Any new bookings since 2022 summer release ?

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

Any new bookings since 2022 summer release ?

After Airbnb's summer release on May 5. my all bookings stopped.

I got just 1 new booking since

I have 3  listings

It's the top season here.

 

How about you?

63 Replies 63
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

 

Long response, but my answer is a bit complicated...

 

I host long term guests, so I don't get the volume of bookings/enquiries that most hosts do. However, I hadn't noticed any change since the release. I got one booking a couple of days after, a request that was retracted and several enquiries -  more than usual in fact. That's average to good for me.

 

BUT, there is definitely something going on.

 

The only category I think my rooms fit is 'shared homes', where none show up even when I really zoom in on the map. One (let's call it room 1) only appears when I enter dates, but the other two don't, even if I am literally zooming in on my house. It's got nothing to do with 'key words' in the listings, which are almost identical. I doubt it's the photos as they were all taken by Airbnb photographers and, apart from the bedroom themselves, show the same communal areas, bathrooms etc.

 

I wasn't too worried as I believe most of my guests will still search the traditional way and, judging by the number of enquiries, they are still finding me. However, I had noticed when I searched the traditional way (and being quite specific about dates and locations) that Room 1 was showing near the top. If I got even more specific, Room 3 would appear, but Room 2 (my most popular room) was buried further down.

 

This makes no sense. The prices, availability and ratings are very similar. The location and booking options are the same. What's even odder is that, shortly before the release, I checked my views. They were up on the previous month, but Room 2 (which has always been the most popular and first to get booked) had at least 1,000 more views than the others, which is a lot for me.

 

Now, following the release, my views are down on the previous month for each room, but for Room 2 (now buried in the listings) it is close to half. Bearing in mind how high the views were before, this means they must have really nose dived in the past couple of weeks.

 

So, I go back and look at the requests/bookings since the release and, low and behold, they are all for Room 1 and 3. Not a single one for Room 2. Why? What has Airbnb done with my most popular, most viewed room? Why has it suddenly become almost invisible?

 

 

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Branka-and-Silvia0  My views were down, but tbh they've been going down for a year straight, and they've spiked up in the last three days.  I've gotten three bookings - one from VRBO, one from Glamping Hub, and today, one from Airbnb.  And the Airbnb one came for a listing that looks like it had disappeared.

 

Meanwhile, in addition to what @Paul1255 noted about updating the amenities, I've worked on my photo captions.  I use review excerpts for the captions, and I've searched the reviews for certain keywords, then used those phrases in the captions.  I don't think most guests read the captions, but the AI certainly does.  You can almost double your keywords by pulling phrases from reviews and adding them to captions.

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Branka-and-Silvia0  I don't know how relevent this is, but for the VERY first time, when I went into the calendar and clicked on individual dates to see the Airbnb $ recommendations, almost all of them were for $10-20 more per night.  We're pretty much booked for most of the rest of the year outside of a couple of weeks in Nov. and Dec. but I did input all those new prices.  Interestingly, the system wanted me to raise the week day prices but lower the weekend prices by $4.  If we do continue next year I guess I will raise the prices again, LOL.

 

 

Susan1188
Level 10
Marbella, Spain

I've had new trip request.
From people who clearly searched for other areas (nightlife, binge-drinking, 20 year old old area)
And were proposed my luxury high end apartments in golfing, tennis, family, discreet area.
Because they first searched for the bar area.
Then clicked on the "pool" or "view" category.
The search then zoomed out to include my listing - on a 2 day promotion -  at least 1 hour from where they originally wanted.

They didn't even know or care really, where I was.
For the first time in many years I had to refuse 2 trip request in a row for similar type of guest (group of young males looking to party) who don't correspond at all to my property.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan1188 

 

Interesting. I've received a healthy number of enquiries since the release but most of them unsuitable, e.g.

 

- Experienced guest with loads of lovely reviews wanting to book but I am nowhere near the university she will be attending.

- Guest asking me about safety concerns. Seemed quite confused about where the listing was located.

- Guest with questions RE the shared bathroom and how many people would be using it. My listing states 3.5 shared bathrooms.

- Booking request which was withdrawn because guest entered the wrong dates.

- Guest enquiring about WiFi speed.

- Guest who asked if I accepted students. I said yes, but when I asked her to read the house rules, she disappeared.

- Request booking, which I accepted as guest seemed to have actually read everything! Hallelujah. Then turns out he hadn't noted that the room faces a busy road, which is mentioned several times.

- Another guest enquiring about journey times to her college, who never responded after I supplied that info.

 

All of this is quite normal in terms of content. However, for me (hosting long term guests and therefore getting less enquiries/bookings than your average host) that is a lot of enquiries in a short space of time where the guests do not seem to understand where the listing is/haven't understood something clearly stated on the listing.


