Drastic drop in requests and reservations

[Paolo-and-Cristina0]

Good evening to all,

I would like to know if it is only happening to us, but since early November, the number of requests and reservations has dropped dramatically. I have not changed anything in the announcements (5 advs) , no negative reviews and lower prices for the few free dates in the following weeks. Supehost from several years. We have always had reservations constantly, throughout the year. It 's this happening to any of you?

[Inna22]

@Suzanne302 I was thinking the same thing- I am not sure if it is making me feel better that everyone else is going through the same thing or it is worse that it is not a small problem with my property that might resolve soon enough but rather a global issue

[Paolo-and-Cristina0]

@Suzanne302Thanks Suzanne for your kind comments. The strange thing is a drop from day to day, never happened before. Perhaps the increase in ads in my area, but we have been working with Airbnb since 2012, such a collapse is not justified ..... I wish all hosts to get back to their deserved reservations as soon as possible.

[Sarah977]

Yes, everyone here in my Mexican town says their bookings are way down as well. 

[Helen427]

I had a busy month in November however it was the same last year here in Auckland, New Zealand as it's our peak travel time with both locals and tourists with summer now upon us.

My gripe is been unable to access my account to reply to msgs due to a silly IT glitch caused through sending an 'Enquiry'.

I've been denied access to my msgs and been able to reply to an enquiry I received for next year which is very annoying.

[Alexandra316]

@Paolo-and-Cristina0 Our bookings fell off of a cliff at the end of October. We were pretty much fully booked until then, then suddenly nothing. It's even quieter than the first year we opened. November was really bad: we made less money than we would have with a conventional tenant.

[Laura1455]

@Paolo-and-Cristina0  my listings are at Mexico at the downtown area of my city, they were usually booked 70-90% of the month for the past almost 2 yeara and same as you, as of beginning of November the bookings simply dropped down, even though we have İnstant Booking enabled, İ found it weird that on December one of the listings got only around 30% booked as December is a high season here.

İ thought about decreasing  the prices but we already have a low one as we have many competitors on the same apartmenrs complex so İ think İ will have to keep figuring out what might have changed/impacted, İ also got the idea that something might have changed on Airbnb that is affecting the bookings. Best regards.

[Susan17]

All of the reasons stated by previous posters above are correct - grossly over-saturated markets, dramatically decreased guest satisfaction ratings, plummeting consumer confidence in the plarform, preferential placement and promotion of huge commercial operators, opaque (and often, astronomical) service fees turning guests off, tricky algorithms pushing longer-tenured hosts further and further to the bottom of the searches, serious safety and security concerns, searches being deliberately centred on downtown/inner city areas, severe and prolonged reputational damage suffered by the company, listings being hidden in markets where Airbnb's infrastructure is cracking and fracturing under the strain, incessant tech malfunctions and financial irregularities on the site, etc etc, are all turning guests away from the platform, driving down demand, and leading to fewer and fewer bookings for regular hosts. And the situation can only deteriorate, rather than improve.

The single biggest factor at play at the moment though, is the aggressive global new-host recruitment drive that Airbnb has been conducting in recent months - with up to $1K Guaranteed Earnings incentives for new sign-ups, and up to a whopping $800 Referral Fee bonus in some regions - for wave after wave of starry-eyed novices clamouring to hop onboard the Airbnb Gravy Train. And of course, all those lovely fresh-blood newbies automatically get their "newbie boost", straight up to the top of the searches. Between them and the commercial operators dominating the placement, how would there be room for anyone else? But as long as Airbnb can artificially inflate its user numbers ahead of their IPO/DPO, that's all that matters. Ethics, fairness or integrity don't even come into the equation.

A case in point - the news outlets here were reporting just yesterday, that despite draconian regulations being introduced in Ireland several months ago which will ultimately shut the vast majority of small independent hosts down (and have wiped many out already), over 1000 new listings have recently popped up on the site. Meanwhile, many hosts like me - 10 years on Airbnb, 22 time superhost - didn't even receive a single inquiry, let alone a booking, for New Year's Eve, despite being forced to drop prices lower than many of the latecomers. Not too difficult to figure out what's going on, really...

[Alexandra316]

@Susan17I feel so, so lucky that I'm in a tiny town with very few Airbnbs to compete with and no professional/multi-property hosts. Although our bookings are way down, we're still getting them. I feel terrible for hosts in urban areas: they are absolutely getting the shaft right now.

[Jennifer1421]

Like @Alexandra316 , we don't have a plethora of "mega-hosts" in our small city (yet), though the number of listings similar to mine has almost doubled in the last year (from just over 30 to just under 60).

