Why do I suddenly have no bookings?

[Marie70]

Hi! 

When we first put up our listing on Airbnb, there were a number of enquiries coming in everyday. But since the last 3-4 days, there's a sudden halt in enquiries.

I wonder if anyone encountered the same issue recently? Is it something wrong with my listing? 

Some enlightenment from other Hosts/Airbnb would be of great help!

Thank you  😊 

[Rubén16]

Hi everyone,

New hosts keep in mind that airbnb puts you at the top of the search ranking when you first start to host, after that initial push from airbnb it is up to you to maintain your listing at the top. That is why when you first started you received numerous inquiries and bookings after a while your listing started to drop in the search ranking.

From my experience this is what I did to bring up my listing on the serach ranking.

1) Price your listing to book even if it is below market rate.

2)fill in as many ammenities as you can

3) fill out your entire airbnb listing, do not leave any unanswered questions including profile

4) Clear sharp Photographs of your listing and nearby attractions

5)Change your listing title for the seasons or events

6) removing the cleaning fee increased my ranking try it in yours

7) from my experience the more fees I charged the lower my ranking went, so I deleted all my additional fees, cleaning, extra person......etc. my ranking went up quickly and so did my bookings

8)If possible greet guests and remind them about the airbnb review  and how important it is.

9) Reply quickly to inquiries within an hour.

10) cancelling a guest reservation will drop you very quickly in search ranking, if there is an emergency where you can not continue with the reservation contact airbnb and explain it to them, they might cancel for you without any penalties.

11) and much more, contact me if you need advise on your listing.

**** Do give a thumbs up (Like) if the information above was helpfull ****

[Rupesh-Suman-Pete0]

Airbnb is a stock and flow business. Listings are the stock.  Airbnb's immage is based on a having a very huge number of listings , but of course they do not have the flow of guests to fill those listings , they are over stocked,  so prices crash.  Basically, Airbnb want the listings, but dont care about filling them. After all , they could reduce their booking fees rather than increasing them. What they do care about is Headline numbers that will improve their stock float price.  I. E. 100 billion properties listed .   Or booking fee margins of 16%.  All looks good for investors  but lousy for customers. So the real problem is that Airbnb is in the business if serving themselves not their customers.    As such Airbnb is "over" the crest off the hill, and heading down.  My advise is migrate to Booking.com etc.  Find another channel and stop being expolited by a company that caught the profit bug real bad, and lost it's way.   This is tge era if sustainability, and the Airbnb is not. 

[Denise710]

Rupesh: You are right on target. I think the idea is to go back to "long term" stay. That's how I did it before airbnb. So as George said on Seinfeld..do the opposite. You helped me to clarify my thoughts and I appre  ciate it very much. Denise

[Amit73]

I am having same issue. When I first started last week, I had 5 messages who wanted to see more photos, but after adding 14 photos no messages, no bookings, can anyone figure out what’s wrong with my listing? 

[Helen19]

Hi Amit -

The Airbnb platform can be so fickle.  Example, yesterday I found an Airbnb in Nashville for a trip to meet with our daughter.  By the time I shared the link with her, got her"ok" for proximity,  I could not find it again (hr later) on the Nashville listings.  Regarding your situation, chances are the folks who requestd more photos simply moved on and found somethig else.

I suggest you listen to the Youtube disucssion by STRU Podcast.  It's really informative.  His recommendation regarding photos - not more than 10 photos and have them done professionally - clean, clear and intersting perspectives.  When I started about 5 years ago, Airbnb sent out a professional photographer at no extra charge.  Those were the good old days!

Helen Seattle, WA

[Helen19]

For Everyone -

I'm not getting any bookings from European nor Australian travelers the way I use to (by this time of year).  My theory - our political climate is so toxic and zenophobic, foreigners are staying away from traveling in the States.  

Am I wrong with this thinking?  Are you seeing a decline in bookings from Europe?

Helen - Seattle, WA

[Denise710]

Yes, Helen, I do believe you are wrong. I too have had my listings dry up suddenly. It is

something with airbnb, not any kind of political thing. I have been a superhost for some 

years and haven't even had any inquiries. I live in a great intown historic neighborhood and

have had no booking requests for four weeks. I have to rethink how I market the guesthouse. There are people I know who use booking.com who seem happy with them.

[Denise710]

I have had the same problem and am considering dropping off airbnb. I have been a super host for years, live in a great intown historic neighborhood in Atlanta. Not sure what could have happened.

[Helen427]

@Denise710 @Marie70 @Helen19 

@Denise710 , what internet platform do you use?

Do you use mobile or laptop?
I ask as there's been ongoing IT issues for many of us obtaining "access' to the basics & obviously if Hosts are having access issues to the website/ App so to will Guests, many of course who rely on booking with there Mobile devices.

Please use related keywords in Searchbox here in CC & my other posts re this concerning issue.

IT glitches, Log in, Google outages, 3rd party provider Data breaches.

