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Is anyone else experiencing severe booking slow down this winter? Last year our place was booked at least once a week, usually more- even on our Minnesota winter!- we don’t have a booking now until April and it’s scaring the heck out of me!
A few days ago I went looking for our site online and it was INVISIBLE- I could not find it- so i went in and updated photos, added captions, etc, because I remember the advice of “check your site e wry day to keep the algorithm going”- is that still true? Our place is spotless, we are super hosts, we provide lots of food, we gave a heated bidet and our price is mid level- what can we do?
We can find it now but good Lord, is it the economy or what?
Any advice?
I’m at the Jersey Shore and in the past guests were booking our place a year ahead. I just recently had a few bookings for this summer. I checked and in my area there are now 1,000 listings. Yikes! The explains the slow down. It might be the same scenario for your listing.
I don’t know what an STR platform is, and beyond using the Airbnb site I’m not sure how else to market it? We’re literally taking new photos now but we were almost fully booked with the other photos so if you have more marketing advice I’d love to hear it!
Margi
Wow. I’ll check- I keep hoping our glowing reviews will make the difference- also we live on site, it’s our house we live in. I don’t know if they’re choosing entire houses or what.
Travel data suggests that post-Covid travel has changed, with people booking travel abroad with more frequency than domestic, compared to pre-Covid. It’s like after being cooped up during Covid regs, people were eager to travel to places further from home, and perhaps have the attitude that they should get started on that bucket list sooner rather than later, as things can change so quickly.
This may be one reason why hosts in places like the US and Canada are seeing their booking rates go down, while hosts in other countries may be seeing them go up. For instance, I have been getting more bookings here in Mexico than I had previously, before I closed for 2 years due to having a homeshare listing during the height of Covid.
There are also the factors of increased competition and the ill-thought out revamping of the platform in the summer and winter “updates”, which caused many long-time, successful hosts’ views and bookings to plummet, and their listings to become all but invisible.
same here in Riga. Superhost, REALLY low prices, and n-o-t-h-i-n-g. We’ve got some local guests, no more foreigners, and only booked fridays and saturdays. What do you think, collegues, why and what is going on now?O_o
I can’t tell because my calendar is blocked most the time. And when it’s open I’m pretty satisfied with the bookings I get. It would be interesting to open my calendar and maybe drop my price a little in March when I’ll be home all month and I have no direct bookings scheduled.
A friend with two private entrance rooms attached to her home in Marfa TX reports that it is slow and prices are down. Increased supply and fewer people doing the kind of travel that brings people to her small, artsy town are contributing factors.
In Australia there has been a huge amount of advertising to become a STR host. The listings in my area are up by 50%. These new hosts get the bump to the front page and are offering discounted stays.
With mortgage rate hikes being predicted, property values falling, inflation, low wages growth, I am hardly surprised at the lack of bookings. I have no more Airbnb bookings, 4 to come on B.con and have been working on my repeat direct bookings.
One of my units is booked at over 50% for the rest of the year. Most of these are for workers/ business. Very little for personal/ leisure.
I watch the new hosts with interest as they discover that this is not passive income
One newbie has 4 reviews and a rating of 3.38😱
I saw an ad for AirBnB last night. It said if you own a home but sometimes aren’t there, then you own an AirBnB. They are really going after more supply of hosts.
We’re about on-track for usual, although I did increase prices too much over last year and ended up cutting prices to get some bookings. But we’re in a location where the vast majority of the homes are vacation homes and have been on the STR market for years, so the inventory hasn’t increased.
Very slow here in south Eastern Washington state. Bookings for the past few months have been about 1/3 of the pre-Covid time frame. We opened (home-share - single room/private bath) about 6 years ago. There were less than 50 Airbnbs that would appear in the area. Now there are 374. Currently I have only one upcoming booking and it is for one night. Less than 1/3 of the listings are home-shares.
Another trend I am seeing…only 2 of the last 5 guests have left reviews even though they seem very pleased when here and leave lovely notes in our guest book. I could remove the guest book and see if that has an effect but it has never replaced Air reviews in the past.
It’s my slow season so I’m probably not the best source to comment this time of year.
I will say that things seem slower, but I’m seeing more people booking closer to their stay, and way more last minute bookings than I saw last year.
AirDNA is awesome, but honestly not sure if it’s needed if you only have the one place and don’t plan on expanding the business, its more of a research tool.
I use PriceLabs to adjust pricing on the fly based on rules I can put in place and that has been very helpful.
Get your listing on multiple platforms, so VRBO for sure. Booking dot com is a PITA, so maybe skip that. Direct bookings with a Facebook/Insta/Social account for your property?
That’s all my advice for now, this beer is calling my name.
Keep in mind this only applies to entire homes with no host in the home. Given they are specifically making ads touting that you have privacy I don’t even know if they accept guesthomes on the same property where the host lives. Several of the people on this thread wouldn’t qualify for VRBO; I’m unsure about the OP.
“Whether it’s a vacation home or your primary residence, everyone is welcome to list their property! We currently help owners rent their beach houses, cabins, condos, cabins, castles, barns — all kinds of properties — in over 190 countries. Vrbo specializes in whole homes, so we can’t accept shared spaces. Owners will also need to check local laws and regulations to determine eligibility.”
When they say “Primary residence”, I don’t think they mean a self-contained studio attached to the host’s home, or a guesthouse/cabin on the property where the host also lives. By primary residence, they mean the host may normally live there, but vacates when they have guests. I could be wrong, though.
