Curious- who else is experiencing slow season

[Yadira22]

Hello All,

hope you are well.

this month has been terrible for us, anyone else? 
I still have people looking but no  much luck with actual bookings- have changed settings to make it easier to book (IB is on), updated the listing itself, spent time in the photos, etc. Anything you found helps this? 
given my location, saying it’s due to increased competition and also a bit due to brexit and season (it’s not really peak season in London) but also Christmas just passed and this is obviously a very expensive time for anyone. 
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 
thanks,

yadira 🙂

[Michelle53]

Something is definitely different. I have had one booking all year, so far, and they cancelled after two hours. Nothing at all on the books for the year, so far.  It's never been like that for me in the four years I've been hosting. 

I feel like my price is pretty reasonable for what people get. To join the "race to the bottom" on price would mean I'm not getting fairly compensated for my time and costs, and I'm not sure the customer looking for the cheapest price is a customer I'd want. 

Reading the stats, it tells me overall bookings are down 35% - 50% in my area, and number of properties available is up by about the same amount. 

I don't know if criteria on the searches have changed, or the way the data is presented has changed, or some other thing on the booking page, or events in the news are affecting travel, but this doesn't seem like a pricing issue to me. 

[Amber1]

Florida here. With the exception of Christmas it is very slow and it is our peak season. My destination is PACKED with tourists but Airbnb not so much. Been doing thid for 5 years. Something is up. Been getting more traffic from other sites. 

[Yadira22]

@Amber1 

I am so sorry to hear this. I really hope it picks up for you soon! 

if you don’t mind me asking where else do you list your place(s)? Thanks 🙂

[Amber1]

Vrbo and giving booking.com a shot

[Yadira22]

Hi @Michelle53 

hope you are well. 
Agreed- don’t think it’s a pricing problem because truthfully people will pay a premium to stay with an established host. 
Has it gotten any better? Hope you have an amazing Feb! 
Yadira 🙂

[Michelle53]

Hi @Yadira22  Just got a booking for February this morning. Maybe things are turning, finally  😉

My busy season is spring-summer, so maybe once the events and festivals start up in April, and concert lineups start being promoted, things will pick up. 

Hopefully for you, too. 

[Helen427]

hello @Yadira22 @Michelle53 @Helen3 @J-Renato0 @Robin4 

Market Average is down in Auckland, New Zealand from 72% to 24% for January.

I'm a firm believer these things are due to those who are working in IT at places like Google, Microsoft, ABB not joining there "plumbing" connections each and everytime they impose "upgrades" on us in the wider community.

There seems to be stuff ups with "connectivity" each and every time they change things.

It only takes a little online reading to see when each of these "outages" occurs to see there's repeat patterns of failures of service, all of which have flow on impacts in the wider community to "access" including to ABB both for Hosts and Guests often at peak periods.

Perhaps there's a mole working at ABB IT..

[Yadira22]

Hi @Helen427 

hope you are well. 
I also suspect this- given the incident we had in October/November last year. Also given the air quality being affected by the bushfires in Australia I suspect that tourism might be down compared to last years (even if it’s miles away- some people read something and automatically get put off). 
I hope your business picks up! 
Yadira 🙂

[Leigh367]

Hi Yadira

I find this happens in winter often in Rotorua too, and we are a popular tourist destination like London...

I drop my price right down and that helps. There are a heap.more people hosting through Air BnB now than when I started 3 years ago so that makes it harder to get bookings too.

Hope that is helpful.

Leigh

[Helen427]

Hello @Leigh367 & welcome to ABB CC from a fellow host in Remuera, Auckland.

How os it in Rotorua at the moment?
If you look under Performance in your Dashboard it should have what the figures are Bookings in general terms.

It would be interesting to see if there's much variation between Auckland & Rotorua.

Re when replying to others add the @ in front of the persons name and it should come up in the reply - Admin changed it to make it so much easier for us late last year.

All the best

Central To All Home & Location

Remuera, Auckland

[Kelly149]

@Yadira22 I often notice a dip immediately after a big travel time.... So, 3 day weekend and then next weekend is vacant. July 4th weekend and then the next weekend is vacant. Etc So, January could be that folks have just used up the travel budget with December things??

But, for just myself right this minute, my site traffic has been VERY diminished since 10/31. Time will tell if that is about STR lack of demand, greater supply, or some other problem.

Good luck to you for February!

[Yadira22]

Thank you for your reply @Kelly149  and all the best to you! Wishing you an awesome February! 🙂

[Sean433]

I think this is why location is the best remedy for slow season. If you have a listing that is in a location that always has demand, I think you are fine. The best locations seem to be those near major institutions or places where events are held all year round.

I think having a home near a major hospital or university will help shield you from slow season. Although it sounds grim, people will always be going to the hospital whether it is Jan or Feb or July or August. And their relatives will be visiting them regardless of the time of year. Universities are the same. Parents will visit their children in slow season and when school is out in the summer, you are fine because that is when tourist season kicks in.

My best listing is one that is located close to one of the biggest universities in Canada and it has the best occupancy for January. But the ones that are further out and don't have any major institution nearby are slower.

[Yadira22]

Hi @Sean433 

You are right, location plays a major sport in this but you see my location has not changed in the last 3.5 years- so I can’t see how a consistent top 80 percentile occupancy month or month has dropped to about 30%. 

We are situated about 20 mins walk (1.3km) from the Europe’s largest shopping centre by bus its no longer than 10 mins and am very sincere about this and even mention it before/after booking. I really do not know what else I can do! 😕 

But thank you and wishing you a great Feb! 🙂

[Gordon0]

We've been 'closed' while some renovations were being completed and we took a trip down under. On going live again earlier this week we had five (IB) bookings within a couple of days. I'm guessing there are some algorithm gizmos at play, because I can't believe it's normal to get so many bookings in such a short period of time.

London remains a strong market and the exchange rate favours our continental European neighbours. I'm sure business will pick up for you too, @Yadira22.