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!

[Alyssa480]

Yikes, sorry to hear that! If  bookings pick up and you (or any other LA County property owners you know) need a local co-host or cleaner for your property, let me know. I know someone who's looking for more of this type of work locally.

[Richard2382]

Hi Michele,

thank very much for your incites , much appreciated 😊.

i have been hosting for 6 years, 5.5  years all excellent reservations from Airbnb, I have mostly 4.8 to 5.0 guest satisfaction, and offer a high end service, price wise I use price labs to set the rate daily, depending on local market, and my input , from low price mid, and higher , again depending on the market, and what Pricelabs think are the competitive rates for my area , guests demand +++ i offer guest 2 separate villas with heated pools, designer interiors, keep updated ever 3 months.

cleanlyness top notch as I find it’s the most important part of offering your guests the best.

Since 6 months ago , I started to stop reviving reservations, by 30% then 80% month later and now it’s 100%?no reservations, luckly I have many reservations from Booking.com and VRBO , but overall I’m down by 15-20% 

I have gone through all Airbnb fact for improving your  algorithm,  but nothings changed , my 2 nd villa has happened exactly the same, but daily shows “preference guests “ listing, but no reservations, my  1st villa is superhost ranking, but as I have no reservations coming in from Airbnb, so I’ll automatically lose that badge.

Commision payed to Airbnb is 15% here in Spain, and I was paying avarage per reservation 400$ US as most my reservations are 3 to 10 nights stay. So Airbnb was collecting large amounts every month.

Only thing that I can think of that it could be affecting “no reservations “ suddenly, is due to not updating all my photos, should I do that anyway , as the villas have changed little, but still up to date in every way, furniture, decor, equipment, mostly new , payed TV is included like Netflix, and all live sport, that’s a big extra cost , but I know guests appreciate it.

many thank for taking the time for reading my issues, sorry for the bit of incorrectly wording, it’s now 3 pm here.

kind regards, Richard 

PS I offer guests a large welcome food  basket , plus more in the refrigerator, cost total around 75$ per basket , ++ fresh bread and crusants . I’m the only one offering such in my area.

[Natalie-And-Glen0]

I am curious if anyone has seen a pick up in bookings?   We have NOT!   I decided to try Lodgify which is a PMSystem.  It makes the work of adjusting Airbnb and Vrbo listings separately.   Since I did that,  I have recieved almost NO airbnb or vrbo bookings.   For now, the majority of our bookings come from return or referals.   It has been very very strange. And like you, Michelle, my listing barely shows up in the map search.  We are both Superhosts and Guest Favorites.   

  I hired a pricey photographer to reshoot- but decided I prefered the photos i had better- although i have added some of his in the exterior and Barn shots.  
   My recommendation is to market directly more and more-  find your own customers.   

One thing that may have hurt all of our businesses is the law (in California at least) is that the pricing shown includes all fees so now (as a higher priced property) we look so $$$ compared to the competition.     In any event, it has been eye opening to see that you all are feeling the same- thank you all for sharing your stories!  Natalie Walker

[Jeanne918]

ME TOO!! also a 5 star santa monica host with normally exceptional turnout 

[Michele511]

It’s very frustrating. And strange. I don’t think the raised transient tax helped either. Have you had to lower your rates?

[Andrea8411]

Our bookings dropped way down last month and the first half of this month. We do not know why either.

[Michele511]

Yeah. I ended up with enough bookings in December. But I have zero in January. 🤷🏻