OMG I finally got a booking!

[Huma0]

So, the Summer Release rolled out back in early May. Since then, my views have dived and I've barely gotten any enquiries, let alone booking requests, and I've had no bookings at all except for a couple from returning guests.

I have recently been in contact with CS about this. After a bit of back and forth, I was told that there was an engineering team working on fixing some of the glitches related to the Summer Release (this was vague, so I don't know which specific glitches they were referring to) but there was really nothing they could do in the meantime to help me. I am not knocking the CS Rep who, as it happens, was pretty decent compared to most I've dealt with in the last couple of years. It just wasn't within his control to do anything to help me.

Then, all of a sudden, I get an enquiry. No big deal, I hear you say, but it's the first one in a month and for a listing that used to be my most popular but that seemed to drop off the map completely after the Summer Release. Then, today, I got a booking request for that same room and, after a bit of back and forth, accepted it. That is literally the first booing in two months.

Maybe it's a complete coincidence, or maybe something has happened.

[Z-2]

@Huma0 The view is still low though. Just suddenly get 2 bookings.  Actually one booking in Saturday too. So 3 bookings within a week. But before that, in more than one month, I only get one return guest booking. I do hope Airbnb has some improvement, not just a coincidence.

[Suzanne302]

@Huma0 

Just came here to say I'm excited for you!!!

But no, my bookings are still very slow. I'm getting them here and there, but they are not where they should be.

[Huma0]

@Suzanne302 

Thank you! Yes, my bookings are also very slow, in that this is the ONLY booking I've had since the Summer Release was rolled out (I had one booking request about a week later, but that was withdrawn) other than one repeat guest booking another stay.

Because I host long term stays, I don't expect to get a lot of bookings, nor do I need a lot. However, I am used to getting a lot of enquiries. I do need a fair amount of these as most will not be good matches for the listing so a fairly small portion will turn into actual bookings, e.g. none of the handful of enquiries I got in the couple of weeks after the release turned into bookings. Since then, the enquiries totally stopped until these past few days, and views continued to spiral downwards, with one of my listings showing as having received 0 views in a whole month.

However, there seems to be some improvement in views over the past few days. They are not high, but this is the first time in weeks that I haven't just seen a horizontal black line at the bottom of the graph.

[Ana2038]

Likewise....bookings dropped off dramatically in May but I wasn't too worried as May/June/July were booked months ago and it kept us busy. It was only in late June that I noticed no new bookings and then discovered what everyone else discovered 30-45 days ago...the Summer Release!!!

I have had 3 bookings in the last 2 weeks but they are for late fall and/Christmas.  August, September/October bookings look pretty slim. My views have increased slightly. I do notice that listings similar to mine are booked solid in the next 3 mos. Noticed  a lot of new listings in my area too.. Crossing fingers things improve...

[Huma0]

@Ana2038 

Mmm, I haven't checked out the bookings of similar listings. Also, you never know for sure from the calendars if the dates are booked or blocked. I will have a look though and see if I can get a general idea.  

My views are definitely still below what Airbnb classifies as 'similar listings'. Today, the website says average views are 1804 lower than similar listings in the area. That's a big difference. Huge, actually. I would love to see what these 'similar listings' are.

[Wende2]

@ Ana2038....Same here, I didn't realize about the new search and home pg either.  Ironic I was just about to get off the other day and seen a new conversation...from stupid to ridiculous...thought well OK let's take a look.  That's when I found out about it, went to see what it was all about, someone mentioned they thought the problem was the new categories.  Yep I agree, my first thought was, who isn't going to check out OMG! first thing, if I was looking to book, I'm thinking that would get my attention.  I too was booked pretty solid thru this month, all but 3 days, 1 blocked for my bday that hadn't been booked.  My last booking was June 27th, and my views are down by easily 500 - 600.  I had a booking yesterday, one of the hunters that comes, that's not 'til Oct, I figured I'd be getting those guys, but not enough to more than 10 days/2 weeks.

I hope things pick up for you, I've started the process to list on VRBO, just need to added my photos.

[David8879]

I shall not complain (counting that I am booked solid till September)

[Huma0]

@David8879 

That doesn't look too bad, but would you say the amount of views are normal for you, higher or lower?

Mine are still way below what they should be. I am also booked until September, but those bookings came in before the Summer Release. 

[David8879]

@Huma0 views now are pretty normal.

