Are there any other hosts in Miami who have noticed a dramatic drop in views and bookings? I went from hundreds of views per week to a handful of views despite dropping rates by 30%!
I don’t know anything about the Miami market, but I think Sept. is usually generally a slow month in the Northern hemisphere. Summer vacation is over, people are in back-to-school, back-to-work mode, and not yet thinking about Thanksgiving and Xmas/New Years plans.
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How long has your listing been up and running?
Up here in the Boston Area (New England) Sept and October are my business months but we have Salem, MA, Cape Cod and the Autumn leaves.
Yes, I’m sure there’s lots of exceptions- my daughter lives in an area of Quebec known for the intense fall colors when lots of tourists come.
I’ve been a host for 8 years; September has been typically a slow month but never this bad!
I’m not in Miami (about 20 miles to the north) but I guess I’m nearby enough.
Traditionally, South Florida had its definite ‘tourist season’ but my aim has always been to have guests year-round. I don’t think I’d be able to do that if I was just relying on Airbnb (and / or similar sites).
l find that to keep the apartments full all year I need to market to people who aren’t coming on holiday or who need to be on the area for business or similar. (People who have to be here despite the rainy season or the threat of hurricanes, tropical storms etc.)
Unfortunately Airbnb can’t do this so we have to do it ourselves, old-style. 
Pardon my ignorance but how does this ‘old style’ look like?
Non-internet. In the way that we used to before we were spoiled by websites. 
ok, I figured that but how do you do it in particular?
- Newspaper ads
- Flyers
- knocking on doors
- Radio commercials
- Installing a large sign in front of the accommodation
A few more details would be appreciated.
Mainly, I work with companies, events managers, exhibition organisers, tourist board, hospitals, real estate agents, etc. etc. all of which have people coming into the area for a short stay.
Add to this hotel concierges, other hosts and people who run tourist attractions (if applicable) or bicycle hire, kayak hire etc, places. (I do most of this by email and text, by the way. I’m not crazily running around town).
I greatly encourage repeat business also, and recommendations from previous guests. I keep a ‘cancellation book’ of people who have enquired but not stayed (non-Airbnb) for example when a neighbour says ‘let me know if you’ve got a gap on your bookings because my cousin would be interested…’
I also use blogs and social media but what I don’t do is pay. (Except for my time - and it doesn’t take long). So no flyers, radio ads etc.
Financially, I need to keep both apartments busy all year so it has to be done. 
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That’s impressive that all these places keep your emails and texts handy whenever they need an accommodation.
My naive thinking would be that all those electronic communications just end up buried in their inbox or get deleted/moved to spam. I seem to be so out of touch with reality LOL.
I think that I made it sound more simple, in the interests of brevity.
I don’t rely on people remembering that email or text I sent to them months ago but I do make sure that they have my business card.
I send them holiday cards to remind them of who I am (often via email for the sake of finances) and with contacts, I usually give them a bottle of wine or a bouquet or a box of chocolates to thank them for sending business my way.
That encourages them.
It’s reciprocal - I sent customers their way too.
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I’m in south florida as well and I haven’t noticed a drop, but I do monitor my listing SEO once in a while, to get to know where it sits in the results just to make sure it remains competitive. This area has incredible options so you have to be a little active to make sure you are not high in price, or your listings have all the amenities selected (Airbnb add more once in a while), you get the best picture, etc. I use dynamic pricing as well.