Bookings

[Adams4]

There seem to be a drop of bookings for this year on Airbnb. Curious as to what is going on

[Huma0]

@Adams4 

Browse the community centre for threads about the new 'categories' feature or the 'summer release'. You will find many of them, including several on the landing page of this website. 

That might help to explain your situation. There are many, many hosts experiencing a drop in views and bookings since these changes were introduced at the beginning of this month.

[Kate867]

@Adams4  I agree with @Huma0  that the recent update has caused issues for numerous Hosts and is causing a lot of frustration.  I have also suspected for a while that bookings within the U.K. have been down due to a number of reasons including the soaring cost of living, increase in energy and fuel prices, ability to travel abroad again with more ease and many discounted holidays being available.  In some cases it is cheaper to have a package holiday abroad for a family of four than stay in the U.K.  I also understand that many more listings came onto the platform during the pandemic as people sought to invest.  Something that some will come to regret I suspect.  The following link takes you to a recent newspaper article.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10849027/Great-British-Staycation-boom-tourism-chiefs-say-n...

[Huma0]

@Kate867 

That's interesting to hear. I host long term guests who come here mostly for work or study or book with me because they need a temporary home while hunting for an apartment/waiting for a property purchase to go through.

So, I'm definitely not up-to-date with tourism tends here in the UK. I haven't put up my prices that much yet despite the huge increase in the cost of living, energy prices etc. but there's a limit to how much the host can bear the brunt of this burden alone. 

I agree that if I was booking a holiday and on a tight budget, the UK wouldn't be my first choice. Even if you were a UK holiday maker and even with the cost of flights, it can often be cheaper to holiday abroad.

[Kate867]

@Huma0   There seems to have been a real ‘scramble’ during the pandemic as people realised that due to not being able to travel abroad they had to ‘staycation’ and the costs of this as availability fell and prices went up were absolutely’eye watering’ in some cases.  This gave many ideas, and new listings were created, particularly in tourist areas as people rented out their own homes and moved in temporarily with relatives in order to make some money.  And I suspect that those listings remain on the off chance that they will be booked.

I have avoided putting my prices up us well because I suspect it will put people off, particularly given all the grumbling about low bookings.  Fortunately, our electricity bill (no gas) has never been too high as we have led lights, energy efficient appliances etc and our heating is log fire with back boiler.

We are fortunately booked through to the end of Sept, with one reservation in October (surprisingly, not half term week).  However, the majority of those bookings are for repeat visitors, people attending local events, people visiting family but not new guests just wanting to do sightseeing.

I hope your booking rates pick up soon as from what I am hearing and seeing on social media this new category system that Airbnb have rolled out does seem to be hitting the ‘Home share’ host the hardest.

[Huma0]

@Kate867 

One thing I did notice at the beginning of the pandemic when bookings stopped and Airbnb refunded all guests was that a lot of Airbnbs suddenly went on the long term rental market (pushing down prices), meaning that if long term leases were signed for those properties, that would reduce the availability of STR rentals (pushing up prices).

My listings were already booked up for the summer months as business was good before the  Summer Release. It seems to have gone very quiet since then, but I also have some return guests, so hopefully that will help to fill some gaps should it not pick up anytime soon.

Re prices, my electricity bill has always been much lower than the estimate for a house this size because I try (and encourage my guests to try) to be conscious about that. However, this big, very old house already cost a fortune to heat in winter despite installing an energy efficient boiler and new radiators. I dread to think what it's going to cost next winter. Heating is a real bug bear with guests and so it's not like I can reduce the amount of heat. I'm just trying to draught proof the house as best I can within my budget.

[Kate867]

@Huma0   Good to keep an eye on your electric usage.  Where we live now we don’t have a smart meter provided by our supplier (again no gas or electric heating)  so I purchased a cheap one once prices went up …  Absolutely the worst move I ever made as my charming Scottish husband now insists that I cannot exceed £2:00 per day so I have been forced to turn off all vampire devices, unplug everything, only do washing and dishwashing on eco mode and only full loads, use the slow cooker lots and ‘batch cook’ in the oven 🙄

[Huma0]

@Kate867 

I have a smart meter which my energy supplier installed a few months ago, but I can't really make sense of the usage. It doesn't seem to vary enormously regardless of how many people are in the house or what they are doing.

The one exception was recently with two recent guests who were not so energy efficient, e.g. one would keep leaving bathroom lights on, put half a load of laundry in the washer/dryer for three hours, despite clear instructions to select the short cycle etc. The other one would fill my large kettle to max each time she made a cup of tea. I don't know what else she was doing, but the usage definitely shot up when she was at home.

I think I am with your husband on this one. Although I don't try to cap daily use (a bit impossible with three guests in my home), for me it's just normal to wait until the dishwasher is full and use the eco mode or wait until I have a full load of laundry and put it on a quicker wash and low temperature or cold. There is an eco setting for the latter too but I'm not convinced about it as it takes hours. My guests are constantly washing small loads though, but luckily there is a fast setting for that which most use when instructed.