Hang in there & use all the means available to let other ABB Corporate  know & ask them to provide us with a media release about it - that said if there's been an unlawful access to (3rd party providers) Data, that will involve a Police investigation so don't expect any answers there - accessing anothers computer system without authority is a serious criminal offence, using that info for other purposes like fraud etc is equally unlawful.

Meanwhile it's very frustrating for all

All the best

Central To All Home & Location, Auckland, New Zealand

[Denise710]

Thanks Helen. I don't use airbnb on my phone (old school) I guess. I called and the rep went over my lisitng, no problems there. I have had lots of frustrating with their website. Now i am experiencing the most destructive to my business with airbnb. 

I. E. A man who made a reservation with me, arrived while I was still getting messages from airbnb to answer his request to book. Unreal. He had tried and tried to no avail. Finally he just came on his trip for business and paid me in cash, because he couldn't get airbnb to accept his money. THEN airbnb punished me for not answering my email, and suspended me from their Super Host status for a while.

Another a woman who stays here with me for months in the winter. She even called airbnb desperatly trying to make it work. Finally she stopped by my house while visiting with her

daughter and I ended up booking her myself. Both of us tried EVERYTHING, phone calls to airbnb and it came down to either I got the booking myself or lost it because of airbnb.

Computer glitches..sure, but how to fix it. ???  Thanks to everyone, Maybe the solution is to drop off airbnb for a while and then go back in a week or so, therefore "resetting" the system.

[Lesa78]

The Airbnb system has allowed people to book when I had Smart Pricing on, at prices LOWER than my lowest set price. It's also now changing the daily prices in my calendar and the only way to fix them is to manually go in and change them. I don't feel secure that they will last, even when I do.

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Denise710 @Marie70 @Helen19 @Helen427 

Girls, I am now of the opinion this is a glitch in the system and the reason it has not been fixed is because it is smasmodic, it is random and they can't track down where the error is! I don't know this but I suspect it!

I consistently average 10-12 reservations a month, have been doing so for the past 18 months. Even when my total views for the month were down to 320-360 I would still get at least 10 bookings. 

From the last week in March this year, through all of April and into May (Over 5 weeks)  I did not get one new booking....well that is not strictly true I did get 3 bookings as a result of pre-approvals I gave back in February. Apart from that absolutely nothing! At one stage my views page showed 1 new booking for past 30 days

I got onto CX and asked them to check on the status of my listing.....were they seeing something that I was not...or had my account been subject to internal treatment by Airbnb. She assured me all was good with my account and gave me a lot of stats....some that I was not even aware of and she said it must be just seasonal!

Within a day of making that call, all of a sudden the reservations are coming again. I have had 16 Airbnb bookings and 4 Stayz bookings in the past 30 days........

Now at that point, my reaction was CX probably did a bit of resetting and got the booking ship upright again.

But I did have an interesting enquiry though. The guest said he had tried 3 or 4 times to book my listing in that drought period and he could not get past the check-out page. As soon as he tried to submitt for payment, the site said  booking failed, try again later. They waited for a couple of weeks and were about to go somewhere elsewhere and thought they would give the booking of my place one last try and, it went through! It was accepted. I asked him if there had been an issue with his payment method and he assured me there was nothing wrong on his end, it seemed to be an Airbnb problem!

Now fortunately this has not cost me anything, I had plenty of upcoming bookings anyway but I have heard of some hosts here who are being devistated by a sudden lack of business so I suggest keep on badgering CX. The more we get on their backs the more likely we are to try and hget to the bottom of this....what ever it is!

Cheers.....Rob

[James3912]

What is CX? 

[Maria20330]

Hi @Robin4  same has happened to me.. what is CX and how do I contact them?

[Robin4]

@Maria20330 

Hi Maria, sorry about the slow response but, we live in a global community, when you play, we sleep!

CX is Airbnb's way of describing 'Support' ......CX stands for Customer Experience!

Firstly many US hosts are saying they are experiencing a radical fall in reservation activity over this current winter season. Being in a beach location could be having an effect on your current lack of bookings.

But lets look at alternatives.

I just did a listing search of the Myrtle Beach area and your listing is not coming up in the first 15  search pages which means you are essentially not visible to the public at present.

Have you 'snoozed' your listing inadvertently or, had it suspended by Airbnb for some reason?

If you are sure your settings are correct and you have not offended Airbnb in some way I would firstly make a few alterations to your listing....

* Add or change a photo or two.

* Change your listing description or add a house rule or amenity.

* Put the price up a couple of dollars for a week, then put it down again.

* Get a friend or two to send you an enquiry, it doesn't commit them to anything, just respond with an answer and after 24 hours the enquiry drops off the system.

Maria, the algorithm that governs search placement responds to....Activity, and the more activity that you can generate on your listing the more visible you will become.

If you wish to speak to someone in Airbnb about this you can contact customer support and the phone numbers for the USA are

+1-415-800-5959  or +1-855-424-7262  (toll free)

I hope you can get your business going again Maria, in your short career you have got off to a good start with a straight 5* rating....good on you.

All the best.

Cheers......Rob