Can one be penalized for calling ABB too often with questions or issues?

We called a few times to ask why we aren’t being invited into the Plus Homes category, after the last time our bookings virtually stopped.

I don’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised at all. When paying out some hosts claims Airbnb sends a message that says in effect, because you haven’t had many claims and because this is a small amount be are going to pay you. They don’t say your claim was justified. And the largest cost for any organization is personnel so if someone is constantly calling them it’s costing the company money.

However there could be many reasons why bookings fell off. Have you checked to see where you are in search?

If you were calling with “ how to” questions or “I need help with this situation”. I don’t think they would penalize any host for trying to do a good job.

If your call about being invited to be a plus property became negative, I don’t know what they would do. If a host was really mean to a CS, that may indicate how the host treats guests. However there are posts on this site about Airbnb dropping hosts and listings without notice.

Is your account still active? There a multitude of reasons bookings decrease. Does your area have a busy season?

I went for 2 months before Xmas with hardly any bookings from Air but then accepted some of their price suggestions, which I had never done before, and now solidly booked for 3 months. The ones I accepted were about the same as my own, some even higher. Not saying it wasn’t a coincidence but…

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I absolutely think Airbnb “rewards” hosts who do what they want with higher search rank and that leads to more bookings. But didn’t you say you were highly ranked even during that slow time? Other than showing people your listing what else can Airbnb do?

Is Plus new in your area? Because it could just be that the Plus homes are being pushed so much that your listing is not showing up. That’s what’s happened here (my opinion). We are not Plus and now in our slow season I feel we are getting fewer bookings. You’ll have to either lower your prices and attract bargain hunters, or learn to promote your listing in other ways.

There’s a big tourist place called Phillip Island about 30kms from me. I think if people search there I don’t come up so high. But if people see my place it is cheaper and 30km closer to Melbourne so a lot of guests stay here then go there during the day. So maybe they put me up higher in that search. Maybe.

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Reminds me of visiting Switzerland. We spent two nights paying eye watering prices for an Ibis hotel where we couldn’t both get out of bed at the same time as there wasn’t enough room. From then on in we drove back to Germany every night for half the price for food and accommodation and drove back to Switzerland every morning.

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My Swiss story is running late and jumping on the first train that said “Zug” at Geneva Station as I was heading to Zug. Then ended up at some random place in the other direction because I didn’t realise “Zug” also means “train” in German. Hated the Swiss ever since as even though I explained my mistake to the conductor he made me buy another ticket back to Geneva to get the zug to Zug.

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