A sudden drop in reservations

Help! I went from a Superhost in May to suddenly not getting a single reservation request in 6 weeks! What happened? I used to have a booking a week. Changed my photo. Nothing. Changed from inta book. Nothing. I have two weeks to figure this out before I bail and rent my house furnished. We have had SUCH A GREAT YEAR and now nothing at all??

My listing; https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8147623?guests=1&s=41&user_id=43017328&ref_device_id=1139f389fec485d3

I’m too facing a terrible slow down here. If you have been a host for no more than a year this is normal. Airbnb promotes new listings to help them reach their first reviews, but after that you are lost in the universe of the rest of the listigns. In Toronto there are more than 10K listings from which 7K are entire apartments and less than 35% of those listings have more than 10 reviews in the site. Not too much activity. The thing that Airbnb hides this data for new hosts is a key factor for them to gain new hosts coming into the site and this makes it every current host hard to survive.

BTW, Toronto’s data is here:
www.airdna.co/city/ca/toronto

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I thought this promotion lasted a month.

And like I said in the other thread, I think this is mostly about placement.

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I think the boost lasts 5 weeks.

I am in the top 10 placement-wise for my market, for three people and my inquiries have slowed considerably. However, I am thinking that during the winter months, people traveling here will be more likely to be Americans [not flying from another country] and make their plans later than the full-on tourists.

However, as I see the rate of bookings slow down as we head into colder weather, I am fantasizing about traveling during the coldest months. Where? So much fun to imagine.

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Most big slowdowns are seasonal. It’s the time of year. I get that every single year. It’s just now picking up again here in Hawaii.

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Why would you change from Instabook if you wanted to increase your bookings? I feel like that would accomplish the opposite.

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Thnx Seabird! When it first came out it was very helpful, however in the middle of negotiating a long term stay over what would have been 6 weeks in winter, I did not want that spoilt by a weekend insta book flying in. A few of my other hosts friends have turned it off bc it doesn’t allow them to vet the guest as thoroughly. I’m putting it back on now that that the long stay declined. Sigh…

Thanks for this link!

UPDATE: I just got a human AirBnB employee on the phone! :astonished:

I explained my concern as a former Super Host for more than a year, about the lack of reservations recently so she offered to review my profile and to check for anything I may have done that could be be affecting my listing.

“This looks like a great place to stay! You are not alone in your concerns, there is a seasonal slowdown happening after the summer high season in Toronto.”

She checked out my public profile and we even discussed the profile picture. “The lack of reservation requests is because it is SLOW overall. It is not just you”

I have heard this song before. Oh, yes, it’s from Airbnb CS Greatest Hits album!

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An oldie but a goodie.

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My bookings have really slowed down too. I’m going by Airbnb’s low price settings to get some bookings, then hopefully my rate will then go up.

I have made the decision that I will not lower my prices below my “hassle factor” estimate. At some point, it isn’t worth the money to have people staying in my house, doing all that laundry, and now that winter is coming, heat those rooms. I actually enjoy the parade of people, but turns out there is a number that represents my limit.

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I have that number too. :smiley: Although I didn’t when I was a new host…!

Your place looks nice and cheap! I bet it is placement - I would add it to VRBO. You need to be on more than one platform - I find the placement changes on both… My spring was a bit slow but now I am slammed. Last month almost all my reservations were on VRBO - and earlier in the year I got no reservations on VRBO because my placement was moved from first page to last. You may also do better just renting it as a furnished corporate apartment.

I have the same problem. I suspect the market in some places is becoming saturated. My flat is in the most-visited neighborhood in San Francisco (the Mission) and I have only 2 bookings for November (one of them made after I dropped my price).
Airdna has some interesting data. They show almost 10,000 listings in SF. And the curve looks like a hockey stick: in 2012 there were fewer than 1000. I think we’re at the point where the market has reached equilibrium. When I look at my expenses and income from airbnb for 2016, I calculate that I would actually make quite a bit more revenue simply renting my flat unfurnished, full-time. (For the curious, my flat rented for $3200/mo 4 years ago. Zillow now shows it at $4500/month, which is consistent with similar listings in the neighborhood. And my net airbnb revenue will average out to around $3000/mo for 2016).
I think this is partly because visitors to SF can’t quite comprehend how expensive it is to live here, partly because the location of my flat happens to be the best in the neighborhood and visitors don’t quite realize that, and partly because there are just too many airbnbs, which pushes everyone’s price down. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was happening in Toronto as well since it’s also a relatively high-cost city with lots of tourism. I think it will take a few years before people realize that airbnb is excellent for temporary rentals when you’re away, or for getting some cash for your spare bedroom, but there simply isn’t any advantage any more for full-time, whole-house rentals.

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