Suddenly no bookings 2024

[Michele511]

I have 7 years of 5 star ratings in Santa Monica, California. Suddenly I had hardly anything in December ‘23, only one booking in January, one booking in March, then nothing at all. I’ve always been fully booked. I dont’ understand.

Is anyone else having this problem?

I would appreciate any insights!

[Michele511]

@Emily210  We heard from @Rebbeca a few days ago telling us she was still monitoring this discussion. And she’s still waiting for an answer from Airbnb. I imagine she’s not getting an answer. In this case now news is not good news. 

Are you having a problem getting bookings? 

Michele511

[Emily210]

superhost since 2013. have been on airbnb a long time. this has been my slowest month in history. my listing  views are down 75%. I just removed cleaning fees

and upped my price to cover.

but historically anytime i raise my price that high i dont get booked (i think people put dollar amount max to look at),

but i cant afford

to not increase to cover expenses due to inflation. I left my fulltime

job to do this fulltime and have invested $175,000 into the property and was scaling up each month until

January when bookings just stopped. It is clear airbnb updated their algo and I need to figure it out. I cant find where to update airbnbs fees for guests and hosts for

each listing. have looked using app and on desktop computer.

it is so hidden now i cant find it and i think if i change to pay all the fees, my listing views will go up again

because airbnb is still

number one for views

[Rebecca]

Hey @Emily210 & @Michele511,

I'm still working on this and have raised it with the relevant team. I'm not part of the Support Team, however please know, that I have raised it and I'll continue to do whatever I can to support you. 

Many thanks, 

Rebecca

[Michele511]

@Rebecca  Thank you for your response. And I hope you don’t think this is rude, but, it is taking a long time. It seems we should have some answer by now?

Or, are you suggesting there is a support team we should be reaching out to? Which Airbnb department looks into this? None of the people we call at the Airbnb support number seem to know.

CC: @Emily210 

[Lyn-and-Gavin0]

Hi Rebecca and other hosts following???

@Emily210 & @Michele511, @Lorina14 

HI there,  I am Sorry but I cannot find your best final answer?

I am in London and I have had 95 percent occupancy for the last 10 years for my 2 spare rooms.  It's crazy, it seems it is since the Guest Favourite release?  All enquiries and bookings dropped off.

I haven't had a 4 star review since about 2018, I have 4.98 rating in one room with 5 stars for all subcategories except location at 4.8.  other room is 4.96 rating overall with all 5 star bar location at 4.8 and value at 4.9.  Over 300 reviews for both rooms.  I should have said I have both badges Superhost and Guest Favourite.

From monitoring facebook it seems lots of established hosts in London and UK are suffering same.

Please can you share your final answer,  Many thanks Lyn

[Michele511]

@Lyn-and-Gavin0  Hi There. You are not alone. I have the same rating for 8 years, and as you can see many here are in the same situation. 

There isn’t a best answer because we don’t have one…yet. @Rebecca has been monitoring this thread for Airbnb but she does not have an answer for us. Apparently Airbnb has eyes on this but, have not given any insight.

There are all sorts of theories around the internet. Personally, I am hoping this shakes out some time soon. I have lowered my price a long and that has helped. I now have some bookings here and there. 

Airbnb reports earnings on the stock February 20th. I intend to listen to the earnings call and guidance. I’m hoping something will be revealed. Maybe there is a slow down we don’t know about. 

I will update here, if I hear something related, or not.

cc: @Emily210 , @Lorina14 

[Lorina14]

@Michele511 - so it appears there still is no response from the Airbnb team or any new news?

I recently read an article how Airbnb acquired hotel tonight (it was recent for me as I was searching for airbnb news but it was actually sometime in the past couple of years - if you do a web search it will probably show up).

I’ve used Hotel tonight to find a discounted hotel for an upcoming trip that was unexpected. I didn’t know they acquired them, maybe for data? Maybe as it’s in the same industry? Maybe they were direct competitors? Hmm…

[Michele511]

@Lorina14  @Rebecca 

Seems there isn’t. It seems Rebecca doesn’t get information from them to send on to us. Apparently they are reading this thread, but I really have no idea.

February 13th they report earnings and guidance for their stock. I will listen and also post here so people can listen, if they like. Perhaps they will mention that they are investing in Hotels? Too much blowback from cities? I dunno. I will look for the article you refer to later today.

Thanks for staying engaged in this!

[Sandie70]

I fully agree with you Lyn and Gavin, it does appear to perfectly coincide with changes made by airbnb. 

Help and support is definitely needed urgently in my case and I am sure many others.

[Sandie70]

Hi Rebecca, 

I am experiencing the same drastic reduction in bookings and have noted that search engine now is only 20% accurate for my area casting its net far and wide and resulting in huge drops in viewings turning to bookings for me. 

Airbnb's response was that I am still getting viewings but clearly these are from people not looking for my particular area. 

I really do hope you can influence someone looking in to this further 🙏

Sandie

[Michele511]

@Rebecca  tagging you to make sure you see the above comments from @Sandie70 

[Sandie70]

Thank you Michele x

[Lorina14]

@Rebecca - Thank you for your response and sending it to the right team/people.

It is a huge concern for many hosts as you can see if you read all the comments. I was surprised to read about this trend, the article hyperlinked regarding it and am not sure if on the PR end, Airbnb has addressed this issue to hosts (it doesn’t appear so) or even wrote a rebuttal to the article mentioned (which I feel should be a high priority).  

What if hosts or future hosts are scared about what the article states/stated. Is what the article stated all true - or is there some truth and mostly opinion on other comments? 

[Melanie318]

Bookings from Air bnb have dropped off completely. I don't see their advertisments much on TV - VRBO is out pacing them with ads. My bookings from VRBO have stayed solid-but my Air bnb bookings have dwindled off. j

Part of it is the time of the year I am sure. People are just getting through the holiday bills, but even my future bookings from Air bnb are way down. That, i believe is due to their lack of advertisting. 

[Michele511]

It’s so unfortunate. I really depend on this income.

Do

you get the same prices on VRBO? How does one coordinate the listings?

As for me,  hope they turn it around. I’ve enjoyed hosting and it’s worked great until December when it dropped off. I’ve tried getting answers from them, but I get no help. Even if they simply said, “yes, travel has slowed dramatically.” 

I suppose we’ll find out more when they report earnings.