bookings

James1444
Level 1
Seattle, WA

bookings

Anyone else  have their bookings suddenly stop?

5 Replies 5
Kern-And-Anne0
Level 2
Asheville, NC

More or less.   Our last guest was November 20 2022.  I looked at the flow chart on "views" however, I think people are running short on money.  True, gas is getting cheaper, there are new hotels being built (2 at once here anyway in Asheville, NC).  The weather is not conducive to hiking or outdoor activities.  Usually we have a busy November people visit the Biltmore Estate decorated for Christmas.  Not so this year.

You are supposed to be having snow where you are, impassable roads, etc.  So that could be a reason for less bookings.

Our town was on the news for increased crime.  We have about 1/3 less police force.   All those things influence bookings.  Too many homeless people panhandling in center Asheville.  Right outside the restaurants.  I think that has something to do with it.  Our BnB is outside the city, just into the county.  We have had travelling nurses for month long stays.  We offer a deep discount for monthly stays.  So don't know what is going on either. 

@Kern-And-Anne0  Hi!  I am also outside of Asheville and understand your concerns regarding the lack of guests as I have also experienced a dramatic slowdown in rentals, although that is trending upwards again.

 

I do have some suggestions that may help you with attracting guests.  First, reorder your listing description to start with the amenities that the property offers instead of the cleaning protocols -- guests don't read everything, so you have to grab them with your first paragraph.  Your property is very cute, and your pricing is extremely reasonable.  Second, I have found that slightly increasing my pricing brought me more bookings and better clients, so you could adjust upwards to see what that does.  Reducing pricing often brings in the bottom feeders and careless guests (which you don't want).  Third, remove the comment re drug usage -- that is better stated in your welcome message to your guests or in your house rules on the website.  

 

Change up some of your pictures.  The one of the front of your home may be attracting guests, but then they move on when the discover that your cute cottage is not what they are renting.  So take a really good picture of the AirBnB entrance and promote that.  Remove the pictures of the heating and standing fan.  I would also place the microwave on the kitchen counter with the Keurig to ensure that the guests recognize your kitchenette -- where does a guest cook?  I saw no induction cooktop or toaster for a quick breakfast.

 

Wishing us both more rentals!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply.  

We were pretty full occupancy since May 1, monthly stays.  then dropped off suddenly.  We already are in the process of updating dedscription anyway, figuring it was time to do that.  We have the $99 per night, Air BnB suggestion was to lower the price to $84.  Go lower, and get the bottom feeders, true.  January, Feb, hardly any guests over the 5 years we had this.  This is a pattern.March bookings start up, and continue through the summer.   This December hardly any views, even.   The $84 by Air BnB puts us lower, maybe go back to the $99.00 however, I think that  the guests are paying a large occupancy tax by Buncumbe / Asheville.  Most of our guests this year came from 300 miles away this year.  

A note:  we cannot put a microwave on the counter as the heavy duty plugs are not there.  We did have a Cuisinart tabletop oven, and experimented but that cooking was a disaster.  no more.  Just the microwave.   We even put in a  fan to remove cooking odors, but no one used it or could even understand how it worked.  All one had to do was pull the chain, that opened up the and turned the fan onl During the Covid era, people did thank us for the UV filter unit, evidently now they don't care as they  unplug the thing, so  much for that.  And yes, we do need to  update the pictures.  .

 

Sudsrung0
Level 10
Rawai, Thailand

@James1444 

 

You are not alone many Host in the same boat you will see if you look through this forum,

 

The only thing you can do is make sure you are listed on other platforms, dont just rely on airbnb,

 

What is it normally like for you this time of the year?

 

 

Lorna170
Level 10
Swannanoa, NC

@James1444   When the summer update hit, my bookings stopped.  Fortunately, I am multi-listed so the other OTAs kept me occupied.  I have noticed that AirBnB, which used to be 60% of my bookings and plummeted to less than 10%, has started to regain traction in my market, but very very slowly.

 

I tweaked the heck out of my listing description (without decreasing my base pricing) and promoted some updates we made to the linens and kitchen amenities -- seemed to help, but I am still nowhere near the occupancy via AirBnB that I had prior to the summer update.  The winter update seems to have had no effect either good or bad.

 

Best wishes for an uptick in bookings!