Hey! 68 views so far, no bookings in september. I am slowly preparing my plan for social networking and marketing.
Just shows how slower it became with Airbnb. Too many new hosts, prices dropped. Same here. I am booked through another site, but left my calendar open on AIr just to see if i get any inquiries. For September one inquiry yesterday, can i bring a cat?, i dont accept animals. And thats all. You have to list through other sites too
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Iâm seeing a drop here too. Though it may be because I got a couple of bad reviews, and this dropped me below the threshold of visibility. Itâs hard to say, because nobody knows how the Airbnb sorting works. And there are a ton of listings here.
I just posted a link to my Air page on my Facebook page, asking my friends to click the link because it might help boost me in the viewing order. Right now, if you search for 2 people in Boulder and donât zoom in, my place doesnât appear at all! (I can host up to five). I used to get booked for 2 people more than any other group size. Iâll let you know if it helps.
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Results of my little experiment â I had 56 âviewsâ yesterday and now I when I search incognito for 2 people for an entire house, I am on page 8 (before, I didnât show up at all until I zoomed in). In other words, it worked 
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Hey everyone!
Been busy trying to survive in stockholm.
So i got a 7 day booking by some danish women around their 33âs in the end of September, but i declined it because they looked high maintenance, a bit impolite and demanding. And also their messages show that they did not bother to read my description or they would have known the beach is 10 minutes away.
Today i got a booking for 1 day in October. It is certainly slow but i hope it will pick up a little bit in december.
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And another surprise 2 day booking from some nice french couple. My mom was so happy she made them moussaka and they loved it. If i only i was there to taste itâŚ
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Hey, I too got a surprise 2 day booking, but from a French man. I hope heâs nice - fingers crossed.
Moussaka sounds nice.
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My Airbnb bookings dropped significantly in September and October - but then suddenly all my booking came from VRBO/Homeaway⌠which was dead all summer. Try other listing services.
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I believe the web sites change the algorithm placement. After VRBO was purchased, I believe they bumped everyone up that was not a paid member so they could charge a higher fee or commission - then I got no booking for a long time. My ad was moved from the first page to the last page. With VRBO I am not sure if I will ârenewâ my membership which expires next week. With Airbnb I have high ratings but charge much more than their ârecommendedâ price. Not sure if that effects my placement or not. I think it is fair so say that the algorithms will continue to change and ones placement is likely to fluctuate on which ever site you are on so it may be a good idea to use several listing sites.
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My bookings are bad too this month and the upcoming ones. I have given a try to Smart Pricing since the last month and I believe that is part of the cause of why Iâm having a low amount of bookings. With Smart Pricing the closer you are to the date of free occupancy the lower is the rate your guests get so it doesnât come to my surprise that guests prefer to wait the more they can until they submit a reservation. Iâm thinking on switching to a flat rate as I was having before. Smart Pricing isnât good for business.
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Hi @rod,
Excellent points. Yes, it looks like my placement in Airbnb has dropped. That seems to determine the number of bookings one gets more than anything else. Do others agree?
Iâve only had one booking since September 10th and that was a few days ago. Iâve also noticed that the save to wishlist count is quite closely correlated to inquiries/bookings, whereas the number of views has no relationship to it at all. I think Airbnb is just making up the number of views. And for most of that time (between September to 10th) the wishlist count was relatively stagnant. So, I think that the wishlist count is a reasonable proxy for whether people are seeing my listing, which also depends on placement, of course. Also, the wishlist count tends to jump in increments of more than one, which suggests that multiple people are wishlishing it when the placement is relatively high.
The other thing Iâve noticed is that when I get bookings, they tend to come in clumps. This also suggests that the bookings come when placement is relatively high.
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I think @faheem that placement is PARAMOUNT! That is why sites like booking.com let property owners buy better placement. [Might be true for Yelp as well which isnât so dissimilar.] When I fall, everything stops. Yesterday I spent some time adjusting my prices for winter [downward] and today my placement is much improved. But no inquiries today.
I am going to need to learn some patience. All summer, I was booked two months out, and now that tourist season is over and we are back to business, academics, and medical season, I suspect that people arenât planning their trips in advance. Well, that is my theory.
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Also, it is an election year folks, and one that has a LOT of uncertainty to it, which always causes people get nervous and do not spend till is over.
@faheem . This would be an interesting experiment. Raise your rates a lot for two days. Then lower back to what you actually expect to get. Maybe you would get a boost? [I might try that too on some of the days where my placement isnât as high as I would like.]
Is the logic that lowering rates gives a boost, even if you first raise them? If so, Airbnbâs algorithms are even more moronic than I already thought.
It is just a theory⌠that yes, the act of lowering your nightly rate boosts your ranking in the search results. But I think your place is as low as possible [i.e. too low] already, so if you willing to not be booked for 48 hours, it might be worth a shot!
What is the worst thing that could happen? You rent your place at double your normal rate!
So, how long do you suggest I raise my rates for before lowering them?