Bookings have been slow since the beginning of September. Is...
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Bookings have been slow since the beginning of September. Is anyone else experiencing this? I keep applying discounts but it ...
Latest reply
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 😊
Answered! Go to Top Answer
@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
I looked at your listing and at first didn't spot anything obvious. Then I noticed that your top two reviews show that you cancelled on two guests in March. That will hurt your listing in many ways. For one thing, it will deter many guests. For another thing, AirBnB will push your listing down (possibly way down) in search results. Hosts cancelling is a very bad thing as far as AirBnB is concerned. If you had truly valid reasons that fit AirBnB's very lmited "Extenuating Circumstances", then you should contact AirBnB to get those cancellations off your record. Be aware, though, that if you can't prove that you meet their criteria, they'll leave them on your record.
Hi Dede, I am having the same problem. All of a sudden I don't get any inquiries. Can you look at my listing and see if there is something wrong? Thanks, Gary
@Gary26, I didn't see your question until today, so sorry for the delayed followup.
Looking at your listing, nothing big jumps out at me, but a lot of small things do:
Your profile contains nothing about you. Add a welcome message or something about you. Lok at other listings for ideas.
Under Amenities, you have Wifi checked but not "Internet". Check that; if you've got Wifi, you've got internet. (The reverse isn't necessarily true.) Get some hangers, an iron, and a hair dryer and check those off. If your place has *anywhere* that a laptop could be set down with chair access, even the kitchen table, check off "Laptop Friendly Workspace".
Consider removing the sentence "Extended stay guests pay electricity if over $50." from your initial "About this listing" blurb. If you really, really need to charge more for electricity for longer visitors (Do you really?), then make it clearer (elsewhere) what an "extended visit" is and how the extra charge is calculated or what the charge is likely to be. As written, it's way too vague and off-putting.
I also notice that you have only one review. How long has this listing been available? You need a few more favorable reviews. So adjust the few things I've mentioned and also consider dropping your rate just a little bit temporarily. Lower rates attract more guests, and more guests lead to more reviews. Your rate seems quite reasonable for your area, but try dropping it by maybe $5-10 for a month or two. (What does AirBnB show as their recommended rates?) Also, temporarily increase your weekly discount from 10% to maybe 15% (effectively offering one free night per week).
For your own protection, (since you state that you can only accommodate 2 guests) eliminate the "Extra Guests: No charge" item seen under the Prices section. The ONLY way to make that illogical setting disappear (thanks to some bad AirBnB coding logic) is to go into your settings and set the extra charge to some absurdly high amount. Try $1000.
Also (and this has nothing to do with improving your bookings or search placement), I recommend increasing your cleaning fee. $10 is way too low, not matter the local economy. Your guests will probably mostly be foreign tourists, right? So charge $15 or $20. That averages out to very little considering your 3-night minimum booking.
Good luck!
if you find this helpful, consider clicking the Thumbs Up button near the lower right. Thanks!
Dear Dede,
Could you kindly check my profile?
The same thing has happened to me!!
Any help woud be extreemly appreciated!
Ann
@Ann-Marie0 -- Sorry to take so long to followup; I'd overlooked your request.
Your listing looks pretty good to me. Price is in line with others of your capacity in your area and your place sounds great. You seem well-booked for April and May but then very open for June. (Is summer normally a high season or low season for Malta, or do you even experience seasonal fluctuations in tourism?)
The only thing that jumps out at me is that you've received only a single review. How long have you been operating? Perhaps you need to collect a few more (positive) reviews. One way to do that is to temporarily lower your rates to attract more guests and to have those happy guests leave happy reviews. You might also temporarily lower your fee for add'l guests past 3. Same reason.
We have been operating for around 2 weeks.
Normally June is high season for Malta! - That is weird.
I agree about the prices regarding the reviews - thanks a million for the tip!
Ann
Same here and with other hosts I know too. I don't feel it's our listings necessarily but rather something outside our control. Would love to hear from others.
I've been hosting for over a year in the Seattle area and been very pleased with the rate of bookings (June -Sept) almost fully booked. About a month ago, inquiries stopped coming. Someone said it's because they are running ads for Airbnb on the television and have attracted more hosts. I think it has to do with the redesigned website which is promoting "tour experiences" by unique individuals. The Airbnb accommodations seem secondary. Anyone else having this problem?
I'd also appreciate someone looking at my site if they have time. We have great reviews. Maybe there is a "red flag" I don't know about?
Do you think the Travel Ban may have affected bookings?
Yes, I've had the same problem along with other bnb providers in the area. I've been hosting for 5 years and have normally been booked out all year round. I have 141 good reviews and my photos are good. Normally guests from Asia patricularly Malaysia, Singapore and Hong King have been constant. I live on the Gold Coast and I believe Theme Park attendance is also down, so I wonder if the fatal accident at Dreamworld has impacted the market.
I would be interested to get other opinions.
Auski
My advice - if you can't control some of the outside, extenuating factors, contoling what you can on the Airbnb website might help.
Sometimes it's a matter of not getting enough visibility. When someone is searching in your area, they're not finding your listing. I live in Seattle and this can be a probelm.
About every 3 to 4 weeks, I slightly change my listing "title" and pricing by about $1.00. This way, the system considers you a "new listing" and puts you back up to the top where you get more visibility. Try that and see if it helps.
Helen
Have been on Airbnb since 2013. I didn't notice decline until recently because I had bookings. Turns out, those booking were from guest that had stayed with us before and were on their 2nd or 3rd visit. Also, we were not trying to keep completely booked, as we enjoy down time in between guest. We do need to have some guests in order to keep renting, and to supplement our income since we are semi- retired.
We have had over 140 mostly glowing reviews and have been SuperHost since they started the program. Being in Las Vegas, we don't feel like we are competing with the Las Vegas Strip. Our listing specifically says, "Off Strip" and we are close to Red Rock National Park. We usually get alot of hiker's and rock climbers etc. The only booking we have in the pipeline is from a previous guests.
I don't get it! What is going on with the placement of listings. I can't even find my own listing with a search including some or all the filters. It simply does not come up! We have no cancellations, so the only thing I can surmise is that we refuse to lower prices and go on Instant Book. Will not do either of those for obvious reasons. On another thread, someone said they were requiring all new listings to go on "Instant Book" and were promoting this. I tried changing the "title" yesterday as Helen suggested. Maybe, more time is needed. Someone mentioned on another thread that Airbnb had increased their booking fee's to 12%-16%. The fee's used to be 6%-12%. I can confirm that the fee's have been raised. Looked at listings, incognito and the fee's was 15% which was about $75 . I'm now thinking this is the problem. People are looking for lower priced listing to make up for that huge increase in fee's.
I do the same. I change/update and add photos and suddenly ding ding ding...tons of new bookings.
I am having the same problem. The only change I made was a 2 night minimum to discourage the “party” groups. I’ve only had one booking since the change.