UK Experience bookings dropped off a cliff this year, can't find support to figure out why...

[James2299]

Hey there,

Any guidance on this conundrum would be very much appreciated 🙂

Briefly; last year our Paddleboarding experience made up 50% of our income, it was a great channel for us. This year, 75% fewer bookings compared to May/June last year. If that trend continues into July/August it will have a big impact. For context, all our other channels, including our own website and other 3rd party voucher sellers (Virgin experience days etc) are way up, so the demand seems to be out there. So far I've tried updating the copy, adding new photos, a video, lowering prices, all that stuff. We seem to be appearing in the search algorithm with no heavy competition compared to last year. So unless maybe Airbnb home bookings are 75% down in our area maybe then I'm not sure why the big drop.

The insights tab on the dashboard shows pageviews, they seem to be steady. Although the data from last year has vanished so I can't do a reliable data comparison (although I know income is down, I can compare that ha)!

I know these are tricky times, cost of living is impacting and so on, but we're not seeing that elsewhere, it seems like Airbnb is disproportionately less.

Last year I had an email from northerneuropesupport@airbnb.com offering a post-pandemic 1-2-1 business support call from Natalie. Unfortunately, I've had no response or ability to contact that team this year to get their advice. General superhost support is just the usual passing from person to person with no answer routine that I'm sure you're familiar with (they even denied that a Northern Europe team exists and suggested I was being scammed!).

So just throwing this out here hoping that perhaps someone has had a similar experience and figured out what's up or where to find support.

Thanks in advance for any help, and wishing you all the best with your summer bookings!

Cheers

James

[Annie1372]

@James2299 

 In her latest interview @Catherine-Powell indicated that AirBNB will put less energy on the experiences to concentrate on the lodging

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Interview-Catherine-Powell/td-p/1642711

alsi, going on your own profile, I saw you listing but not your experience.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Annie1372,

Thank you for watching my interview. It was such great fun to talk about how we're growing the business as the world opens up again. Our Hosts for both Stays and Experiences continue to be a priority. I was emphasizing that human connection is so important and we will continue to grow Airbnb.

Best,
Catherine

[Annie1372]

Thanks @Catherine-Powell  for the precision.

For the experience, is there a CC chat specific for them ?

as they seem to have many issues just to log to their own experience and it would be nice for them to regroup all of their concern and questions together 

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Annie1372,

Thank you for your question! The Community Center is the right place to be for all your questions and discussions about Hosting and other Hosts are also able to join in the conversation.

Many thanks,
Catherine