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!

[Michele511]

@Elizabeth24  P.S. I kept Rebecca’s answer as “answered” because I want people to know there is someone from Airbnb monitoring this thread. 

[Mary5479]

can’t agree more. the radius of search is too large and it doesn’t prioritize local listings. my booking rate is going down a lot too.

[Mary5479]

The radius of search is something really worth attention. It’s very weird. My listing won’t show up in the search results when they were 5 stars and search at this particular city. 

I can’t figure out how, and i am happy to see peer hosts asking similar questions. @Rebecca 

[Joshua148]

Hi Michele,

As a multiple Airbnb owner/host, I’ve noticed the same in San Diego. 

My personal review, not backed by data, is that (1) inflation hurt the drive-in guest, (2) hotels are winning back customers, (3) Airbnb’s algorithm is offering huge advantages to lower price; so much so that they’ve ignored the hosts to save customers a few bucks and created a chain reaction of deal seekers and unhappy customers. 

With regards to the algorithm, search your local area WITHOUT dates. You will see that Airbnb offers different dates for different rentals; sometimes 2 different houses combine to a single trip. This is designed to save the guest money.  Meaning, the guest is now trained to be flexible on dates and they will get a great price.  

Sounds like a good plan? Well… I don’t think it’s good for hosts. Formerly consistent weekend revenues are no longer reliable.  Guests are able to drive the following weekend and find a gap in another house’s calendar. If they arrive Saturday morning for 2 nights instead of Friday for 3 nights, they can save 60%.  By making this ultra easy for guests to change their habits, hosts are left with much less revenues per trip. Host costs are the same, but profit plummets. It’s now a price war between hosts unless you have a differentiated property.  

Unless you have the exact perfect fit for the guest, the guest will use the algorithm to find the best rates (maybe not the best house) for whatever dates are open. Hosts lose. 

Airbnb thinks they are “increasing the guest pool”… but my opinion is that the new guest pool is trained to deal seek, ask for price reductions, complain during their stay and erode the host’s confidence in Airbnb.  In reality, Airbnb has created a complain culture that created upset guests and hosts. 

Bright side?  Accept longer stays for same price you used to get. Offer 1 or 2 extra nights free by setting up deals. Join the price war, you can’t fight it.  Consider the longer term math as many airbnbs will convert back to long term housing. I have converted 2 back this month, for example. Get in front of it and make changes until you see an impact.

Times will get better or perhaps your market is too saturated for your product. Economy 101 is supply and demand. Too many airbnbs and too few customers willing to pay. Glory days are over for Airbnb hosts. 

[Michele511]

@Joshua148  Thank you. Certainly another good insight. I am hoping it will ultimately shake out.

[Michele511]

@Joshua148  I will be listening to the earnings call and guidance on February 20. Maybe that will reveal something. It sounds like you have the mind for this sort of thing. If you listen, too, it could be helpful.

They became public a couple years ago and that changes everything, of course.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Michele511 we got one booking in January but February has brought 6 bookings in a weekend. I think (hope) people are recovering from Thanksgiving/Christmas spending and have waited until their January payday before they book a stay.

[Michele511]

@Mike-And-Jane0  Good to hear! I got some in February, too. After lowering my price. Did you have to lower your price? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Michele511 we have lowered our near term prices but not the pricing further out in the year.

[Michele511]

Ditto. I also lowered the cleaning fee from $90 to $50

[Denise1828]

Same thing happening for me. I started in December 2020, hit superhost every time since. No lack of business immediately, every single month since starting even during winter months. Had no problem, booked constantly. My first Airbnb is just a mother daughter like suite within my house in Central Jersey. I was even skeptical and didn't believe it would be successful because it’s a unit in my house and in the suburbs, not a major city until I saw other Airbnb’s in my area they have room rentals with shared spaces.

I listed my second Airbnb which is my rental condo 10 minutes from the first one to host larger groups that I opened in July 2023. Right away that one booked up, by December it already made what I would make in an entire year just having a regular 12 month rental lease. 

By November/December inquiries slowed down and views. Now with this happening on Airbnb, I only had 3 bookings in January between both properties. Only 1 booking in February at the suite and 0 at the condo listing. 

Airbnb became a huge part of my livelihood, life changing actually. I’m worried and don’t know what to do. Thank you Michele for posting this post and everyone who commented feedback. Well wishes to all of you fellow hosts out there! 

[Wes533]

I’m having the same issue. For some reason my bookings have dropped to zero. I have all 5 star reviews and now nothing in months.

Im considering deleting the account and starting over so I can get my algorithms higher. 

[Michele511]

@Wes533  What tells you that would help your algorithm? Wouldn’t you lose your superhost and/or Guest Favorite status’. Also, what would happen to your reviews? 

[Michele511]

Hi All. I am making a list of articles. After I listen to the earnings call on the 13th I will post it all at once. There seem to be many reason for this. One seems to be that Airbnb itself is investing in its own hotels in some cities. But it could not be the only reason, because it doesn’t look like they’ve bought any in Santa Monica yet and that’s where i am. More to come…Hopefully some solid answers, but, I’m not holding my breath.

Thanks everyone for staying engaged! I think Airbnb is aware of what we are talking about. But, since they are now a public company they have more than us to appeal to, sadly, for us.

[Zheng49]

What happened to your listing? Did you take it down? 

But yes, bookings are way down. There's some drastic changes behind the scenes that are affecting a lot of us.

It's just so much harder to get bookings than before.