It could be a complete coincidence, but why so many who are confused since the new Summer Launch?

@Huma0 

I've seen a trend in people recently  "discovering" Airbnb, first trip, empty profile,  and thinking it's like Uber or a hotel.  Needing lots of education about the need to communicate with host and read the listing.

Most of these inquiries work out fine if you stick to your rules and explain a bit.

My concern is my 2 recent requests, groups of young men interested in "nightlife" (my quiet residential apartments are only suitable to quiet couples and families) who told me they picked me because of the view or the pool.  Which signals to me they were possibly searching in another area and clicked pool and got me due to my weekend promotion next week.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan1188 

 

The guest who enquired when my location was really not that convenient for her university got back to me asking more questions, e.g. would she have her own private bathroom (listing clearly states shared bathrooms and this is right at the beginning) and do I and my family also live in the house and other questions clearly detailed on the listing.

 

Of course, this could just be a common case of guests who do not read the listings, but I've been getting more of these than is usual, especially people who are confused as to the location (perhaps they have been searching for a different area but get directed to me now).

 

Also, this guest has many, many great reviews and they are particularly glowing  about her communication, so I really don't understand why she is really not understanding what the listing is. It's almost like she entered her search criteria and then was shown a bunch of irrelevant results...

M199
Level 10
South Bruce Peninsula, Canada

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

 

We were fully booked until Sept 6.  we had a 1 week August high season cancellation.  Not sure if it's related or just timing, but the weeke was rebooked in 2-3 days at  25% increase.  Also, we have had 2 Sept bookings.

 

Just not enough info to evaluate, but leaning to just market conditions and not due to the new release.

I opened my shared home in March 2022. I had 75% occupancy rate  in March and 85% in April. This month since the update ZERO !!

Michelle53
Level 10
Chicago, IL

My views are down by two thirds, based on March and April numbers. 

 

I have had one inquiry since the "update" - that didn't work out, since the travel time by public transit to the desired concert location would have been well over an hour. 

 

Zero requests to book.  June was already full, but I have open weeks in July and August which is prime travel season here. 

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

My bookings are seriously slow. I have gotten one booking in the last two weeks and it was someone who I can tell zoomed in on my location exactly. During this time of the year, I am usually filling up with tourists traveling over an hour away. 

 

I had a cancelation for Memorial Day last week and haven't rebooked it yet. This is odd. And over a week ago I opened the month of August (the busiest month of the year) and haven't gotten a single booking yet. This is very odd. Something has definitely changed and driving search results in another direction.

@Emilia42   I just did a test search and I found a similar thing - my listing doesn't even come up until I've zoomed in almost right onto it - an area on the map of about 4 square blocks. 

 

That might be all well and good if one is right in the middle of a dense city center where listings probably appear to be one on top of another and the map too crowded. 

 

In my residential location, I'm now almost impossible to find, in a city 234 square miles in size.  

 

Even if one was searching just the Northwest side of the city - that would be 4 square blocks in - say - 50 square miles. 

Kyle148
Level 3
North Las Vegas, NV

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Exactly the same experience for me. I started my Airbnb in Las Vegas Nevada in April of 2018. Since the first day my listing became active, I have never had a single vacant weekend ever - not one in 4 years. And usually I've always been booked up at least 2 months in advance. This year, booked solid up until the end of May and then NOTHING for June and nothing the rest of the year - only one weekend booked in June (and June is only a week away) and one booking in July. I tried checking my listing to see if anything was wrong, I called Airbnb and they said everything is normal and nothing has changed. But clearly something is going on. I've considered it could have something to do with the state of the economy, inflation, gas prices, food prices, etc. But it is really weird and it started right after the changes with the Airbnb summer thing. I suspected it immediately, and now feel not strongly about it being the culprit after finding this post. As a result of the slow down, I am clearing out my things and putting the house for sale next month. I'm devastated and heart broken over it, but I can't afford to not be booked and now is the time to sell if I have to... What a huge disappointment...especially if Airbnbs changes are responsible for it.

@Kyle148that's the intention- redirect tourists from popular cities to other destinations. But why sell? Why not use other platforms? Las Vegas will always be a popular destination and if Airbnb doesn't want to book it then their competitors will

Tony-And-Una0
Level 10
Belfast, United Kingdom

We are the same.

 

Bookings from Airbnb have collapsed exactly the day the changes were made.

 

No change from volumes on other platforms so it's not the economy, monkeypox, or anything else.

 

We do show up on the search. But as we can now no longer highlight anything about our listing on the result page, we are just one of hundreds of pictures of people's living rooms.

 

Also the number of reviews being displayed was key for us.  Guests seeing we have hundreds of reviews gave them confidence to book with us.

 

All that hard work over many years relegated for reasons we don't really understand.