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Okay, the bad news is buried in there too but let’s look at the bright side!
" Airbnb has more listings today than it did before the crisis, "
“We’re not ruling out going public this year and we’re not committing to it,” he said. Airbnb was valued at $31 billion in its most recent private fund-raising round, though recent debt issuance to shore up its finances have significantly reduced that valuation."
“We have seen a faster recovery within alternative accommodations than in hotels,” Morgan Stanley analyst Brain Nowak wrote in a note last week
re: “More listings today than before the crisis”
In terms of only VR listings, both VRBO and Air combined have lost 156,000 whole home listings from March 2 to May 25 according to AirDNA, that is just over an 11% drop.
Our own local set is down around 25% from this time last year and the year prior on Air, I was just remarking on the reduced # the other night. However, I think one local set of cabins might have finally gone to the bank, appears to be not listed at all anymore. That one was probably inevitable and accounts for about a dozen or so listings being gone with one owner.
lots of folks talking up how everything is fine…totally booked etc. I’m not in a position to evaluate since I’m closed and not even looking at what is going on here. I’ll find out in a few months if I have an Airbnb business anymore or not.
You will. I’m sure of it. I think there will be more summer vacations and business travel via car, and that is your sweet spot.
I’ve seen my spring season extend into summer, which is usually doldrums.
Last June I had one booking. Current month I’m pretty fully booked, albeit a gap day in between.
And there seem to be LOTS of new AirBNB users, but not always for the best.
I had a inquiry last night for July. After getting him to update his brand new AirBNB profile with information I require, I sent him a preapproval. I also asked if he was aware of the Phoenix climate in July. He said they “liked the heat”; Until then, said no one ever from PNW, but I went with it. I had 6 hours of back and forth of answering questions such as
is the pool in sun all day?
can we have a late checkout (from 11am to 4pm)
After all the back and forth and providing all positive answers he, in a swarmy car sales approach, asks for a significant discount. That was my it! I withdrew the pre-approval and declined. BUT I was too slow in blocking the dates because by the time I tried, he had submitted another inquiry from his wife’s account (also created in June 2020). Declined that one too.
Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200.
I’m occupying a different part of the market so probably wouldn’t get these kinds of inquiries but…if some guest told me they were going to be DEFIANTLY doing anything it would be a “no” from me as well.
Ha! Loads of my guests are defiantly campers and have defiantly read the full description and rules. I love picturing that.
Anyway, as to “booming”, my province lifted the ban on STRs on Friday and I apprehensively – definitely not defiantly – opened my calendar. Boom! All my summer weekends are booked and the weekdays are filling in. I’m blocking extra days in between for worrying and cleaning.
I am seeing a few more within-48-hours cancellations, though. They book then get cold feet about travelling, I think. That’s fine.
We’re a unique and remote listing a few hours from a major city, which seems the perfect thing to be right now. I will get back to you on whether “perfect” is good, on whether guests who book holidays in a pandemic are the guests a host wants…
My county lifted the ban on STR’s may 29th and I opened up my calendar, moved to a two day minimum and put a 24 hour buffer between bookings. June is looking to be the highest dollar month ever. My cabins are exactly what people want right now, 2 hours from LA, Orange County and San Diego, small mountain town no big crowds. Most of my guests are staying in and cooking, restaurants are slowly reopening though.
I am keeping my distance from the guests, always wearing a mask and I wait a few hours to enter and open up the windows then it gets cleaned the next day.
Looking at that AirDNA report again, here is USA VR occupancy for summer 2020 compared to 2019, occupancy is significantly down even with reduced inventory.
I believe them.
Every serious host is now listing their place everywhere they can, just to squeeze out that last drop of exposure.
Also because they have lots of time on their hands to go trough all the cumbersome registration processes.
The amount of bookings trough platforms is dwindling. I am getting a lot of direct bookings lately, people looking on BDC or Air and then booking direct, because they want to save money, and do not want to put their money in the hands of a platform.
There must be people who’ve been laid off or newly retired who are listing on Airbnb. More listings doesn’t mean anything if the bookings are down year over year.
As the article I linked said:
“Still, any rebound is coming from a very low base. The travel sector was gutted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Online travel agencies struggled to withstand unprecedented cancellations and air travel passenger traffic that fell 95%. Airbnb and Tripadvisor Inc. cut a quarter of their workforces and Chesky said last month that he expects revenue this year to be half of 2019’s level. Booking was forced to apply for government aid. In an annual shareholder report last week, Booking CEO Glenn Fogel said the pandemic would impact global travel more than the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the SARS epidemic and the 2008 financial crisis combined.”
The stock market is also surging week after week and I have now lost ~8% year to date on my accounts.
The powers that be are working hard to convince us everything is perfectly under control because consumer confidence is so important. A report out of Oxford says there could be no coronavirus deaths in the UK by mid summer. The WHO says asymptomatic people are unlikely to spread the virus.
I truly hope everything was an overreaction and that we will all be back to normal soon. But we won’t really know for many more months, maybe year.
In the meantime Airbnb knows a window of opportunity to squeeze that IPO out exists.
I am restarting slooow. I have a return guest couple booked off platform the last week in June – first reservation since mid March. I texted them that I am only taking private bookings, using enhanced disinfectant cleaning methods, and maintaining 3 vacant days between bookings. Also that I’ve lifted my no visitors rule so that family and friends can safely get together in the backyard, up to my current local group gathering limit of 10, and offered extra chairs for that. I got a most thankful and appreciative reply.
It looks like the number of available Airbnbs in my area has diminished considerably. Many of them still sublet apartments that probably violate lease terms. Grrrrr.
I can’t put a dollar value on having a friend staying with me for the next 1.5 months. Yes, it’s costing me something but with me continuing to partially self isolate, many friends being out of town and/or also limiting social interaction and so on the benefit to my mental health is immense. That said I’m really looking forward to reopening in August. I hope covid continues to “magically disappear” so I can make some money.
the wife messaged me at 11:30 last night (we’re in the same time zone, so there’s no excuse). If I get another midnight message tonite, I may use language akin to yours.
Did you notice that the first time you said you are taking hosts with prior positive reviews? LOL.
So why not say, “you’re needy, don’t accept no for an answer and asked for a discount.” I wouldn’t do it either but I do admire the hosts that just say "enough with your entitled attitude. " I’d probably just lie. Block it and say it’s no longer available.
That was 2 days ago. Since then, I am surprised to see already another 7 listings have disappeared bringing the total reduction in inventory (using town name only with no date or any other filters) to 27.44%.
