November 19 | Occupancy levels

[Yadira22]

Hello All,

hope you are well. 
i know it’s not even mid way through November but I am usually booked up now and already planning my December. 

In the last couple of days I have not seen my viewing numbers better, they stay around the 1.8k mark over 30 days (think this is probably a tech bug) and usually have about 2 reservations a day- now one every 2 days. I am a bit worried as these months are so expensive for us and just want to know if it’s me being neurotic, the recent bad press Airbnb have had or just an increase in local competition within my stated market.

Is it just me or are others having not so great Novembers- so odd as London brings in a lot of tourists in preparation for the Christmas time. 

Please let me know.

Thanks,

Yadira 🙂

[Yadira22]

Hi @Helen3 

I also considered this as well but  what made me think it was more of a technical bug in their platform was that it was sudden onset vs gradual which is what I would imagine considering Brexit has been in the works for over several year. In fact I thought for bookings from October 31 onwards we would see a sharp drop but it was literally only the last 3/4 days. Went from 2k + views over 30 days to 1.5k .

Regarding other sites- Among all our listings we have a consistent top 80s% monthly occupancy, I believe average in London was about 65%ish... Given our schedules and the fact that a day or two every couple of weeks we get to be  alone and this is amazing for us, we felt that looking at other marketplaces was not our priority but I would obviously like to change this as building a business around a single other is the same as putting all your eggs in one basket...

Thank you for your response and assistance, have a beautiful weekend x 

[Susan1404]

@Yadira22this time last year I had just joined Airbnb at the end of October.  I had successive bookings from the very first day and my December was completely filled.  I do know that new hosts get a little extra SEO boost, so I figured there would be a drop off.  However, it stayed fairly steady until November of this year.  My views have dropped a good bit and I've tried tweaking the listings a bit to see if it would help, but it did not so far have any impact.  I did get a good booking for December just last week - a husband a wife staying for 11 days, but by this time last year, my December was full and I had about 50% of January booked, so something has definitely changed.  The competition in my area is not excessive right now, so not sure what is happening to cause the slump.

[Yadira22]

Thank you for the response @Susan1404. I hope it’s just a fluke, but in some ways it’s concerning as only super hosts have complaint about this issue... I hope business picks up for you and thank you for responding 🙂

[Rebecca181]

The cultivation of over-supply of hosts is likely deliberate on Airbnb's part. Just look at how that host 'referral' bonus has climbed to nearly stratospheric heights. Just another way to de-power non-commercial hosts, in my opinion. "If you don't like our policies and practices, you can leave - There are plenty of other hosts who can take your place."

[Yadira22]

@Rebecca181 I saw this- it’s at An all time high. Personally I think doing this will just make their system fall into further disarray (grow too quickly) and I thought the Very unfortunate event which took place in California was what mainly impacted their stance in the market.

As a company- they do bad  by not sticking to one single strategy, 

-they initially build their business on the concept of live like a local, live with a local but then allow cooperate commercials hotels to join but do not really treat them as a separate category, it’s all somehow one. 

-They go on about transparency and reviewing being their main focus but then when someone complains of extortion they only refer to their “contents policy” vs both this and their “review policy”. Its also very unfair that they maintain giving guests power to review despite rule breaking. Pushing veteran, High quality hosts towards their competitors.

- Safety is their main issue but accounts are only dis activated If the user continuously breaks their rules and are reported. Unfortunately not everyone reports an issue out of not “inconveniencing” or getting a bad review.

-Current hosts are their biggest asset but rather than say we stand with you, they vilify and alienate  them in such a huge way as to not affect their IPO stance etc. Realistically this is when marketing and PR and communication comes into place. Hiding from the issue or mentioning once is not enough- neither is moving the safety/security tips to another place in the app/website. Coming to a process agreement and time frame- rolling it out and pushing their immediate marketing to be focused on safety/verification would do more. Consumers remember the bad but what sticks was how the situation was then dealt with. 

