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  😊 

[Karen1027]

Hi Eva

Did you ever find out the reason for this? We have the same problem !

[Romano6]

We have the same problem. We listed 2 apartments in Florence with Air BnB at the end of May and were busy through October. In July we listed the same apts on Booking.com, were we had a few reservations for the fall and December/January.

Since January 1 we haven't had a single reservation come through Air BnB. ALL our reservations are coming through Booking.com. The guests are mostly from Asia, some from eastern and western Europe, and the balance from the Americas. They are booking much further in advance then the guests did during the summer.

Does anyone have any insight into this? Is the Booking.com guest a planner? Is the Air BnB guest a last minute type of person? Is Air BnB available to the asian guest? What is the personna of each type of guest? Could there be something wrong with our Air BnB listings?

[Rach2]

I'm experiencing the same problem, I'm not getting any enquiries or bookings. IIwas very busy when I first started. Now it's gone really quiet. 

[Jaspreet1]

Hi everyone I’m a new host with no reviews yet. I’m also experiencing no booking inquiries for over a week now. Can anyone take a look at my listing and let me know what I’m doing wrong hear. 

Thanks 

[Celia63]

Hi I'm Shelley from Melbourne Australia

We have been renting our forest cottages with Airbnb for over a year; by in large we have done very well.

BUT!!! Over the past 7 weeks bookings have dropped away by at least 50% 

So its interesting to notice hosts from other demographics are also experiencing a turn down in bookings.

We are just on the cusp of listing with Booking.com, and hopeful there is a larger chunk of the population using that site. We will have to see! I believe they are a different type of guest, also reviews seem more likely to be brutally honest; Booking .com platform does not encourage hosts to review guests, therefore they have nothing to lose.

[Matthew285]

@Jaspreet1 when you mention that you are experiencing no booking inquiries for over a week, had you been having inquiries before? Or is it that the listing is brand new, and no inquiries are coming in yet?

[Jaspreet1]

Hi @Matthew285 it’s new listing but had a couple of bookings but after almost two weeks now no inquiries 

[Matthew285]

@Jaspreet1, when I look at your AirBnB profile, I can't see any listing attached right now.

Have you deactivated the listing?

[Jaspreet1]

No @Matthew285  I haven't deactivated the listing, I can see my posting online.

[Matthew285]

@Jaspreet1 I can see the listing now.

It says it is New.

When I search in the Fleetwood neightborhood in Surrey, there are 72 listings, and yours is #5 of 72, so you are high in the search rankings.

Your price certainly is competitive.

Is this a slow time of year for travel to your area?

[Ange2]

@Jaspreet1 

As you don't have any recommendations yet, you could ask people you know for references so you have third party reviews on your listing.  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/173/what-are-references-on-airbnb.  I would also suggest rearranging and editing the photos and take some photos with a warm light (overhead lights generally have a warm cast), or on a sunny day.  btw: some of the images are out of focus. Check out listings in your area and see how they present their spaces,what they charge and if they are being booked. It could be seasonal or a glut of listings. Good luck!

[Jaspreet1]

Thanks @Ange2 I will try that. I have tried everything, my listing is even showing in the first page. Still not sure why no one is bookin

[Patricia-and-Daniela0]

Hello everyone, I am Daniela, I am a new host from Mexico City and I am having some issues as well getting booking inquiries since the end of february. I don't know if this is normal because of my apartment's location as it's not in the downtown area or if I am doing something wrong here. I listed my apartment the second week of january and I have been renting it for 39 days so far but after the last guests left ( the only ones I had so far, the first booking was made for them)  I haven't gotten any new bookings. I am aware that I only have two 5 star evaluations and that people prefer renting from super hosts or places that have more evaluations but what can I do to improve this if I am not getting people to rent my apartment? I already asked friends on facebook to give me references, hopefully that will help me once I get them. When I first started I used to let guests stay for more than 28 nights but after my last experience where my guests were literally fleeing from their country and they wanted to basically move in for good and bring their whole family to live with them, buy more beds for them etc,  I changed my settings to min 5 nights/max 15 nights for this to never happen again. They finally decided to move somewhere else unfurnished and with more bedrooms. Also Airbn keeps telling me to lower my price. Funny thing is after I lower it they say my price is fine but literally the very next day they tell me to lower it again. This has been like this since I started hosting. Are they doing this with everyone, is this normal? They want me to charge nothing to get bookings ( cut my price in half!) but I really depend on this money for a living and I cannot go lower than this or I will end up renting the same price people in my area are charging for one private bedroom in a shared apartment and I am not making enough profit that way. I checked and other full apartments for two people in my area charge around the same or even more. If anyone could please help me out here, tell me if I am doing something terribly wrong, maybe change the cover photo etc, take better photos etc, I would totally appreciate it!

[Alexandra316]

@Patricia-and-Daniela0 First, ignore Airbnb's pricing suggesitons. They will always tell you to go lower, no matter how low you are. I would recommend doing your own research on prices in your area and basing it on that.

Since you've asked, I'm going to start with the wording in your listing. The introduction should be a spot where you pique the guest's interest and tell them what's unique about your space. You shouldn't be giving them a paragraph on the location: your potential guest can see your location. Save that for the neighborhood description At best, I would reduce it to a single sentence.

Maybe something like: "Charming 100M2 Colonial style apartment in the heart of Mexico City's -Blank- neighbourhood. This cozy second floor 2-bedroom apartment features traditional Mexican decor,  hand-carved furnture, and hand-painted murals done by -blank-. Enjoy the beautiful sunny private courtyard terrace.  Conveniently located walking distace to a supermarket, banks, and many other stores and services.

Your pictures are not good: I would repace pretty much all of them. The cover photo of the mural is odd, and the second picture of the front of the building doesn't look very nice.  I would stage the terrace or entrance nicely with chairs with cusions, maybe a picher of drinks, etc: it looks abandoned in your pictures. Your spiral staircase looks amazing, but the picture you have isn't good: it looks like a photo of a photo. Take all of your pictures in landscape format. Maybe see if you can use or borrow a better quality camera: a lot of the pictures look milky due to the light. It looks like your apartment is very cute, but it could use a little staging. Put some fresh flowers on the dining table, for example, and make the beds nicely. Set the table.

If you can afford it, I would also consider replacing one of the single beds with a double or queen. Having 2 single beds only really limits the type of guest you're going to get: it pretty much rules out couples.

[Patricia-and-Daniela0]

@Alexandra316 Thank you very much for responding me and for giving me this very useful feedback! I will work on this today to improve my listing and yes I imagined my pictures weren't the best. The cover photo although somewhat original might scare guests off  I guess. Small things like setting the table and making the beds, staging each room will help I am sure. And yes I will ignore from now on Airbnb's pricing suggestion,  I didn't change my price last night and today it's back to being perfect again. Weird! Actually yes, that was our plan to rent the apartment a few times and then replacing one single bed with a double bed but we cannot afford it right now. Maybe we can put the other single bed into the other bedroom so we can host 4 people. Thanks again, have a good day!