Sudden rush of guest cancellations

[Robin4]

I would just like to make an observation and see if this is just an anomaly which I am currently experiencing or if it is part of a general trend amongst hosts.

In 3.5 years of hosting, over 350 stays I only ever had 3 guest cancellations!

Since Halloween at the end of October I have had 5. That is 5 guest cancellations for November. I had 2 in one day!

Previously there has always been a reason for the cancellation but in three of those this month there has been no reason, just, ‘please cancel’ or no explanation at all,  just a cancellation email notice from Airbnb.

I am wondering if events in San Francisco at the end of October have heightened the level of mistrust in Airbnb and in Airbnb hosts. Nothing else has changed here, I haven’t copped any poor reviews.

Are any other hosts experiencing this?

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  And that doesn't just pertain to nights that are blocked by reservations you get through other means, it carries across to any dates you may have blocked for any reason. I block off a month in the summer when I go to Canada to visit with family and friends. Then of course I get those notices from Airbnb to unblock the dates so guests can book. Obviously I'm not allowed to have a life outside of Airbnb, according them.

Those are one of the stupidest and most irritating messages that Airbnb sends out. Because of course, if a host blocks dates, there is obviously a good reason for them to do so, as we are in the hosting business, not the blocking-just-for-the hell-of-it business.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

The other one that infuriates me is that regular email that tells me....... X looked at my property but decided to book somewhere else that was $12 a night cheaper! And Y is looking to book with you, but is also looking at another property in Mt Barker for the nights of *******that is $15 per night cheaper!

I am glad they have my interests so much at heart that they are kindly telling me where I am loosing business.......far out!

I find these emails a complete insult to a hosts intelligence! 

Cheers......Rob

[Alon1]

@Robin4 

Firstly, I can't vouch for the whole UK. Moreover, nowhere in UK is saturated like London with 80,000 listings.

Secondly, I've never been the most reliable barometer for London. Two reasons:

a) I'm not exclusively an Airbnb Host. I use the popular UK website Spare Room which is predominantly for longer term, and wherein 'short' or 'temporary' is normally a period of a few months, typically one to three months. 

b) As an Airbnb host I've never utilized Instant Book.

Consequently, I frequently block my Airbnb calendars. -- Thus I'm used to Airbnb message inviting me to make dates available. However, far from feeling irked or insulted as you, I'm immune to these prompts along with Price Tips and so on. While Performance / Progress Stats  as Occupancy Rates, etc are quite meaningless. 

[Michelle53]

I have nothing at all after this weekend.   I do slow down, as the sporting and events calendar is pretty light in the winter months. But last year, I had four bookings in  December, and three in January.  Mostly booked in October and November.  in 2017,  I also had about 8 reservations.  2016 was my first year, and I didn't have any. 

This year - crickets. 

[Mark116]

@Robin4   We had one recent cancellation, and have overall had more cancellations this year than in the previous 3 years.  We've also had MANY more open days in Nov and Dec. than any year prior.  Last year as soon as I opened Thanksgiving week after we determined we would be able to host, the week was booked within about 2 days, this year most of the holiday week was open and we still have most of December unbooked.  Very strange.  We finally even engaged Instant Book to try help get some bookings.

[Jennifer1421]

I haven't had any out of the ordinary cancellations recently (except the guy I wanted to cancel, so that was a win). Like @Mark116, and others above, my bookings are down by around 30% this year (from 94% to 65%). I've also noticed that almost all of the other local hosts are down, waaaaay down, by reading between the lines (either lots of open days on calendars, very, very few reviews being posted, or the performance tab, which may well not be accurate, but which suggests that the average occupancy rate in my locale is only at 21% currently).

Things do not appear to be healthy.

[Rebecca181]

@Robin4 @Sarah977 and others on this thread: Are any of you affected (in your opinion) by the increasing amounts of commercial property owners / managers now listing on Airbnb? Do you think this has affected your booking ratios this year at all as more and more commercial entities are enticed by Airbnb's 'special treatment' to list (preferable Terms of Service, policies, etc, that are not available to us home-sharing hosts)?

[Susan17]

@Rebecca181 

Every single homesharing and small independent host on the platform has been affected by the commercial operators and "professional" property management companies. Some just haven't realised it. or have been fortunate enough not to have suffered the consequences... yet. But yes, the "core host community" is going to pay the ultimate price for the professionalisation of Airbnb - and sooner, rather than later, sadly.

Why else do we think the company has so fiercely resisted separating and clearly delineating the small hosts from the commercials, despite the fact that they've purposely weighted the scales so heavily in the Pros favour, that it's literally impossible for the little guys to compete? That's by design, not by accident. There's always  a method in Airbnb's madness.

