I just checked in to write the same message. We provide an incredibly clean, modern, private apartment above our garage in a perfect location to downtown and campus and with a beautiful outside deck. Each guest is provided with a small bar of handmade goats milk and locally made chocolate truffles. We provide organic, fair trade coffee, locally ground, as well as a variety of teas and sparkling water. We have received nothing but 5 star reviews and have been super hosts for the 3 years we have been on Airbnb. We feel our price is very reasonable and the guests get a wonderful experience. It is not unusual for us to share wine and/or meals with guests and/or stock groceries for them before they arrive, and none of these costs are passed on to our clients. We have never charged extra for additional guests (can take maximum of 4) nor do we require a deposit. We also have flexible cancellation and do not charge more for high demand weekends.
We have had regular bookings until the past month or so when bookings suddenly dropped off. We now keep getting messages from Airbnb to consider dropping our prices and/or offer a discount for open dates. We just took Airbnb up on doing a 10% discount for open dates this month and received a message from Airbnb that they were sending this discount offer to guests who have been looking at our listing. While this seems nice, it appears that Airbnb is encourging guests to think only of cheap places and compare places based only on price and is encouraging hosts to only think about being cheap and, as the Sion said, 'race to the bottom. It doesn't seem right that Airbnb is pitting places against eachother based only on the cost per night. I suspect our recent drop-off in bookings is due to Airbnb's aggressive push for guests to book the cheapest place available.
We recently had a visit from a prior guest who had booked elsewhere and were discouraged with their new experience: poor location, outdoor motion lights not working, cold water in hot tub, dirty dishes in dishwasher, a general feeling of disrepair and dirt, and no contact with host. This does not seem like a good representation of Airbnb but I fear this may be what guests will come to expect: something cheap and impersonal.
Please, Airbnb, stop encouraging guests to shop for the lowest price and stop asking hosts to compete with others by being cheaper rather than better.