Brace yourself: The Airbnb Winter Release is Coming

[Huma0]

Not sure how many of you know, but Airbnb is about to announce its Winter Release. Yes, that's right. It's the follow up to the Summer Release that caused quite a stir.

I have heard a few things about this, including:

- It will be announced within hours as part of the Q3 Earnings Call.

- @Catherine-Powell will be doing interviews about it over the coming week.

- There may be revisions to the review process, including how Superhost is assessed.

Now, I don't know any of the above for a fact and that information came from more than one source. I was also sent this article below, which speculates about what might be coming. I have no idea if the publication has insider info, or is simply guessing based on what happened with the Summer Release, but some might find it an interesting read:

https://www.rentandrelaxus.com/2022/10/31/airbnb-2022-winter-release-rental-scale-up-2/

[Lenore22]

A bit of a tangent, but I've been sitting with my booking.com listing inactive because I can't figure out how to make it accept payment other than "cash." I've linked my bank account, but I'm not flipping the switch until I know I can get paid.

Any tips?

[Huma0]

@Lenore22 

Sorry, but I've never used it. Maybe some of the other hosts can advise...

[Huma0]

@Ruth413 

I am sure that there are a number of factors and no doubt the economy will have an impact on many hosts going forward.

However, I am not at all convinced that's the reason why so many hosts (and it's not just in the UK, but many countries) saw a steep decline in views and bookings after the Summer Release. Tourism figures in Europe were up, not down, this year, with so many people desperate to travel after two years of pandemic, so much so that hotels were putting their prices up. A simple Google search will bring up lots of articles about it. One article I read reported very high figures of Americans travelling abroad, with London being one of the most popular destinations.

Meanwhile, many hosts reported here that while they were not getting bookings on Airbnb, they were on other platforms and the ratio had changed dramatically. Airbnb hosts should have been benefitting from this surge in travel, but we weren't, at least not after the Summer Release.

While there may be other factors involved, it simply cannot be a coincidence that, for so many of us, views dropped off a cliff DIRECTLY after the Summer Release. One of my rooms received over 2,200 views in the month right before and around 220 in the month directly after. That's right, views dropped by 90%, and then continued to drop until it was only a handful of views a month. That was always my most popular room, but was pushed right down the search results. Why? It's not because of availability or price. And in the map view, all of my listings were pretty much invisible.

Meanwhile, I have had more repeat guests booking this year than ever before. Why? Because the calendar had been freed up enabling them to do so! No one else could find my listings, but they were messaging me directly from the thread of their previous bookings.

[Ruth413]

@Huma0 @Mike-And-Jane0  @Sudsrung0    Well how things change so quickly.  FYI  I could tag Huma and Mike and Jane automatically but had to type Sudsrung in manually.   

I do use VRBO and yes their bookings have upped dramatically this year, going form 90% Airbnb bookings to now 50/50 spread across the two.  Although now those have dropped off too, that is why I am putting it down to people not having the money to spend for a little getaway.  Or perhaps they do have the money and prefer to spend it abroad as that is now incredibly cheap to hop across to Europe.  

Re cottages.com, booking.com etc.  I am afraid I am probably too much of a control freak and like to do everything myself and also get to know any guests who are staying beforehand etc.   We have been approached by a few companies asking to advertise us, but when they said we couldn't have any say ourselves, I baulked at that.  We have worked extremely hard to get our places up and running and I gave up my full time work to clean, iron, do all the online stuff and greet our guests with a smile and hopefully provide them with a wonderful time.  

Normally at this time of year it quietens down to weekend stays, but I must admit I am getting nervous as no views or bookings are coming in but I am crossing my fingers in hope.  We are probably at the high end re pricing re other nearby properties, but we do provide a lot more and I really am loath to drop the prices as this would be at a loss for us and from past experience when I was a newbie, it was the only time I got marked down in reviews. 

I do have a few options - both the properties have Hot Tubs so we are thinking of possibly taking those off, reducing the price and offering them as an optional paid extra ? 

We also have a lot of return guests, so maybe setting up our own website and going independently as well. 

Tightening the belts and saying to hell with it and closing until next spring - hopefully the electricity bill would be a lot less.

And finally on the positive, in the quiet times, we are going to have a massive clear out of our own place, paint and renew and as we have no bookings at the end of November.  A weeks holiday will be taken to beautiful and wild Cornwall.  This is somewhere we go to every year and interestingly they charge for electricity, oil and logs separately but their rents are really low and it is like stepping back in time a couple of hundred years.  Bliss !

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Apologies to all but just seeing where this reply goes in the new Community Centre

[Ruth413]

What happened?  I've only been gone 12 hrs and it's all changed.  Trying to work it out to reply to everyone who has replied to me !  I was going to one message and tag everyone in it and now it looks like that isn't possible

[Jennifer2682]

I keep wanting to comment on this, but the only words popping into my head are ones that will get me kicked off the platform.  

[Huma0]

@Jennifer2682 

Lol, I hear you!

[John5097]

 Looks like some changes are in the works. To what extent I'm not sure.

My views dropped off some after the Summer Release. But now my listing has picked up, back to being one of the top featured Airbnbs in my area which is really competitive.

It will just continue to become more competitive. New host are giving a boost when they list to see if they get any traction. A new one is more likely to be recently renovated. 

