Is this Airbnb trying to fix something that is not broken!

[Robin4]

Since my return from being away I have noticed a few changes that have crept into the platform.

I know Airbnb's major drive is to increase hosts bookings but, can someone give me a sound explanation for now providing hosts with information that more people are looking to book on nights that a host already has booked!

What value to me or Airbnb is it to tell me an unusual number of travellers are looking for a place to stay on nights where I am already committed to a booking! Or are these arrows designed to make me rush out and secure another property in order to help meet this higher than usual demand!

There are so many things in need of fixing just now, why are they wasting their resources trying to complicate something that doesn't appear to be broken?

I could possibly understand it if these little arrows related to un-booked nights, that would probably be designed to make me rethink my hosting strategy.

Can anyone tell me what practical influence these little arrows are supposed to have!

Cheers........Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  And someone is actually getting paid to come up with this pointless nonsense.

[Elena87]

@Robin4 

I'm all for improved analytics being made available to hosts to make some informed choices for pricing.

This arrow - or its showing as a little flame on my multi-calendar display - is crucial for advancing your studio's demand forecasting, allowing you to utilise analytical market segments with precision and manage demand of entire yieldable market segments and room rates thus empowering you to leverage analytics to meticulously optimise financial results.

[Michelle53]

@Robin4 The arrows appear on both booked and unbooked dates. My calendar is not in any way as full as yours, so the logic is more apparent. I can see the value of looking at the data and maybe deciding on a pricing adjustment for potentially popular unbooked dates.  

Obviously, if all your dates are already booked, it isn't going to help much. 

[Robin4]

@Michelle53 

Possibly I can understand that Michelle, but each month we end up fully booked  and of course have no use for such tools. 

If the algorithm was to be of any use at all it would be programmed to only target a hosts un-booked nights, of which there were currently a few on my calendar but, if you look at that screenshot of mine the only nights targeted are my booked nights.

@Elena87 , Elena, I know precisely how much I need to earn each night to maximise my financial results, that balance between occupancy nights and money earned, and I have learned over the years, to take notice of Airbnb's pricing tips is a shortcut to financial ruin. There is a bottom line beyond which a host loses money, not makes it but, that bottom line is of no concern to Airbnb. Their only concern is to secure bookings. 

I manage to maintain a high occupancy rate each month without having to resort to cutting my price, and in fact I find price cutting simply encourages bargain hunters who invariable turn out to be poor quality guests.

Once again Elena, I resent Airbnb telling me how to run my business successfully!  Can they please just concentrate on fixing issues that are broken like booking verifications and hosts advertised check-in times!

Cheers.......Rob

[Michelle53]

@Robin4  I don't think it's about "targeting" booked or unbooked nights. That might be another level of programming. I think it is drawing from general information about certain popular dates. You just happen to have the popular dates already booked.  If you have less-popular unbooked dates, it's not currently programmed to tell you anything about that. 

[Robin4]

@Michelle53 

'Popular dates' vary from one country to another and one hemisphere to another, there is no such thing as one size fits all, so although I understand what you are saying Michelle but to me this is a bit of totally useless programming and a complete waste of Airbnb's resources.

Much the same as the Covid-19 cleaning protocol.....weren't we all doing that already? Surely none of us are that sleazy motel out on the I 10 that doesn't bother to change the sheets between guests. Aren't we all proud of the way we present our product? And the other thing is, Covid has not had a major impact on my country. In my state of South Australia we have had 4 Covid-19 deaths since this pandemic began.......

You have got more chance of being bitten by a shark while swimming in the ocean than catching Covid-19 here. There has not been a Covid related death in my state in the last 8 months! Because of our situation we don't feel we need to be brow beaten by Airbnb as to how we should offer our properties, we are only doing what we always have! We feel it's a bit unfair to compare us with the rest of the world.

Cheers.......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  Maybe I'm wrong, but I took @Elena87's response as satire. 

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

Now that I read it again, I think you may be right! It does read like typical nebulous company spin. I hope I am not doing Elena an injustice by saying that!

Cheers.......Rob

[Elena87]

@Sarah977 

Well spotted )

More travellers than usual are searching for stays on May xx - goes the blurb on the calendar.

How many more? 1, 100 or 1000? Can't be more vague than this.

Usual..compared to when I wonder ? last year, last week ?

I can barely remember usual nowadays.

[John5097]

@Robin4 I still find it useful. If a guest cancels it helps to custom set the rate. I just had this happen over the weekend and set the rate higher than Smart pricing. It’s also useful to know if people are traveling and which season is most popular. Ours is Spring, for example but it’s still useful to have an indication if a weekend is popular as there may be some event host wasn’t aware of, or which days of the week were more popular if I needed to block off a night for repair or maintenance. On mine there is a check box to toggle it on and off if it’s annoying.  Cheers! 

[Ann72]

@Robin4 @Michelle53  I asked @Scott about it because I didn't have any arrows anywhere on my calendar, and I would have expected to see them around the 4th of July and other times, but I was told they are for unexpectedly popular dates.  I am getting an unusual number of off-season bookings, so I don't know how well this feature is working in my area.

[Michelle53]

@Ann72  The message it's giving me is this:-

"(Travel Date) is a popular date.

More travelers are searching for stays in your area compared to the past year's average,  with fewer listings available to book" .

Possibly, it's being triggered by a change in excess of a certain percentage.