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181  In this little beach town, which used to just be a tiny fishing village and has been transformed into a major crazy bustling tourist mecca, there have been quite a few new, big hotels built in the last couple of years. I don't know if they are all advertising on Airbnb, because I don't hardly ever bother doing searches. I have that Porter App that sends me my ranking "in your category", which I assume means one private room with private bath. I've seen the base number of those listings there go up from about 110-125 to 150-160. Last Easter break, there were suddenly over 500 overnight, but then it went back down to normal after the holiday. I assume that anyone who had a closet threw an air mattress or foamie in it to try to cash in. Or they thought that hosting was an easy, no-brainer way to make money, like the guy behind me, whose guests were at my gate 5 minutes after they arrived, asking if they could please borrow some toilet paper. I imagine a lot of those listings that were put up got 1* reviews and complaints and got delisted.

I'm sure the new hotels are taking business from Airbnb hosts, but I'd have to check to see if they are actually listing on Airbnb. I was getting worried, because I hadn't had one booking come in for the tourist season until about 3 weeks ago. That's when hosts were reporting here that their listings weren't showing up at all or that dates that were available were showing up on the guest end as blocked, so I figured that was happening to me. too. But then 2 one-week bookings came in for Dec, and now another for the 1st of January. So I guess that guests can see my listing if they search enough. 

Also, both me and my neighbors have sort of different listings for this town, in that we are in the countryside, a 20 minute walk to town and beach, so we attract the quiet, earthy types who didn't come here to party hearty in town until 3 AM. That's both an advantage and a disadvantage as far as number of booking go.

And from talking around, yes, other hosts I've talked to here, even ones who are in town, or in the fancy hills with swimming pools and AC are saying their bookings are way down.

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 Very glad to hear you are again getting some bookings. I hope that hosts' listings are showing properly again and all the 'glitches' have been corrected, it must be nerve-wracking, I know it was for me when nearly my entire income was dependent on my Airbnb bookings (all the glitches and constant platform changes likely shortened my life by a few years when I was hosting 24/7/365)! 

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

Sarah, I never knew that Porter app existed, thanks for the info.

Do you know much about it? How accurate is it and what are the criteria for it's conclusions?

I just used it and it gave me a good result, but does that result reflect the reality of my situation or, is it a sales pitch enticer?

If it can provide me with a bit of comparative information I may well decide to investigate it further!

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  No, I've never researched it at all, nor compared it to my own search of where my listing appears. I'm not much of a techie. But it definitely goes up when I get bookings and goes down when I don't for awhile, like in the summer, when hosting is dead for me.

It was mentioned long ago by Matthew, from SF, I believe, who used to be a prolific contributor here, but seems to have disappeared, that's where I first heard of it.  I miss his posts- they were good.

[Rebecca181]

Seems I was 'prescient' when I wrote that post here "Are Traditional Hosts No Longer Valued By Airbnb?" And that was TWO years ago! @Susan17 

[Suzanne302]

@Rebecca181  I'm not sure...Over the past several weeks I've done a lot of "incognito" searches (from different computers too). My area is relatively easy to track because in total there are only about 300 listings.

I've found that commercial properties are actually usually listed on the very last pages. We have a lot of traditional B&B's in the area and all their rooms seem to be relegated to the back pages.

What I have seen is that bookings are just down overall. The properties that seem to be booked first are the "suites." These are not whole house rentals, but cheaper "rooms" with a private entrance. When I look at those listings, their calendars have more bookings than others. Totally anecdotal, of course, but that's what I've seen since late October/early November here. Private rooms and whole house rentals seem to remain unbooked for the most part.

Private rooms in my area are easy to monitor...I'd say there are roughly only 100 of those if not less. Most of the  listings I see have full availability for December forward.

I don't know what to attribute it to. I have seen posts in some Airbnb FB groups noting the same thing: Bookings are slow or down.

I don't think it's that I'm not maximizing my exposure. I can do multiple types of searches and my listing will pop up on page 1 or 2. I think people just aren't booking on Airbnb....WHY that is, I don't know.

[Rebecca181]

@Suzanne302 I am very sorry to hear this, Suzanne. I used to rely on Airbnb for most of my income and was sold out year-round; I do attribute this to the fact that I offered a suite (with hot tub) and a lot of privacy and one-night stays (exhausting as we cleaned ourselves and did four hour same day turn-overs but it kept us booked). I do wonder now if we were listed (it is the 'off-season' now and also I developed other income streams via my ability to have an online private psychotherapy practice) if I also would be facing looming bills and few to no bookings. I truly feel for everyone here who is expressing concern and you are right, it could be due to many things. I hope it picks up for you all soon!