blocking of a large amount of time causing reduction in reservations

[Stephanie26]

Hi, after 3 years of being booked 100% of the time and 5-star reviewed, I recently blocked a large amount of time  (3 months) on my calendar to accommodate for a vacation and immediately saw a complete absence of any further bookings.  This has been going on for two months now. Does anyone know if airbnb has reduced the chance of my listing showing up in searches and, if so, how this can be fixed?  I'm going away for less time, than anticipated so have since reduced the blocked dates to a 1 month timeframe...

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

It's logical that if you close off your diary for 3 months or so then there is little or no point in your listing appearing in a general search. In addition, due to lack of activity on your account you will slip down the listings.

[Stephanie26]

Hi, I forgot to mention that I still had 2 months open before the blocked time. I obviously know my listing won't appear for searches during that timeframe, but it's illogical that I would not have gotten any reservations for the two months before - and the complete lack of reservations for that timeframes occurred exactly when I blocked my calendar.

[Michael477]

Hi @Stephanie26:

The bookings are going down, because the visitors to you publication will open the calender and see that the in near future is not available. It is quite unfrecuent making reservations for more than 3 months ahead. I just had ONE single, but I am prefering long-timers generally.

Additionally, as @Gerry-And-Rashid0 state, your ranking will go down.

regards

Michael

[Stephanie26]

Hi Michael, thank you for your reply.

I did forget to mention that I had two months open before the timeframe when I blocked the listing dates, so the listing was available in the near term.  I didn't expect reservations past the blocked timeframe (although in my city I the summers fill up by April!).

[Stephanie26]

Hi Michael, thank you for your reply.

I did forget to mention that I had two months open before the timeframe when I blocked the listing dates, so the listing was available in the near term.  I didn't expect reservations past the blocked timeframe (although in my city I the summers fill up by April!).

[Robin4]

@Stephanie26. I block a substantial amount of each year to host in other directions! This year I blocked my calendar for 5 months to host with the government education system and as soon as I opened my Airbnb listing calendar again bookings started coming in straight away and we have had a steady stream of bookings through to end of January next year.

The same thing happened last year! I was concerned each year that it would take a bit of time to 'start the ball rolling' again but that has not happened.

So I can't say that blocking my calendar has any affect on my enquiries as such, but, I am fortunately to live in an area with very few alternative listings and even though my calendar is blocked I still do not slip off the first or second page so, as @Gerry-And-Rashid0 have said lack of activity does effect where you will be displayed, that does not become my issue!

The other thing Stephanie....Americans tend to travel much less in times of crisis than some other nationalities! As I am sure our Hawaiian hosts @Momi would confirm, during the global crisis in 2008-9 American tourism in Hawaii virtually dried up! We stayed in a beautiful resort of 470 rooms in Hilo of which 25 were occupied!!

There is a lot of uncertainty in the US since the recent election and we are seeing lots of similar posts to yours from all over the country.  How are other hosts in Seattle finding  business?

You are a major Superhost so , it's not for me to tell you how to 'suck eggs' but, I would suggest to you that you make some considerable alterations to your listing when you open your calendar....new pictures! Put in an additional sofabed to accommodate extra people! Change something about your rules.... By doing this will have the effect of 'freshening' up your listing and that may move it back to the head of the queue!

All the best Steph....hope you get those enquiries

Cheers.....Rob