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!

[Richard3358]

Has anyone considered that its the economy?  Its my theory that the segment that uses this is typically middle class, and they are the ones that are most affected by present economic conditions.  I think they are simply running out of money and vacation $$$ are evaporating.

Thats what I am seeing and what I am hearing.

[Kapil21]

There is a term that’s being used on the internet for this phenomenon - The Airbnb Bust. The reasons they cite are oversupply of properties and the overall weakness of the consumer. 
I don’t think this has anything to do with Airbnb as a platform or they having changed their algorithm. It seems to be driven by typical market forces of demand and supply. 

[Michele511]

Thank you! I looked it up: https://www.igms.com/airbnb-bust/

likely the results won’t show up in the next earnings report, but maybe in their guidance. I do hope they adjust. My price has been lowered by 50% and still nothing. 

[Anne8442]

Navigating the Airbnb Bust: A Comprehensive Guide to Seizing Opportunities!

BS it is Airbnb manipulating what stays show up as well as glitches in their calendar - purposefully? makes you wonder

[Emily210]

I have  hosted for 13 years and they def changed their search algo. My views on each listing are the most dead they have ever been and I am a superhost. This happened at this exact time last year and I learned I had to pay all the fees to get bookings and then my prices were so high to recoup the cost of paying airbnb guest fees. After lowering my nightly price by 40% and eating the fees. I started getting bookings. My business went down 35% last year and this is my fulltime job. Airbnb has destroyed their product with updates focused on growth goals for certain kinds of hosts while destroying superhosts hard work. They dont care about us. They clearly changed something in Jan. We are all dead, we are all superhosts. Smells like de ja vu from last year all over again. Happy New Year us. I just upped my prices and removed cleaning fees. If that doesnt work I will up prices again and shift to pay all the fees to see if I get any bookings. 

[Michele511]

@Emily210  I’ve lowered my rates and cute cleaning fee to $50. Still barely anything. I don’t think it makes any difference. It’s something else and I wish they would be kind enough to let us know. 

for me it started in December after they got rid of Airbnb Plus. 

What specifically do you suspect they are pushing for? More luxury listings? More experiences? 

[Emily210]

i think you have to have a zero cleaning fee and pay all the airbnb fees (15% yours and 15% guests) for you to show up in top results. They just launched their winter software product update and then is when everything went dead. the last time this happened they added those useless filters to let people book by accommodation type. they are trying to get hosts to pay for everything like they always do because guests want all in one pricing. instead what they should do is go back to version five of the product which was much simpler. take out accomodation type filter and all the fees. then let the best experience and host win.

[Michele511]

@Emily210  I have traveled in the last few months and saw nothing of the sort. Do you have something from Airbnb that explains this? Where does this come from? I would love to see where this comes from. So far I’ve not seen anything credible, but, of course would welcome that.

I don’t see how it makes sense, because one gets the same taxes and fees at a hotel. Hotels always add these fees onto the bill.  

At Airbnb AND hotels, the guest has the option to view the price with fees before booking or later.

Obviously, if this is the case, it will no longer be advantageous to be a host.

[Emily210]

if you listen to the winter release videos from 2023 and 2024 they share what has changes. It doesnt matter

how hotels calculate their fees, airbnb isnt hotels. what matters is how having certain fees (or not having them) impacts your listing(s) showing in search. Similar to if you are on tinder looking for males, it wont show you females. my theory is if you have ANY cleaning fees they push you way down (since guests think all hosts love cleaning and dont get all the time and energy involved) and last year they released a feature to let hosts select to pay the fees on behalf of guests. I tried

this for a month and my bookings exploded, but then i raised the price to cover the cost of the fees and nobody booked.  I cant find where they hid this feature, i have been looking for it all morning and i dont see it in fees anymore which means i prob cant so it on the mobile app. I will def share when i figure out where it is hiding and the results. in the image  included this means hosts would have to up their price to cover cleaning fee, guest service fee and host fee. which is absolutely insane. i am going to up my nightly, take away cleaning fees and then i will have to pay even more to cover guest and host service fees to airbnb. then i think i will reappear in search again. i hope this helps. it is a great explanation of how airbnb keeps killing hosts if it is true.

[Michele511]

@Emily210  I’ll have a listen to those videos and give any feedback, if I have it! Thanks. 

[Emily210]

 i finally found how to update it so i pay the 15% fee and ten min later I got a booking request. You have to use a computer then follow to the nav on this screenshot. Airbnb OWES it to hosts to explain when they make changes impacting us. We all shouldve gotten an email explaining if we dont pay fees for guests we wont appear in search or will be deeply buried.  I am livid about this. Yet another burden put on hosts to enable airbnb to higher profits at OUR expense. 

[Michele511]

@Rebecca   Does this explain it? Makes not sense to me that it would make a difference. They already have the option to view listings with fees included. What do you know about this? 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Michele511

[Michele511]

@Emily210  So if we do this does Airbnb send a form at the end of the year to the IRS and the city with how much you’ve paid? How is this documented?

[Emily210]

you will have to ask airbnb. i assume they deduct it from our earnings at payment and our earnings are part of the tax form every year. I dont think there would be anything to report since it is paid out of our earnings, so there is no income gain; so not sure what would need to be reported. 

[Emily210]

btw!!!! i love love love your listing! absolutely stunning. if we are in the la area anytime soon I would love to meet you! thanks so much for starting this thread!!!!!