Gremlins in the works!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

Gremlins in the works!

I had an interesting conversation today! 

For a 5 week period I received one reservation, and that was for a pre-approval I granted about 2 months ago. Apart from that, nothing, no IB's, no requests and although I was away for much of that time, it was starting to worry me. Over the past 18 months I have avaraged 10-14 bookings per month and all of a sudden it was like the tap got turned off....complete silence!

It worried me to the point where I contacted support last week and spoke to Rosenel, and she assured me everything was ok on Airbnb's end. The views were there as always but my bookings had simply dried up.

Well, everything is now back to normal and I am getting a rush of reservations.....I had 4 in one day, every day I am getting at least one, three in the last 24 hours so I can relax. But the story doesn't end there!

Today I got a booking from a guest who said they tried to book a few weeks ago but could not proceed! They could get to the check-out page but could not proceed any further to pay for and confirm a reservation. They were at the point of giving up but today decided to try one last time and were successful.

Have any other hosts/guests had this experience, I am left to wondering how widespread this was. Other contributors here have told me there has been a glitch or two recently, but this is serious stuff when the very platform that is supposed to be bringing hosts and guests together is precluding that from happening! 

 

Cheers........Rob

8 Replies 8
Beth80
Level 10
State of Roraima, Brazil

@Robin4 

I worked with a guest for two days trying to get him booked. One thing after another. Thankfully he was determined to stay here! I figured it was just the luck of living at the edge of the world... But maybe it was the Gremlins.  😕

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Beth80 

Well at least I am back in the good books again......

monthly bookings.png

 

In addition to this I have had 3 Homeaway Stayz  bookings bringing my total to 19 for the last 30 days.

I am not making an issue of this for myself Beth, I haven't lost anything, I had plenty of bookings in the pipeline anyway. 

But I resent the fact that it was not worth Airbnb telling me there was a booking issue that they were working on. If we are kept informed we are ok with it.....it's just this being kept in the dark and finding out what is going on by stray conversations......... that is really worrying!

Cheers......Rob

Well I cant even get the graph, Rob and there is DEFINITELY something wrong with the Airbnb App as I have been unable to use it/log in for several weeks now!!  I was advised to uninstall it and then reinstall it, and then it got even worse!! Spent DAYS trying to get AIrbnb to sort it out and all I am now left with is 'the technical staff are working on it'!! NOT impressed with their host care at all.  After all without us they would have anywhere for all these guests to go!!

I wonder if anyone else is having trouble with the app?

Anna

Anne1036
Level 5
Ballinakill, Ireland

@Robin4 Thankfully I have not had this experience to date. It is however very useful to be aware that it is something that could potentially happen and to watch out for. 

 

Best of luck with the new 'flood' of bookings!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Anne1036 

Anne, it was just so strange that everything came to a standstill!!

We have been bowling along really well and suddenly....... nothing!

I used to say as a joke in company, every time that phone chirps, it's money in the bank,  and suddenly there was this 5 week void ....I would get an sms bleep and think here we go....and it was Ade wanting me to pick up some potatoes and a pumpkin from the supermarket.....boing!.

 

As it turned out it was no big deal, I had plenty of upcoming reservations! Here is the first page of my Airbnb upcomings.....

upcoming reservations.png

And there is an ever growing crop of Stayz bookings in there as well, so realistically I have very few unbooked nights through to November.

But I just wish Airbnb would be upfront when these issues happen, keep us in the loop, tell us what the issue is.....I don't mind but I just want to know so I can prepare for what may be in store!

Cheers......Rob

Beth80
Level 10
State of Roraima, Brazil

@Robin4

I agree that the lack of communication to us as hosts is disturbing and disappointing. I understand that they are a large company, with "businesses" all over the world but how hard would it be to post something here on the message board. In the help section it says , have you looked to the community for answers? . Why is the official answer not posted here? In my opinion I should be able to type into a search bar questions like, why am I not getting any views? , and one of the first responses should be . If you are in the southern hemisphere you may be experiencing some complications while we sort out a few issues. 

I mention these ideas to my husband and he just laughs and says keep dreaming!

Don't get me wrong, I like being able to rent my rooms through abnb but I constantly dream of how it could be better.

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Robin4 

my guest is having trouble booking right now as I write, he says the last step is to get a confirmation to his email and the email is not coming.

I came to CC now to see if anyone has the same problem and just found your post.

But I did get another booking today so ...

 

Bob40
Level 10
Montevarchi, Italy

It was only when a friend on Airbnb herself asked why she couldn't see one of my listings last year that I realised it had become invisible. I contacted Airbnb (can't remember how) and got the evasive "well I can see it" response followed by 3 bookings in a rush. Clearly it had gone offline but Airbnb weren't going to admit that!!

 

I posted a while back that I'd also lost instant booking on my other property so anyone selecting that as a requirement wouldn't find it.

 

People have commented about mistakes appearing in their listings, like the shared bedroom fiasco a few months ago - a splendid way to make somewhere sound really appealing. 🙂

 

It's clear that Airbnb are constantly changing their templates introducing more and more options so they can cover in one form everything from a shared couch to a luxury castle, which is ridiculous. In the process of moving our data across, stuff gets dropped or corrupted. It ain't rocket science. Or gremlins. It's sloppy implementation of continual unnecessary expansion. Let's not forget why it's called Air(bed)BnB.

 

So it's important for hosts to check their listings every month, ideally from a machine not logged in, to see all is well. Shouldn't be needed but it is.