Drop in bookings

[Marla35]

Frieden Haus-Fredericksburg, TX

We have been listed with AirBnB since 2018 (5 years).  Always maintained Superhosts status & 5-star reviews (150+).  This property has been WILDLY popular staying booked at 100% capacity on weekends.  May 2022, AirBnB bookings dropped to near nothing almost overnight.  HELP!  I’ve contacted AirBnB numerous times and they just send me articles on how to take pictures or check my views, etc, etc.  Is anyone else experiencing their bookings just drying up on AirBnB??

link to my listing:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/28440703

[Pat271]

@Marla35  Please don’t take the following the wrong way - I’m only trying to show you the problem from the point of view of the guest.

I searched for Fredericksburg, March 19-21, 4 guests.

Not only are you farther from Main Street than most of the other listings, you are also not priced competitively. Unfortunately, we are not in the same market that existed in 2021 and the first half of 2022. Guests looking at this map won’t even bother to click on your property to see how nice it is.

To add insult to injury, if I search for Fredericksburg without dates, your property doesn’t even show up, no matter how far I zoom in. I think this is because the Airbnb algorithm now considers you an outlier because your rate is so much higher than the others. Pricing is one of the Airbnb algorithm components for deciding on the search results - they have even published this fact in writing. Again, no one will be persuaded to view your property to see how nice it is if it doesn’t even show up.

Lower your price 50%, and you may have more luck.

It is critical right now (and always, really) to watch your competition.

By the way, I lived in Austin for many years, and have been to Fredericksburg many times. What a lovely little town - my favorite in all of the Hill Country.

[Pat271]

@Marla35  Here is a property, bigger than yours, 2 blocks from Main St.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/51885491

They have lowered their price from $375 to $195 - so apparently everyone up there is feeling the pinch. They are booked solid on the weekends, though, for the next 2 months.

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@Marla35 in addition to price I see you only open up the calendar 3 months in advance. This may not help with your bookings. 

[Marla35]

@Pat271  Thanks so much for taking the time to checkout my listing and respond!! 🙏 

We currently are having success booking through VRBO and have been booked out for 6 weeks now.  Same price point, pictures, etc., etc. Just not on AirBnB like we were used to.  We’ve made no major changes to our AirBnb listing, but oddly went from top Airbnb producing property to nothing almost overnight. 

[Pat271]

@Marla35  If you are booked out for 6 weeks on VRBO, perhaps this is why you are not getting any bookings from Airbnb.

Also, check the properties in your vicinity on VRBO. Maybe theirs are priced more competitively with yours.

[Jennifer2682]

Search "Summer Release" in the Community Center.  That's when it fell off the cliff for a whole bunch of us.  

[Robert5871]

Yes!  California, Ventura County. We have had very little action on our 2 properties that were 80 percent booked year round.   Nothing on either property for months.  

[Bill1256]

We are in E TN, we have been on Airbnb for 7 years and Superhosts since year one.  We are a lake front property and have always been booked through the summer.  Early months are always little to nothing but YTD 2022 we had 73 nights from Jan 1-May 31.  This year we have had 7 nights for the same time frame.  We are listed on VRBO as well.  I don't know what is happening, but we feel a huge difference.  We have kept our prices up because we don't want to deal with bargain shoppers or those who will try to put 12 people in a cabin designed and marketed for 7.    

We have a 4.98 rating and have always responded to inquiries within 1 hour or less.  We are water front with a private dock.  We have upscale furniture and provide many extra's for convenience.  

I don't know if there are that many more properties on the market or what is going on.  On VRBO we used to come up in the top 10 searches consistently.  Now we rank in the 600-700 range.  When we use the Boost option it literally does nothing to move our ranking. 

We certainly feel your pain.

Bill and Sonja

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13641050?adults=1&category_tag=Tag%3A5348&children=0&enable_m3_private_...