Few weeks ago they dropped to may be 1/10th of usual and I was not even able to find my listing on the browser with deleted cookies at all. (no categories involved)

But (and may be that is due to being fully booked for high season or may be worsening economical situation in Europe due to cutting off of Russian fuels and other reasons) - I have not got a single booking for September. To be fair - no booking from VRBO as well (And I do not list on other OTAs due to them not having "request booking")

[Huma0]

@David8879 

My views also dropped to 1/10th in the month after the Summer Release. I have no doubt that it was that and not the availability of my listings nor the economic climate as the views and bookings directly before were very good. But, unlike you, mine continued to go down (one listing even reaching 0 views in a month) until a few days ago.

Normally, September/October would get booked well before now as it's a busy month for long term bookings with universities opening again and also graduates starting their first jobs. Two of my rooms got booked by returning guests but the other, usually more popular one was sitting empty with not even a single enquiry since the Summer Release (until this week). That room is normally the one with the highest views and the one that gets booked first.

It's interesting though that you are not getting bookings from VRBO either. Is September normally a busy month for you?

[Robin4]

@David8879 

Getting your 90+ views per day David I would expect you to be fully booked. Things are not that brisk in my part of the world ......I am lucky if I average 15 views in a day  but mate, I am still fully booked.....

I don't have a night to call my own until October.....but that's cool, we are in this business to host guests and make a dollar or two!

Cheers.........Rob

[Huma0]

I decided to search for my listings again yesterday as I wanted to ask the CS rep about categories. First, I did a normal search, and then I searched under 'shared homes', 'historical homes' and 'iconic cities', which are the only categories my listings could fit.

Here's a couple of things I noticed. In the first search, one of my rooms (let's call it Room A) came out at the top. The other rooms were pages lower. That is odd. Room A is my smallest and usually the last to get booked. It can't just be down to availability though as another of the rooms is available earlier than this one.

When I searched 'shared homes' and used the I'm flexible date filter, selecting 'any month', the listings were showing quite random dates, e.g. one of my rooms was showing dates in April/May 2023 when it had availability in September 2022. So, nothing has been done yet to address that annoying feature.

When I searched 'iconic cities' and 'historical homes' and zoomed in on my area, only Room A came up. The other two didn't come up at all, even if I zoomed right over my house. So, I can assume that they are not in those categories even though, of course, they are all in the same iconic city and the same historical home. What I am wondering though is if being in those categories is related to Room A showing high in other search results.

Looking at my views, I can see they have gone up in the last few days but, actually, it's only Room A that has received increased views. Views for the other two are still dire.

Funnily enough, Room A is not the one that got booked yesterday, but then it is not available for those dates. I am wondering if the guest found the other room when searching, or found Room A and then clicked on my other listings. Perhaps I will ask her...

[Huma0]

So, an update on this. Today I got an automated message from CS saying that all three of my listings were eligible for the shared homes, iconic cities and historical homes categories. I'm quite impressed that they did that so quickly. It's only been two days.

At the moment, as I mentioned above, only one listing is in all three of those categories (the other two are also in shared homes but show much lower in the search results for that category and don't show up at all unless you really zoom in on the location). The room that is in all three of those categories also shows up higher in a general non-category search and is the only one that seems to be getting any views right now.

The email said that it could take up to 72 hours for the listings to be added to the categories, so lets see what happens and if the views increase for the other two...

[AZ-Housing0]

Not sure if it has something to do with release. Consumer spending went down. It is going to get worse in September. Get ready. I assume economy will be down till election year.

[Huma0]

@AZ-Housing0 

I don't know how it is in the US, but in Europe people are travelling despite the economic situation. I don't know if they are spending less but they are desperate to travel after two years of restrictions. In the UK, the airports can't cope with the demand having laid off so much staff due to COVID. Airlines are being told to limit tickets sold and some are cancelling a lot of flights. The queues and delays at the airport are horrendous. It's chaos.

Meanwhile, hotels in Europe are reporting increased bookings, surpassing predictions for this summer, and therefore increasing their prices. Airbnbs should be booming, especially in cases where they are offering a cheaper alternative to hotels.

I don't normally cater to tourists as I host long term stays (people coming for work, study, internships or in the process of moving homes), so the situation I described above doesn't really have much impact on me personally. 

The reason why I am certain that it's due to the release is the timing. It can't be a coincidence that in the month directly before, one of my rooms had over 2,200 views and in the month directly after, only about 220. It is now down to about 25. I was getting plenty of enquiries and booking requests right up until the release and then they stopped, but I did get bookings from repeat guests. Many, many hosts are reporting the same. A lot of them are getting bookings on VRBO and other sites, but not on Airbnb. One of my listings became more visible in searches just a few days ago (after I spoke to CS) and the increased views for that particular listing make it pretty clear that it's to do with visibility.

The economy didn't suddenly crash in early May, but Airbnb did suddenly roll out its Summer Release. It can't be a coincidence.