I didn't see any of Chesky comments but the other financial summary is that Airbnb made record profit but its nightly stays were down. An analysist on Bloomberg speculated that Airbnb won't see the kind of growth it has in the past as people will continue to also use hotels. He said that Airbnb would need to look into categories like including car rentals, air flights, etc like Expedia or some of the others. Airbnb stocks are down at the moment beacuse it has lowered Q4 projections so think it will be a slow winter with inflation and economy.  He also mentioned that Airbnb would need to have repeat guest so the quality of their stays will matter. He just said that in passing but makes sense. I'm seeing a lot of new listings in some of the more sketchy areas and most guest aren't going to know that until they stay there. 

It makes sense Airbnb would offer something else maybe like some kind of paid insurance for host? 

The reviews also need to be accurate. Airbnb doesn't want its really great listings tarnished by an innacurte review. Why book a 4 star on Airbnb when you can book a 5 star on some other platform? 

It would help if they could instruct guest to rate on the accuracy of the location and accuracy of the listing. As it is now too many guest are using the review as a means of bargaining for their next stay or extortion. For example there are a lot of multi million dollar houses in my area, some in the tens of millions, and some guest think next time maybe they can rent one of those for a hundred a night and be dissatisfied not realizing how high the cost of living is in a partular area. 


 

[Huma0]

@John5097 

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@John5097 wrote:

 
He also mentioned that Airbnb would need to have repeat guest so the quality of their stays will matter. He just said that in passing but makes sense. 


 

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But doesn't that contradict the emphasis to bring on more and more new hosts?

I have found that repeat guests have made up a much higher percentage of my bookings than normal since the Summer Release. It's not that I didn't get guests wanting to rebook before, it's more that my calendar was so full that they never got a look in and, who knows how many tried to book and failed but didn't message me?

Of course, repeat business is good business, but if you flood the market with new, underpriced listings, you are undermining that repeat business.

[John5097]

@Huma0 

That's positive you have repeat guest. I think what he meant is that guest would have a positive experience with their stays and want to use the platform again and stay again. I'm not sure how newer listings would factor in but of course its a review based platform and a listing with no reviews might have more risk. If a guest has a poor experience they would be less likely to use Airbnb again. This was in context to Airbnb and competition with hotels and other listings sites, and growth. 

But this is the interview here in first video.  There is an ad but pretty interesting. He was saying that Airbnb did well with pandemic but people are using hotels again. But all a matter of interpretation, and may not have anything to do with why one particular host and listing may not be getting the same views as they used to. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-01/airbnb-sees-slowdown-in-bookings-as-pandemic-tren...

[Huma0]

@John5097 

Ah, I see. I thought you meant repeat bookings of the same listings, rather than the site overall.

Of course, Airbnb wants guests to repeatedly book via the platform, but wasn't that always the case?

I will take a look at the video when I have a chance. Thanks for posting.

[John5097]

@Huma0 

I'm also the same and usually booked so far in advance returning guest can't book. 

Thankfully  some of the Summer Release has been dropped. The random 7 day stay and showing discounted rates was a total disaster and Airbnb now shows 5 days.

Airbnb also prioritized the more expensive listings for a while which was also a disaster.

Airbnb needs to better facilitate guest finding the right place for them and be more transparent in some areas. 

For me the vast majority of my guest don't want to cook and prefer a more budget friendly rates. Most guest understand this, but some, and Airbnb, don't want to include info that is relevant to guest, such as simple option for Kitchenette.

That's just an example. Someone is too controlling, I suspect the CEO, and guest are turned off by this. From forcing guest a week stay at default, showing discounted rates at default, not being transparent with options to help guest find the right place for them. This isn't how Amazon works. If so they would also be losing customers. 

Finally, to get back to flood of new listings. Just because they have more host may not translate in to a positive guest experience. Most guest visiting aren't familiar with the area even after staying here 3 nights. A lot of the newer listings are by the airport, have terrible traffic, and just dangerous to drive, and guest may not feel safe. 

Airbnb would do well to compare rates to hotels as they are more expensive in my area and also in poor locations. 

But overall I think its good some of the updates from Summer Release has been walked back. Most other host were fine with the 7 day default, also thinking they are going to control guest, but I never got a single reservation for the default week. 

That was such a major update all the alogrythems were reset. 

For long term stays perhaps they should have different algos. 

Thankfully my guest generally are just decent responsible people. But Airbnb can be short sighted I think and only care about short term profit margins, that could translate into both guest and host having poor experience, as quality control for both host and guest takes a back seat. 

[John5097]

@Huma0 

There should also be an updates catitgory here at the CC. That seems very relevant but ovousuly they had some negative reactions, but that's usually why I check back to the CC to keep up with changing policy. 

The other categories seem too similar and likely not going to be checking each one. Mostly I'm interested in hosting and keeping up to date on changes and offering my suggestions to help improve policy. 

Unfortunately thangs can become too negative and not relevant. But I'm always making updates and improvements and a lot of people see that as negative, as part of it is recognizing room for improvement. 

[Huma0]

@John5097 

Yes, an updates category on the CC would make sense. There might still be one, as I noticed not all the categories show on the menu on the homepage. If there isn't one, it should be added and clearly displayed as it is useful to have one place you can go to to access important info like that.