Is airbnb dead

[Craig319]

Firstly, utilisation is down, and I'm seeing Airbnb advertising locally, which I've never seen before. I suspect Airbnb is being too greedy now, charging the host and guest a good chunk for each stay compared to bookings.com, which recently seems to be the majority of my reservations nowadays. 

Secondly, I just can't understand the new platform. I recently relisted a unit and by just adding some new photos it changed my listing from a one bedroom studio to a two bedroom apartment with no beds... this is the same one bedroom studio unit I've rented out for years via Airbnb. Guess what.. my first guest was expecting a two bedroom unit at 8pm on a Saturday night. Little awarded, to say the least, for all parties...

First, dealing with the new guest and having to offer a refund, I immediately went to correct the listing issue. As someone who has worked in IT & Marketing for over 30 years, I had no obvious way of working out how to correct this listing issue regarding an additional bedroom. Having to call support as a super host, I was informed that their AI changed my listing, and to correct it, I had to go into the images section to fix the bedroom count... seriously wtf. and to top things off, all my properties were being promoted as being next to a golf course, which they aren't, speaking to the same support person, I was told this isn't something I can manage via the Airbnb platform... 

I love Airbnb. It's been a great platform and a steady source of revenue over the years, but it's a very different beast today. Sadly, as a host, I can't see myself sticking with the platform or surviving in the Australian market, at least from my perspective.

[Elaine-Nick0]

Craig I agree we are having a different but concerning issue we have not been paid since 12 April we have 4 stays still being blocked over $2000.

I have blocked out calendar until the end of June as I do not want any more or my time or money tied up.

I have made so many call and emails to them, and like yourself it has been a fantastic platform but I do feel it has run it course.

We are about to list our cottage for sale and invest in something else, probably the kids lol.

Take care and thanks for speaking out.

I wonder what would happen if everyone blocked their listings for all of June?

Cheers take care

[Joan2709]

Hi @Craig319 

Sounds like all the problems with bedroom count has to do with the new AI photo tour Airbnb introduced. I'm not a fan either. For the bedroom/bed count to be correct, you have to add the number of beds/size to  "sleeping arrangements" on the photos of the beds. The best way to show your place is a studio, is to remove bedrooms and place your photo of the bed in the Living Room. This tells the Ai that this is a Studio:

This will fix the number of "bedrooms" issue on your listings and show them as a Studio (if they are in fact a Studio).

Remove The Photo Tour 

To get rid of the AI Photo Tour format (many Hosts have had similar issues as yours), simply go to one of the rooms (not the living room as it shows the bed in that room) and move all the photos out of that room to additional photos. The photo tour will only be active if there is at least one photo in each room. By removing photos from one of your rooms (not the living room), the photo tour will be inactivated. Maybe use the "Exterior Room". Simply select the photo in that room and move the one photo from that room to "Additional Photos".  Don't delete it, just use the move button to move to addl photos room:

Now click "all photos" at the top and your photos will be displayed as before in a grid. You can then drag and drop the photos in whatever order you want. 

[Mary1523]

Interesting. The photo tour is very annoying, when it asks me everytime do I want it to sort my photos for me. I let it do it once, it was a disaster - I don't think it chose anything that seemed natural for a human to want to view in that order.

I redid it all like how I would want to see it as a guest.Think its trying to solve a problem that might not be there? I get it doing a suggestion  for a cover photo, but not for the rest.

Bad use of AI if you ask me.

[Mary1523]

@Craig319 Sorry to hear your listing issues. The new photo tour is rubbish. Love your studios, I'll keep it mind for my next Brisbane trip!

I think you will find you will eventually get pushed down the ranking list on airbnb the less bookings you get on airbnb anyways if you are active on booking.com. And lose super host status. That might be why you are already seeing a decline in bookings. 

Plus Airbnb also tends to penalise listings over time that aren't true to form, you can see that in your review ratings. Some guests have had different expectations from your listing description. Of course, that's up to you if you wish to re position your listings to manage expectations/address anything. Nothing wrong being in the more affordable/budget end of accomodation.

I'm just not sure its all an airbnb problem, but a combination of a few things. If your ratings were consistently above 4.8 I would have given a different answer. 

Bookings.com will give you volume but a broader cross section of guests, so it depends upon what is more important to you, just the money/income at scale or if you want to be more selective with guests/manage expectations and therefore get top notch reviews in airbnb? I don't think you can have both IMHO.

Best of luck

Kind regs

Mary