Hey guys I’m Naomi and I’m new here. I’ve been hosting on Airbnb since April Of this year. I did everything right, I got professional pictures and really awesome reviews. I made it as superhost really quickly. Bookings were coming through money was great then suddenly all bookings stopped. I haven’t been booked in over a week and this a first for me. I’m wondering is this just slow season in goergia??? I’ve been playing with the prices I got a few inquiries but no bookings. So just to see if I was even still visible I put my prices extremely low to 30 bucks and then a booking comes throug. Any idea why this could be I was doing so great.
“Tis the Season”
I can’t speak for GA, but I can tell you in my 2 years of ABNB hosting, Late November and December has been relatively slow. The exception has been people are coming in to visit family. I’d guess most others are focusing on getting ready for holidays at home.
Corporations often limit end of year travel, as they try to ensure they don’t exceed their annual expense budgets.
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Wow, thank you. That definitely makes a lot of sense.
I’m in WNC and have seen the same slowdown.
We are booked they the end of the year with a few things set for next year but the last couple weeks have been slower than they were. I figure people are traveling and doing holiday stuff. I’m kinda glad for the break 
Southwest Florida here. Even though we’re in Season here, late November & December are slow – if people are coming for either holiday they tend to stay with family, or they don’t come at all. Even the LTR Snowbirds usually go 'home for the holiday(s). Transitory STR) snowbirds don’t come until after the North is really deep, wet and white.
As others have said it’s slow season. You started at the beginning of travel season for most people. Another thing I think Airbnb does is move you down in the search and move others up so they have a chance to get some bookings. They are spreading the wealth so to speak. I am booked most of the time, year round and yet it’s not unusual for me to get three or four bookings in one week or even in two days and then get nothing for several days.
Don’t give your place away in order the get bookings.
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I have had the first slowdown in about a year as well. It is slow season but many people come to my town to visit family over Christmas. It’s a touristy town.
So I increase my rates for December to holiday rates. This is normal for where I live.
Always under the impression that people get a little conspiracy theory around Airbnb/SEO/algorithms, I am now starting to convince myself that AirBnb is punishing me for blocking off all of October so that family could stay in the Airbnb. I have never gone so long with not one booking scheduled for the next month. Well, not true…I did get one booking for the last few days of the month.
Then I log in a few days ago and they have upped their game once again with a graph that tells me in detail why nearby listings are getting booked and We are not. They constantly chastise me for charging relatively high rates. Honestly, I don’t. They inform me that there is a 43% decrease in holiday bookings yet a 27% increase in new listings (aka competition.)
I am seriously attributing several new neuroses to Airbnb’s business acumen. I would send them my therapy bill each month if I could.
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Xmas-Jan is our high summer season in Australia. Think August in Europe and America. Hot and busy. I wasn’t really paying attention as getting good bookings in but just noticed I have nothing from AirBnB after this weekend. Nada! For my busiest season. Normally about 80% of my bookings come through AirBnB. I do put my prices up quite high for the holidays,well out and reduce them as the time gets closer but still surprised there is nothing at all. All I can think is that a lot of people must put their places on AirBnB over summer for the first time and their newbie bump pushes my place down. Maybe. My views per day is int he 15-25 range and been consistently there all year give or take, no sudden drop off. Maybe just have to put my prices down 
Any other Aussies notice anything unusual?
Hi Jam - have ou done the private page search to see if you are actually showing and if you are - where?
With Christmas approaching, with all of it’s costs, many people will put vacations lower on the list of priorities
I am the same! I have a sprinkling of bookings to the start of Feb, but nothing to write home about. Last year I had really solid Xmas/January bookings well out, but not this year. I am adding about $100 to my normal weekend price for every day of the week during January. I am not worried as we have a 97% occupancy through the slow/winter season so I know we will be booked. However, I am surprised we weren’t “snapped up” immediately when the calendar was opened up for the summer season.
The only thing I can put it down to is that people don’t book anything in advance anymore. I don’t know if this is true in general, my assumption on this is based on my experience in managing STRs and from my own travels.
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How much do you reduce your rates and what time is “closer” in your mind? Is this your usual routine when altering your calendar?
I am curious as to if I should be more proactive like yourself and how it works for you.
I’ve been pretty laissez faire with my calendar. I alter it every couple of months, generally to raise it for the upcoming holidays or a concert in town etc… But never thought of lowering it as time draws near or bookings are more scarce!
Also, how do you check your views daily? Where is that info?
Thanks so much in advance!
It’s on your hosting dashboard. 30 day views are on the first page. If you want the graph click the progress tab. (this is on the website, not app)
How long have you been hosting again? And do you feel you get all the bookings you’d like?
Ahhhhhh. Ok. Thanks! I keep forgetting all the options you miss with only the app.
I have been hosting for approx 2 years? I like to be about 75% full. I know that we should not depend on the extra dough. But it’s so second nature to me, the work and the inevitable added cash flow that all of a sudden I am a bit shaken at the possibility of its absence.
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Oh, there are so many possbile threats to one’s income when doing Airbnb.
You’ve been hosting awhile and seem to be about as booked as you want so whatever you are doing must be working. I would not advise a hands off approach. You should log on regularly and keep pictures, prices and text up to date. I believe active hosts get a bump in search and that works for me. I’d say over the last 2 years I’ve been booked about 85% of available days but I sometimes make days unavailable.
