Bookings dried up (but only for one of our homes) - why?!

Geoff92
Level 2
Orange, AU

Bookings dried up (but only for one of our homes) - why?!

My wife and I are new this year to Air BnB all had been going great until the last four weeks (coinciding with getting SuperHost status). Bookings for one of our homes have dried up completely. https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/25194286?location=Orange%2C%20NSW&checkin=&checkout=&s=szUXRtLF

Formerly our home appeared near the top of the listings for our town of Orange in NSW Australia.  Now it's way, way down.  More puzzling, when we use map view (which is our prefered way to find a suitably located place when we are guests) our home is not even showing on the map unless we zoom right in to the correct city block. That's despite plenty of other nearby homes showing up.  This even applies when we set filters to better match our home. Still more puzzling, none of these issues apply to our second rental home...plenty of bookings and high apparency in Air BnB searches.

We have been tweaking prices and description 2 or 3 times a week to no avail.

We'd really appreciate any thoughts on what went wrong.  

Incientally, the problem property is going okay in Home Away Stayz so maybe we just need to forget about Air BnB?!

Thanks folks,

Geoff & Jian

11 Replies 11
Noel63
Level 10
Coober Pedy, Australia

@Geoff92Are you a new host? If so, you may have just lost your new host bump.

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply Noel. Well, the home we are worried about was first listed in early July, and went great until about four weeks ago (when we got superhost status) so maybe that new host bump is part of the problem. 

I still don't really understand why the Air BnB map of available properties behaves the way I describe - with ours appearing only when zoomed right in close to our city block. Maybe that's just another way that Air BnB promotes/favours (or vice versa!) some listings over others.  But it's strange that our other Air BnB rental (which we first listed in Jan this year) has not had these issues.  Plenty of bookings still and the home always appears on the map even when zoomed out.

Cheers,

Geoff

You got 45 reviews as host but your place only showing 9...

what changed and can this be a reason..?

Also your listing is not showing up on your profile?

Hey Giedre/Andre,  Kind of you to offer those ideas.  I think the 45 reviews might be the total for both our listings and the 9 reviews for the more recent one that's gone quiet.

I am not sure what you mean abot the listing not being in my profile (still q new to this scene!) so I'll do some research on that. 

Thanks

Geoff

 

Letti0
Level 10
Atascosa, TX

@Giedre-and-Andre0  Both of his listings are on his profile. One with 32 reviews the other with 9 reviews. @Geoff92  All you can really do is swap out pictures maybe use a different lead photo, adjust pricing, change your description and title some with the hope this will help. There is not much you can do hopefully it's just a slow time and the bookings will come. The one near the beach will attract more booking as water is a draw from many larger groups. 

Hi Letti, Thanks for your message. So we did a bit of a make over of the listing yesterday and today it seems to be more apparent on the map and higher up in the list of homes. Let's hope that translates to some more views soon 🙂  Cheers, Geoff

 

@Letti0 Yes, I see... on mobile device all 2 listings showing up on profile. On PC non (still strange).

I agree, Airbnb seems to put much effort into a campaign to notify hosts about “professional pictures”. I think listings showing up in a lower ranking on search if they don’t meet a specific standard. Seems to be new but highly likely as lately this problem came up a lot in forms.

AA6037A0-EFBE-49EF-AC77-C763E22D7FF7.jpeg

 

 

 

Letti0
Level 10
Atascosa, TX

@Giedre-and-Andre0  I have the two listings listed on both the phone app and my computer. I don't get why you don't show them. Maybe it's a cache or cookie issue. 

@Letti0 Yes, its strange... if I follow his link (in upper message) and from there I go to his profile, the listings not showing up. If I just click on his picture here and than go to profile, 2 listings are showing.

But I think this is not the core reason why there are less bookings. I think you nailed it with your previous comment.

Geoff92
Level 2
Orange, AU

Problem solved!   Thanks again everyone for the suggestions.  We have taken three bookings in the 36hr since giving the listing a make over.  Those changes made our home appear much higher in search results for Orange. Happy hosting.  G

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

This is great to hear @Geoff92

 

Just @ mentioning in @Giedre-and-Andre0@Letti0 and @Noel63, as I am sure they will be pleased that their suggestions have helped to kick start your bookings again. 

 

Happy hosting. 🙂


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