hi @Melanie115 , so true, seems like quite a few of us hosts are experiencing a drastic drop off in inquiries and bookings, me included. But I start to wonder if it can attribued to IB: there have been several conversations and contributions here in the forum according to which it actually isn't clear at all if IB is instantly and always set as the default search engine by Airbnb. So I am wondering about other possiblities.
1.) There has been an incredible influx of new hosts this year, thus the market is possibly oversaturated. Mostly, tavelers still take an hotel over Airbnb. Just look at how many Airbnb listings there are in any given market: way more than available hotel/motel rooms.
2.) It is possible that guests are simply not chosing Airbnb as often as before. with the extra fees attached, the need to communicate with hosts, the cost easily as much as the next motel down the road etc. with all these extra steps, it might just seem easier for guests to chose a motel/hotel instead. that is possibly where Airbnb brought in IB, to keep customers and to make booking as easy as possible for them. Only Airbnb knows if their bookings have declined or not. We will never know.
3.) Seasonal fluctuations.
4. Problematic listings and ill prepared hosts. Some guess who are seriously interested in booking with Airbnb might get turned off because a host's description and pictures are bad or entirely missing, like I would not choose your place, Melanie, because you have no pictures of it, just of your neighbourhood. Also, if a host is slow in responding to an inquiry, if a host does not know how to handle certain things like change requests, etc... I can see how a potential guest would rather go to a hotel instead.
5.) All this points to Airbnb having lost their identity - and perhaps it now shows in declining bookings.