My experience in the past has been that if you block off time like a month Airbnb will indeed move you down in search. Your place isn’t available so why should it be featured?
The pattern I noticed in the past was that if I was blocked most of 6 weeks, it took about 6 weeks to resume the previous level of bookings. I don’t think this is punishment, it’s just a function of how their search works and the way most people book which tends to be last minute. This fall my calendar has been blocked most of the past 2 months by a direct booking client here for work. Because of my prior experience with this slowdown I took a different approach this year. Every time the room was available because he checked out to go home overnight or for a few days I made the room available instead of taking any time off. And I got booked. I’ve had one open, unbooked night between Nov 4 and Dec 8. It’s been hectic but the “reward” for my hard work is that I’m not suffering a decline in bookings as I did previously when blocked off.
I knew you would have my answers. Sigh.
What you said about the equal amount of time to bounce back makes perfect sense.
Truly, I am not this paranoid.
I think I am mad at myself for coming to depend on the extra income and thoughts of a Merry Consum…err Christmas is likely on my mind.
How often do you think one needs to check-in on the site to benefit? I have never thought about it before with any great intensity because I have always been logged in with either responding to inquiries, altering price listings fairly regularly etc. But obviously I haven’t been for weeks due to it not being available.
Also, do you ever lower rates if not booked or you dont mind if it remains vacant? I know you dont like price discounts in general but at what point would you consider it?
Yeah, it took me not once, but twice, to realize and respond to the pattern.
There are those who think it should be daily. Pierre @smartbnb.io’s program pings your calendar daily. Others, including Airbnb say that tweaking your listing doesn’t have an effect. I don’t know what it is but it makes perfect sense to rank a host higher if they are on the site frequently. So my answer is do it as often as you can, why not? What other business do people think they can set and forget?
I generally do not. Now that my work client is ending his time here I will get back to normal after Dec 8th. I don’t mind a night off here and there I just knew I couldn’t do it on purpose during the past three months. I have occasionally lowered my rate. Once my “price tip” was as low as $19 and I clicked it. It was, I think, one afternoon for that day or the next day. I didn’t get booked. I’ve even raised my prices as the supply of places shrink. Keep in mind I get a lot of non-discretionary travelers who book last minute. Over the last two years I’ve reduced the number of times and amounts that I lower the price. My listing has more reviews than any other listing in town. I have IB, I take bookings late (usually people can book until 8-9 pm) I do every possible thing that Airbnb wants me to do except for lower my price. But keep in mind if all the other hosts do the same then there is no advantage. Not everyone can be in the top xx number of listings.
Hi Icklemiss. It’s really only Xmas-Jan (up to Australia Day) I worry about because I put my nightly price up from $95 to $250 and have a minimum 3 night rather than 2 night stay. All my bookings so far have been on Homeaway/Stayz and HWD (Holidaying With Dogs) or direct from previous guests. I have solid bookings from Xmas Eve to Jan 8 and then nothing. Last year I was solidly booked by this time though charging about $150 a night.
Some people book months out from that period but by early December my nightly rate has gone down to $150. I should probably leave it there as there are bound to be last minute bookers over the summer hols. During the rest of the year I have about a 75% occupancy and 95% over weekends so if I get the occasional weekend free I leave it. 90% of my bookings are within 2 weeks of the date and quite a few seem to wait to see what the weather forecast is like.
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There are only 3 places on AirBnB in our little village with quite different price points, mine is in the middle. The nearest big touristy place (apart from Melbourne) is Phillip Island 30km away and I don’t expect to feature high up there though will get a look in on the extended map. As most of my guests bring dogs I presume I feature higher up if people filter on allowing pets.
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I lower my prices almost everyday, sometimes twice a day. I never have to for a weekend as they are booked well in advance but to keep fully booked through the week I play daily. I only ever look at the calendar bookings about 10 days to two weeks out, but I do it first thing every morning.
Mid week we are at $290 a night, starting 10 days to two weeks out I lower by $10 a day everyday. If there isn’t a booking for today I will go as low as $150. So my margin is quite large $290-$150. Of course there is the $80 cleaning fee on that so by the time they pay the Air fee they are still around the $250 plus mark.
I think those last minute cheap reservations are what stops me being slaughtered on the value rating. We rate at 5* on everything but value, that consistently sits at 41/2*. Personally I am surprised it isn’t lower. Most of our guests seem to enjoy it so much they leave 5* for value. I believe they are being generous.
When I take my friends around to see the places they are shocked at what I get away with charging. I took two friends just last week who are planning to convert their barn to an Airbnb so were asking me for advice. When I asked them if they would pay $500 for a night of sex in the spa, the reply was: I would rather do it in the back of the car!
We were having a conversation about what type of guest they would have and I dropped in on another friend who is Airbnbing a cottage to ask her what market her guests are coming from. We decided that based on the luxury, hunting lodge style they are planning that they would be people like us. Middle-aged, looking to spoil themselves as they visited local attractions. When they said: should we put it a spa? We all decided that we could think of nothing worse than parading ourselves around naked in a spa even with lot’s of bubble bath as after a certain age gravity takes it’s course! So horses for courses, work out who your market will be and cater accordingly and always keep tweaking and learning.
After staying at a few Airbnbs this month I found better ways to manage a few things. It really does make a huge difference to be a guest, especially when you are the one looking for the itinerary, check in instructions, house manual etc.
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