1st Quarter Rents Off by 50% year to year

[John2301]

1st quarter revenue down 50%
ouch…

I realize there’s several factors that affect revenue, and the 1st quarter is always hit and miss, but I have fewer reservations this summer too.

I’m curious….
Are other hosts reservations and revenue down?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@John2301 This is a common issue worldwide. We have just ended our financial year and we are down 6% on the year before. Not disastrous but equally not good given the rate of inflation. Airbnb was a licence to print money just after Covid but the excessive number of hosts piling into it and the  reduction in guest's available cash to splash on holidays has had a detrimental effect.

[Robin4]

@John2301  @Mike-And-Jane0 

John, many US hosts are saying business is down this year compared to last year.

It is possible that there was an upsurge in bookings last year following the scaling back of the effects of Covid on travel. Maybe this year you are seeing a correction and possibly people are a bit anxious about which way the economy is going to swing in the next 6 months.

From my point of view, we on this side of the world in Australia appear to be possibly a little more stable when it comes to hosting. For the last 4 years I have found very little change in our occupancy. Each year we hover somewhere around 150 stays for each assessment period. Here is our current stats...

For the same assessment period last year we were 152 stays......2020 we were down a bit at 139 because of Covid . But we still fared pretty well  and I would not say we have ever had a significant drop off. We are always between 139 and 156 stays. 

Airbnb accounts for about 80% of my hosting business as we host for a total of about 285 nights per year. That's all I can handle and the fact that it is consistent means we can plan ahead pretty confidently!

Mike I think you have a valid point with the push to increase the host pool. We are even starting to see STR restrictions in some parts of Australia due to an oversupply of rental properties.

Cheers........Rob.

[Marylea0]

Yes!