Wow. Large double room for £21! London is dead!

[David6]

It’s close to 7pm UK time. A search for a double room for tonight, shows only 32% of rooms in London are booked! 

London today  was heaving with tourists, yet it appears there are not staying with Airbnb?

And a nicely presented double room available at £21 including booking fee! 

What on earth is going to happen in low season?! 

[David6]

There are just so many ‘private room’ listings now. Especially as most hosts will have hit their max 90 days max for ‘’entire place’ listings this far into the year. 

Many are splitting their apartments in ‘per room’ listings. Also huge influx of hotel rooms and the huge ‘agent’ type hosts with dozens of listings. 

It just feel so cheap & tacky. Like we are literally  scrambling around in the gutter to book a guest at £20 per night!! Last year you could never book a double room for 2 guests, anywhere in london under £35 per night 

[Dimitar27]

Brexit date  is getting close. Add the effect of this 90-day regulation and you will get the final picture.

I don't think that right now any data, from anywhere in UK, may be used to predict the market or to  draw any meaningful conclusions.

[David6]

@Dimitar27 

As hosts with huge mortgages / london overheads, many of us *know* our market. We’ve been doing this for years and check daily . Of course we are going to draw conclusions because our businesses need to survive day by day. It’s only matters what’s happening right now. And right now, a conclusion can be drawn. London is suffering a huge oversupply of listings : we (london hosts) need to analyse this information, react to it (if it’s effecting is) and not bury our heads in sand. 

[Dimitar27]

Take a look at the ARIDNA data. I can't see any oversupply there.

Q2-2019 - 85490 listings.

compared with:

Q3-2018 - 90866 listings.

Almost 5400 less active listings.

[David6]

When 78% of rooms are empty at close to 22.00hrs on a Friday evening, then yes that’s an over supply. With all due respect @Dimitar27 I’ve hosted for several years now. I live in London and check the market daily. I KNOW because it’s my business to know. I know absolutely nothing about bookings in Bulgaria because my listings are here in London. Maybe less people are booking via Airbnb? But let me assure you  it’s unheard of to see an *available*  double room in london on a Friday night for £21!!! 

[Dimitar27]

That's what I'm trying to say- maybe is not about the number of listings, but the number of people.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Dimitar27 

My previous point was exactly that. There's not enough guests. How is that solved? You need to market your product which in this day and age is by Internet search engine and TV advertising. Relying on a global recognition is not enough when many users already use other platforms and there is no encouragement to change.

A search for "holiday apartment london" had no mention of Airbnb on the first page, they appeared half way down page 2. (other searches did find them at the bottom of the paid for ads at the bottom of the first page on occasions).

To much accommodation and not enough guests/users.

cc. @David6 

[David6]

@Dimitar27 

We are saying the same thing 🙂 .Hence in my original post 

“London today  was heaving with tourists, yet it appears there are not staying with Airbnb?”

It’s all about numbers . And totally agree @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 . Airbnb are playing catch up to booking.com & a whole host of specialist niche platforms that already cater to the luxe sector. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@David6 

The Luxe sector is no different than its ever been on Airbnb. All they've done is separate hosts into different categories and take money off those who decide to give it to them. I don't think they managed to import new 'Luxe' listings from anywhere.

[David6]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

But they have massively expanded into this sector,  by acquisition . Luxury Retreats for example, which they bought in 2017, so it’s not just a rejigging and re categorising  of the old hosts they had. 

The luxe offer now is  massively enhanced too. With the offer of a ‘Trip Designer’ . So far away from ‘living like a local’ from a few  years back. Now It’s next level, private chef if you need one. 

To me Airbnb are trying to be all things to all people and appears to be struggling to get even the basics perfected. I mean the website, app - the whole user experience . It’s not that easy to find exactly what you are searching for...

“In November 2016, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky announced Airbnb was going to become an end-to-end travel platform, offering flights, experiences and more. The objective is for Airbnb to become the Amazon.com Inc. equivalent for travel -- a one-stop-shop for holiday-goers.”

Oh goodness! Amazon with all the recent controversy of fake reviews, counterfeit and stolen goods. And have you tried searching for something on there. A nightmare. 

[Mark116]

@David6  Yes, I agree, I can see how some of these strategies look good in a nice, sexy presentation, end to end, grow the volume, etc. etc. especially in light of the regulatory clamp down, adding hotels and resorts helps protect their income stream when the 'original' type of hosts get regulated out of existence, it also I presume, helps tamp down the hotel industry's own campaign against STR.  But, airbnb really fails in the execution.  Look at the roll out of Plus?  A disaster, so bad they had to start giving it away for free.  And, Luxe is always going to be a niche market, very niche.  Not only did they basically give up on the public affairs/regulatory end,  but they continue to do a terrible job at the basics.

It's nice that airbnb is out there working a Hurricane Dorien angle, and certainly a multi national corporation should be able to do more than one thing at a time, LOL, but it always seems like they put their energy into these one off feel good type of initiatives and never look to their core business.  

[David6]

Absolutely! Just here is one example. Page 1 of a search for London!

Hello.... I don’t recognise that spot anywhere in our fine city... (no, because it’s actually in Norway, 😂) 

why try expand when the fundamental basics are so bad? Surely with all the billions they could recruit the best tech team out there? 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@David6 @Dimitar27 @Cathie19 @Yadira22 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

the same here 😞  It's the peak season, we are giving last-minute discounts but we still have 25% and 50% dates available in September and we are not the only ones. We managed to book August but some of the bookings were also last-minute by the discounted price. It never happened before and this is our 4-th season.

I thought it's only Croatia, but then I've heard it's global.

I hate to do that but it seems we will have to list at Booking.com as well. My neighbors are saying they get all the reservations from them, nothing from Airbnb. Just a year ago it was the opposite.

[Gordon0]

Without wishing to sound smug (seriously), I've been pretty much full since Easter and remain so (bar a cancelation-driven five-day gap the week after next) until November. I don't think I'm ridiculously cheap and yet I have a good pipeline of business ahead. 

What is it, luck?

[David6]

@Gordon0 Luckily my N1 listings are basically booked solidly all year round. Had to discount more this year & the nightly rate has dropped from average £65 per night 5 years ago. Now we average about £50. But that’s just due to the massive increase in competition.

your listing is in great area. I see no cleaning fee and just over £50 a night with private bathroom is extremely good value - especially as you have such strong reviews. It’s not luck, but your blinking hard work & effort  🙂