Bookings suddenly stopped!?

[Anne-And-Jez0]

We are relatively new hosts, opening our https://airbnb.com/h/the-aspen-colorado-springs in June of this year. We had great interest, receiving bookings almost every weekend and sometimes during the week. We have great guests and great reviews thus far leading to becoming Superhosts in early October. Then, in the middle of September everything suddenly stopped. We have not had any inquires or requests. I have contacted Airbnb several times and they tell me that my listing is in the green. I have done all the recommendations: changed up the images and re-saved, made sure that we do not have restricted criteria for booking availability to guests (i.e. ID issues), I have lowered the price in line with the competition in my area and kept and eye on trends, I have offered promotions, created a social media accounts to point back to my listing page, created a walk through video and posted in on YouTube and other ad accounts since Airbnb still does not let hosts put videos on their own listings.....and still, nothing. Any other ideas that I have not done or insights other than the market has slowed? 

[Helen3]

Hello @Anne-And-Jez0 

All new hosts get a new boost for a month or so, so many hosts get lots of bookings in the first few months. STRs are a volatile market as many factors will affect demand.

when you started your STR business, what did your market research show you was the state of the market in your area for your type of listings ?

Is it a saturated market with more supply than demand for your sort of property?

What are your high and low seasons in your area?

Have you written and designed your listing with your target audience firmly in mind?

We are in the middle of massively increasing rising gas, oil and electricity bills  in many countries so demand for luxuries such as holidays is dropping as people tighten their belts

My advice......

1. List on every relevant platform

2. Take direct bookings

3. Invest in a marketing plan to drive traffic to your direct booking channels.

[Anne-And-Jez0]

Hi @Helen3 Thank you for your reply. Our next step at this point was to look at hosting on other platforms. However, we did not have a good experience with Booking.com and we are not eligible to host on VRBO as we are not hosting an entire vacation home. We do have a marketing plan and have done, and continue to do a lot of research into trends, market saturation, competition, and peak season. We also have only ever done instant book. So, we are left with other hosting platforms and paid advertising. Thank you.

[Sudsrung0]

@Anne-And-Jez0 

Im afraid there is no magic answer, rising cost are not helping around the world, cost of flights I know many people who are giving it a miss, my daughter in law wants to come from the UK to Thailand the flight are more than double.

What problem did you have with Booking.com? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Anne-And-Jez0 one thought - 'You have lowered your price in line with the competition'. Actually you have priced in line with listings that haven't booked. Perhaps the cheaper ones have booked.

[Sharon83]

Hi Anne and Jez0,

I am having the same issue and the issue started around the same time, Summer 2022.

I think AirBnB must have changed something in their system to promote other properties.

For example, promote properties in non-conventional vacation locations.  Isn't that what they announced in their Spring Webinar? Encourage travelers to consider regions of the world they may not have thought of before.  Right now, the AirBnB homepage has pictures of cabins deep in the woods surrounded by acres of land. The choices across the top menu are in this sequence, which doesn't seem to match where most people vacation:

National Parks,

Cabins,

Amazing Views,

Castles,

Caves,

Mansions,

Amazing Pools,

Private room,

Tree houses,

OMGI,

Beachfront,

Luxe,

Off the Grid,  and more