Zero bookings on any properties after Jan 1 2020?

[Amy850]

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?

[Helen427]

@Sarah-and-Shaun0 @Amy850 @Alon1 @Jennifer1421 @Susan17 @Mark116 @Jennifer1421 and @Everyone-else

On your Dashboard under Performance, are your Occupancy Rates in your location up or down?
In Auckland it's down from 41% last year to only 18% this year, that's a huge decline/ drop.

I still believe that it's due to that serious IT changeover of our listings trial of different views and wouldn't be surprised if it's stuffed up Guests accessibility to book as easily as they used to be able to.

I had several Guests comment to me they find the platform difficult to use with too many IT Glitches

[Jennifer1421]

In my area, for the period Jan 7 thru Feb 7 of last year, occupancy was showing as 45%. This year, same period it's at 12%.

Glitches, as your suggest, @Helen427 are likely part of the issue, for sure. These, combined with market over-saturation, dominance of markets by mega-hosts, declining trust in the platform by guests (per the interesting and informative article posted by @Susan17), perhaps a fear of international travel, currently...the list seems endless.

I've lowered pricing Sundays thru Wednesdays to see if it garners any bookings. NOT to the extent recommended by price tips, but a bit, in order to better position myself within my market. Fingers crossed - for all of us!

[Susan17]

@Jennifer1421 

Hope things pick up for you soon! I know this is not what people want to hear (as with most of the stuff I post!), but the truth is, the very best thing that could ever happen for small, independent hosts, is for Airbnb to go belly up. 

There are many, many companies waiting and eager to step into the breach, that can't get a foothold in the market because the all-powerful Airbnb machine annihilates everything that enters the space, that even vaguely smells like competition (they call it the "kill-zone") But ultimately, competition for Airbnb is the only thing that will stop regular hosts from getting put out of business altogether. 

[Michelle53]

@Susan17  The issue we'd have moving to a smaller competitor is brand name recognition. If a large player like Airbnb went belly up, chances would be good that it would take a lot of competitors down with it, at least in the short term. 

I think if one asked most people what name they think of when they think about home sharing, what name comes up first ?    Airbnb is somewhat synonymous with "homesharing".    Safety concerns etc as relate to Airbnb pretty quickly become safety concerns with homesharing in general. 

I'd be curious to know if bookings are down on competitor websites too. 

For folks who rely on the income now,  either way, it's a bad scenario, 

[Susan17]

@Michelle53 

I believe that even the most die-hard  supporters must see by now that Airbnb is increasingly pushing "core hosts" out of the picture altogether (too high-maintenance for too little returns), so the sooner the field is opened up to competitors, the better for all of us. 

And yes, Airbnb may still be the name that comes up first when people talk about home-sharing - but typically, not with positive connotations anymore, unfortunately. 

[Michelle53]

@Helen427  I can't find Occupancy Rates in my location. Only my own. 

[Helen427]

@Michelle53It's under Occupancy rate by Listing - Occupancy Rate, Market Rate, Previous year if the way I understand that section is correct.

Both the Market Occupancy and my own were 41% last year.

You can work out what yours are by changing the dates etc on that same Dashboard Page.

Hope that helps.

[Susan17]

@Helen427 

Every single "glitch" that's happening on this platform now, has been happening for years (as evidenced from threads being dredged up from the inception of the the CC in late 2015, every time hosts post issues they're currently experiencing).

In fact, the "glitches" all pre-date the CC, by a long way. The only difference is that nowadays, a lot more hosts (and guests) are being affected, so there's much more awareness of them. When I first started posting about the malfunctions on the site, probably as far back as 2013/14, I invariably got hammered by other posters, screaming that such things never happened to them, and would never happen on Airbnb. (Most of them changed their tune, sooner or later, when they did eventually have to deal with the fallout of malfunctions on their own accounts)

So while the constant glitches and the reputation the platform has garnered for endless malfunctions, inarguably have had a detrimental effect on attracting and retaining new users, they're only a small component of a much bigger, much more critical problem. 

Gross over-saturation of every major market on the planet - now infecting many secondary and minor markets too  - and all the many serious problems that stem from that - has led to Airbnb literally decimating its own platform, and its own business. We're seeing the incontrovertible proof (and the calamitous ramifications) of that here in the CC, in the media, and in our own communities, every day of the week. It can't - and won't - end well. 

[Michelle53]

I have one reservation, currently in progress, that was booked on December 6th. After that, zero. No inquiries, and no page views, except for views that may have been generated from postings here on CC. I assume that gets counted in page views. 

I went onto the Airbnb site from a different computer, where I'm not logged in.

Without putting dates in, my listing does not show up at all, although there are listings shown.  I assume that's because I require bookings to be at least 3 days in advance. I had that as one day. Maybe I have to adjust that, again. Bookings which show with no date selection may be IBs available immediately (to be verified). 

Once dates are put in, with no other parameters selected, I show up after several pages. 

Once I select the parameter "entire space", I show up as the first listing. 

I tested this yesterday, using booking dates Jan 13  - Jan 18. 

There is an Airbnb suggestion, for folks who want to book just a short time out, that they should select "Instant Book" to have their request process faster.    Since I have IB turned off, that's no help to me at all. 

I don't know if that's a standard message, or if it pops up within a certain window. 

If you have IB turned off, instant disadvantage. 

There's also a lot of variability between booking on a desktop/laptop and booking on a cell phone, which I think a lot of people do. 

From time to time, I'll ask my neighbor to try and book a space using her phone app, to test how my listing shows up. Time to do that again. 

[Helen427]

@Amy850 @Susan17 @Michelle53 

@Jennifer1421 @Sarah-and-Shaun0 @Alon1 

I was talking to a friend who has an 1800's home she lets through ABB  & she said she's been flat out - she thinks it's because it's so  much cheaper and nicer to rent  (it is a beautiful property & she does fabulous touches) than a crappy motel suite.

She's had some very wealthy clients who shall remain nameless who she understands may be in New Zealand in part for business deals and they prefer the comforts and privacy of a home over and above hotels/ motels.

Alas when one deals with such clientele the flow on impacts on further clients.

She did say she has had a few "displaced"  wealthy people who are going through marriage separations 🙂

[Michelle53]

Checking today - bookings down 31% in my area.  Property availability up 35%. 

Still at zero bookings going forward.