020 year and see almost none within miles of us.

 

Does anybody who's listing in 2020 showing minimal blocked dates really have a booking?

Top Answer
Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Amy850 @Helen427 @Mark116 @Sarah-and-Shaun0 @Alon1 and all... 

 

Despite all the hype, the truth is, Airbnb has long since reached it's peak in major markets (US, Europe etc), with growth plateauing as far back as 2017, and Morgan Stanley downgrading projections for subsequent years. MS revised its forecast for user adoption down from 31 percent to 28 percent for 2018, from 37 percent to 30 percent for 2019 and from 43 percent to 31 percent for 2020. Since then, slower than expected growth in emerging markets appears to have failed to make up the shortfall

 

The percentage of travelers who used Airbnb during the 12 months leading up to October 2018  increased by only 2%, compared with 3% the year before and 8% in 2016. 

 

Not only that, but by 2017, user frequency has already started to fall by 10 percent, or three times per year, after being flat for the previous three years.

 

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40 Replies 40
John1080
Level 10
Westcliffe, CO

@Amy850  Hello fellow Coloradan! We have a few starting to trickle in. I have one for around Valentine's Day, one in March and one already for late May. Most of my bookings come in rather late though and where we are, Jan-March is much quieter. I have also raised my prices and increased the minimum price, which is probably impacting me a bit as well. 

Josiah0
Level 3
Fitchburg, MA

Jan/Feb tend to be our "slow season," if I can call it that.  Luckily, a traveling medical professional booked 33 days starting next month, and changing the titles of our listings to say "ski & stay" seems to have garnered more skiers this year than in the past.  We're located near a small ski mountain about a 1.5 hours west of Boston.  Perhaps a small tweak like that might get a few more bookings.

Helen3
Top Contributor
Bristol, United Kingdom

I think there are a number of factors that will affect demand for your listing, the season, your competition, the sort of visitors you are targeting, what advertising channels you are using to market your listing @Amy850 

 

Who is your target market and what are bookings like on the other channels you use to market your listing on?

Emily487
Level 10
KCMO, MO

@Amy850 

Same here. I’m really nervous. 

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

We’ve had crickets from abb since November 1. 
(75%+ of my business comes from other platforms but still extra quiet)

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

fewer bookings than ever... finally I'll have time for myself ... knock on wood  :)))

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

There were serious IT glitches when they fiddled with the layout of listings in November/December.

It's been very quiet as a result with bookings as Guests were having difficulties as well trying to book - I had a couple of people message me they couldn't get the site to work properly to make bookings which I naturally reached out to Customer Services etc to sort the issues out.

So have you seen more reservations since you talked to Customer Service?

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

Hi @Amy850 

It's still very slow, however views of my listing are slowly creeping up again, touch wood.

It was far busier last January and bookings were made for February here in New Zealand.

 

Unfortunately de to the IT glitches I was unable to respond to my enquiries.

 

* When replying to others @Amy850 , if you use the @ before a person's name it notifies them of a reply.

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helen427 

 

Your comment infers that it was a universal problem.

 

However, I received what I would term normal amount of contacts in November & December.

A few bookings leading up to Christmas, no bookings for Xmas (I've not had a single booking for Xmas in 7 years) and inundated with requests for the period around New Year's.

 

In any case, no one informed me that they had any problem communicating or booking. 

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Alon1 count your blessings.

 

It was mentioned here in CC across the globe there were IT issues.

All the best

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helen427 

 

I'm obviously not in isolation in London or UK.

 

Moreover, the glitches tend not to last so long as to significantly affect bookings.

 

Perhaps a more significant factor of course is that Airbnb are on this exhaustive drive to increase listings with the imminent IPO. So they are saturating their market in many places, creating more competition for their own hosts. 

 

I further note the majority of those who responded to this thread host entire homes rather than live-in hosts. There are considerably more websites for entire homes, so again the competition is larger. I'm not aware of any significant options for live-in-hosts, though Bookings.com has been mentioned, still not many CC members report hosting on any other than Airbnb.

 

In sum, I don't think we can draw any hard or fast conclusions from the tiny sample of contributors to CC. 

 

 

 

 

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

Very, very slow. The slowest I've been since I started 3 years ago. 

Catherine264
Level 1
Redwood City, CA

I have the slowest January in 4 years hosting.  Feb and on is better.  Will use this month to refresh and repair for the upcoming year.