I've been thinking that my bookings for January are really off a cliff, but I then got to wondering if my bookings last year were more last minute, so it just seems like a bad month. I decided to have a look see, and the following is what I've discovered:

For this month, this year, I have all of 2 bookings, encompassing 5 days. 1 was booked a month in advance, the other 2 weeks in advance (and is a return guest).

Last year (and bear in mind, I was a relatively new host, having started mid-November, 2018)

4 bookings, encompassing 11 nights were booked at least a month in advance

5 bookings, encompassing 9 nights were booked at least a week in advance, up to 3 weeks in advance

2 bookings, encompassing 3 nights were same day bookings

I don't really know what that means, except that bookings are definitely down, and, if last year is any guide, I can only realistically expect to see around 12 more nights booked for January, if all goes well from here.

Here's the odd part though - doing an incognito search on both my, and other's laptops and mobiles, my listing appears at the very top of the list for every single free night I have this month, every single time. So,  the "listing rotation" theory does not hold water in my case, as I don't appear to be subject to rotation. Other listings in my town are also way down in bookings, according to their calendars. In fact, the performance metrics shown by Airbnb (which may or may not be accurate) show that occupancy for the next 30 days is locally around 11%. Not good.

Given the many ideas put forward as to why bookings are down, I can only conclude that there are a dearth of guests looking for accommodations this year. As to why that might be...who knows? It's scary out there right now, though, and I'm giving some thought to going long-term if this keeps up.

[Mark116]

Yes, same here.  This time last year we already had numerous bookings for the Spring, right now we have 2 for the year and we have always been fully booked in Nov. and Dec. and this year that was  not the case.

[Elena87]

Abb do not care if your occupancy rate is 9 percent or 90 percent.

Even when you complete a review these days, the final stage is an offer to recommend a new host.

It's a good business plan for the owners, suck in new hosts, guest prices plunge to attract volume.

IPO, take the money and run fast, business bubble bursts. Trebles all round on the Necker Belle.

[Susan17]

@Elena87 

"IPO, take the money and run fast, business bubble bursts. Trebles all round on the Necker Belle"

Unless the bubble bursts before the IPO, of course. And all things considered - nervous market in the wake of 2019's disastrous string of tech IPO's (or non-IPO's, in WeWork's case); spiralling tensions and dissatisfaction amongst the host (including the mega-host) community; much slower than expected growth; hugely costly (and ongoing) regulatory battles around the world; a plethora of dismally failed vanity projects; plummeting consumer confidence and trust levels in the brand; PR disaster after PR disaster; targeted competition by established OTA's and powerful hotel chains now offering their own alternative accommodations, etc -  that's starting to look like a distinct possibility. One or two more major scandals before IPO day, could very easily make the whole thing go "POP!"

At least then, decent, ethical competitors could finally have the chance to enter the marketplace for small, independent hosts, and countless thousands of regular, everyday mom and pop investors, wouldn't be swindled into footing the bill with their little nest-eggs or life savings, for those cash-out trebles on the Necker Belle. 

[Ann23967]

Me, too — drastic drop.  Suddenly, like off a cliff. 

And as we were entering the holiday season, which normally would be strong.

My reservations have always been steady and strong.  I could have 100% booking most the time if I wanted.  4.9 rating, no bad reviews, Superhost status.  Now I'm drop-drop-drop-ing my rates (using price tips for the first time — have always been resistent!) and still no action.  Since this is happening world wide, it appears, I'm wondering if people are travelling less in general.  I know when I travelled to Chicago for Christmas the airports seemed surprisingly calm.  

Would be nice if an Airbnb rep could give some insight...

[Danielle476]

I would suggest manually changing the pricing and not allowing AirBNB to set the pricing with their "Smart Pricing" option.  There have been so many hosts who have found errors with it, myself included.  It accidentally lowered the cost of last year's NYE to $80 for one night, when it was supposed to be $300.  Someone booked it and I had to fight AirBNB to refund the difference, which they did and chalked it up to 'a glitch', their most favourite excuse for errors.  Best of luck, my listing's action has dropped dramatically as well!

[Jennifer1421]

I posted this screen shot on another similar thread. This is new to me as of this morning, and seems to be a desperate attempt on Airbnb's part to lure us all into testing the bottom of the price market in order to get more bookings on their balance sheet:

It looks like 2 similar local listings to mine have availed themselves of these "perks" today, and I'll be keeping a close eye on their calendars to see if the outrageously low prices suggested as a "tip" help them get bookings.

It's looking pretty dire 'round here.