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!

[Zheng49]

I did a search for Santa Monica, for 4 days in a row and couldn't find your listing. Not sure what the issue is, but I did browse the first 5 pages just in case it was buried but still nothing. 

Edit: Tried multiple filters and can't find your place at all. 

[Michele511]

@Zheng49  Thank you for letting me know. Disturbing. 

[Zheng49]

I found it now. It's on the top of the 2nd page when I search for Santa Monica for a whole week starting on the 21 of January, and for 1 guest.

Edit: Did another search (same one), and it's on the lower half of the 1st page now. Seems you have a bit of momentum now. 

[Michele511]

@Zheng49  Thank you. So is that how it works? If people are looking at your listing you move up? 

[Zheng49]

Yes. The more activity on your listing, the more it goes up. 

(Just my personal observation, don't cite me on this)

[Michele511]

@Zheng49  Interesting. And doesn’t seem fair. For me, I know that bookings going down when Airbnb Plus went away. I wonder if that has something to do with it. 

(Thank you for looking at my listing!!)

[Zheng49]

I noticed a (rather sharp) drop in bookings and interest when the Superhost filter went away too.

Very similar to the removal of Airbnb Plus. Just one less way to search for and differentiate our listings from the rest of the 'Guest Favorite' listings unfortunately....

[Michele511]

@Zheng49  I did not know they stopped that as well. When did they do that? Did they give a reason?

[Zheng49]

Yes, I think they stopped it at the same time as when they stopped Airbnb Plus during the Winter release. 

The reason is to not confuse guests I guess, since they added guest favorite during the winter release.

IMO, the superhost filter is more helpful since host quality is important. With the way guest favorite is setup, a brand new room can attain it in as little as 3-5 good reviews. And there have been instances where guests complained that they stayed in a 'Guest Favorite' room and it really isn't up to scratch. 

Not sure why they took it away since superhost is more for host quality, and guest favorite is for room quality. They can easily coexist since they do different things. 

[Anne8442]

It could be a great antitrust class action that I have heard is in the works

[Akash4]

Hi folks, I'm Akash.  I'm new to the community forums but have been a Superhost for a few years.  I just wanted to chime in some of my thoughts (please take it with a grain of salt tho!)

So, I think this maybe tied to Airbnb's push towards "lowering or eliminating" cleaning fees.  There are many articles of this if you google it.  It's also mentioned in Q3 shareholder letter.  

Back in Sept / Oct, I started noticing I was barely getting any bookings for both of my properties (they are both in 2 different states).  During my research, I stumbled across Brian Chesky's update that over 260k listings had either lowered or removed cleaning fees.  And then in the latest Winter release, there was a feature about transparent pricing for guests, which basically bakes in cleaning fees into nightly fees for guests and doesn't show cleaning fees as a separate breakdown.

So, I wanted to test my hypothesis:  if lowering cleaning fees would increase my bookings.  For one of my listings, I was charging $195 for cleaning fees.  I removed it completely and started receiving some bookings in a day.  I then increased it to $65, was still getting bookings.  Now, I hover around $85 - $115.  I'm technically paying out of my pocket for cleaning fees but what I've started doing is distributing the difference in nightly price so my overall booking revenue doesn't hurt too much. 

Overall, my Dec and Jan have been fairly strong.

My take away is that:  guests may shy away from hitting the book button if they feel like they're paying too much for cleaning fees.  And cleaning fees keep going up (at least for me) and I feel like there's no way I can charge my guests $195 for cleaning fees anymore as they would feel like it's a lot.  I'm starting to train myself to calculate my nightly fees like hotels do and bake in expenses into it.

Again, please take it with a gain of salt but just wanted to share my recent experiment if it helps 🙂 

[Michele511]

@Akash4  interesting thought. Not true for me as I only charge $100 and have for a long time. My place is small.  

I do think I would balk at $195, though. that seems high. Smart to fold it into nightly price. Glad you’re getting regular bookings now. 

[Akash4]

@Michele511  Yep totally, however I didn't have any booking issues before (other listings my size were also charging similar cleaning fees).  I feel like there has been an increase in psychological impact when guests see more line items at the checkout screen (cleaning fees, airbnb fees, sales tax).  I've been considering removing cleaning fees all together to see if that helps.  Hope Santa Monica picks up again.  We actually just moved here and it does feel much quieter than I remember it to be couple years back.  Love your listing!

[Michele511]

@Akash4  The funny thing is that hotels have the same amount of fees, except maybe cleaning. But they have additional fees of other types. It almost doubles the price! But maybe there was a thought that Airbnb didn’t have to pay STR tax. 

[Sally10]

Interesting Idea. But I have cleaners. I pay them the going learning fee rate in Calf. I need to clean a three-bedroom home myself. So this sounds like we are doing everything to make a few dollars. Crazy.

I have summarized we are being squeezed out.