They could honestly be so amazing and this forum is full such amazing and innovative ideas- who better than the everyday user to help build and improve your systems- but no, such a shame. I have met hosts who are doctors, buyers, coders, housewives, property managers, so many amazing professions and skill sets - such a pool of talent and free ideas and no real difference. 

Rant over- I wish you luck and have a beautiful day! 🙂

[Susan17]

IPO on the horizon - in order to attract investors, Airbnb must show impressive, consistent month-on-month growth between now and then - despite the hype, new user sign-ups plateaued in 2017 and have been slowing since then - so huge aggressive global new host recruitment drive now underway (complete with unprecedented sign-up bonuses) - newbies boosted to the top of searches - existing hosts pushed out. 

Airbnb has been playing this game for years. Even before the IPO date was announced. 

[Suzanne302]

@Yadira22  I am seeing a major slowdown as well. I'm in a coastal town where it usually slows down Nov-Feb, but I'm seeing ZERO bookings. I've had one Inquiry for December, but the guest was looking for something closer to public transportation.

I do have a guest who is booking my room monthly, but I'm only blocking a month at a time for him because I'd prefer just a few guests per month rather than a "roommate." So far, however, I still don't have any bookings for December so if it's still empty in another week, I guess I'll have a roommate for at least another month. 

This same time last year I had multiple guests already booked for December...

[Helen3]

The problem in doing this @Suzanne302  by blocking off a month at a time, it will lead to a fall in the Airbnb listing ranking. They prioritise hosts with immediate availability.

[Suzanne302]

@Helen3 Yes, that is an issue and a hit I'll just have to take.

I do check my area on a regular basis (nearly every day lately since bookings have stopped!) using an incognito window and so far I'm still seeing my listing pop up on page 1 or 2 when I search in my price point.

I also monitor the calendars of other hosts with rooms similar to my price/offerings and most of them have open calendars as well so part of it must be a general slowdown of guests coming to the area or guests booking hotel rooms instead of homeshares.

I'm dirt cheap in the slow months so another thing I'm not willing to do is further lower my price. I did that last February when bookings were slow and immediately regretted it and said never again! My base price is $40/month and I'm seeing hosts go down to $26/night. At that price, they can have the bookings! But I also don't depend on the income so maybe if I did I'd feel differently and scramble to get whatever I could.

[Helen3]

I know it's frustrating isn't it when hosts price drop massively to encourage bookings @Suzanne302 

I have never done this -  I am in the top 10% of pricing for my area and never drop my pricing. I have set my pricing in a way that I make a profit for the work and inconvenience involved of having someone share my home. I don't even drop my prices that much in the off season winter months.

Yes I enjoy meeting new people and learning about their lives, but the bottom line is I am doing this to make money.

Luckily in the four years I have been hosting my approach I have still got all the bookings I need and seem to be more booked up than hosts with lower pricing 🙂

[Suzanne302]

@Helen3 I think it was Ann (I can't tag her because I can't remember her number, but you're probably familiar with her from the CC!) who made an excellent point regarding pricing.

She raised her pricing and although she received fewer bookings, she made the same amount of money and had less wear and tear on her listing. That's another reason I'm not too keen on this long term guest...

[Stephanie]

I remember all the numbers @Suzanne302 ... it was @Ann72 you were thinking of I believe!

[Helen3]

That's a good point  @Suzanne302 

[Danielle476]

Hey all,

I just read on another thread (sorry, don't know how to link but check the front page of the 'Hosting' section) that AirBNB just did a platform update which has resulted in many hosts' properties not populating in searches AT ALL.  This could be why we're all seeing an excessive slow-down at the same time.  Try calling IT and let them know your concerns, apparently the bug can be fixed on their end. 

Good luck!

[Yadira22]

Apparently the latest update made it so that unless your listing had available dates for “today” then it would automatically be hidden and only display them for once guests inputs dates. Hence the decrease in visibility... above is the solution found to override this bug. Good luck everyone 

@Danielle476 @Helen3 @Suzanne302  @Susan17 @Susan1404 @Juan63 @Inna22 @Fougere0 @Miriam436 @Andrea-and-Francis0 @Yocencia0