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He’s correct and I’m sorry but it seems a bit obvious to me that BDC is bigger than ABB. BDC has a far wider audience, far more bookings a year and far more revenue a year than ABB.
For one example, just website traffic alone, in May of 2022 (and typical of all months):
The ABB website had 99.5 million visits whereas the BDC website had 564.1 million visits.
And even though ABB had its best quarter ever for Q3 2022 with $2884 million in revenue, BDC had $6052 million in revenue for the same quarter.
ABB had 7 million listings in 2022 while BDC had 28 million.
It’s a significantly larger company. Of course it doesn’t mean that a host will do better on BDC than ABB but there is a larger audience on it.
Okay, I stand corrected. But whether one platform is used more than the other also has regional differences. In some areas guests use BDC more, in some areas Airbnb.
Yep. Crappy guests end up costing a host, whether it’s damages or missing items, extra cleaning time, the bad revenge reviews they leave, or just unwanted stress. Quality over quantity is my guiding principle.
Of course, who wouldn’t? But that wasn’t what was in question. Math is what was in question and @Chris was correct about that.
I’ve never had a reason to list (or book) on BDC so haven’t given it any thought. I know @Debthecat does and it doesn’t seem very attractive from the stories she’s told. Personally, I’m just not interested in expanding.
But I do enjoy a good dish, so what happened to you when you listed on BDC?
I haven’t used BDC; but I’ve read lots of posts on this forum, that lead me to conclude that BDC wouldn’t provide the clientele our cabin is after. I realize that the question was about math, but numbers are just numbers. Out of context they don’t mean very much. Someone might be totally jazzed to have 100% occupancy and not care that those guests are… not good, especially with many listed units. Someone like that doesn’t really care much about the context, as long as the money keeps rolling in. Our single listing has stayed booked at about the same rate and has garnered nothing but 5-star reviews since we launched over a year ago. But I would not want to up my occupancy at the cost of damage to the unit, since we don’t have another to fall back on.
I don’t dispute that BDC is bigger, but from my point of view it surely isn’t better.
I haven’t used it either which is exactly why I don’t have an opinion on it.
Me too, but, to be fair, I’ve read far more posts here (naturally, lol) that would lead me to conclude that Airbnb wouldn’t provide the guests (or “clientele” ) that work best for our STR either.
Ok sir, I will dutifully make a note of it, however, it must be clear, even to you, that I will be forced to put it in the circular file since you’ve plainly admitted that you don’t have any actual experience with it
I don’t have any personal experience with BDC either, but a close friend of mine does, so I got it from the horse’s mouth rather than just posts from strangers.
She has run a sweet small hostel with private rooms for 20 years, so she knows what she’s doing as far as being a host goes. She normally advertised on hostel sites, but tried out BDC. Said she got the worst quality of guests she’s ever had, slobs and thieves among them, and lots of no-shows. To top it off, she never got paid for the bookings and after arguing with BDC for weeks, packed it in with them.
@muddy@JJD
You know how when you want to buy something on Amazon (or any online outlet, really,) and you read all the 1- and 2-star reviews to see if there are any common threads that are showstoppers, and then decide, based on the opinion of total strangers that this item is not something you want to waste your time or money on? I do.
But perhaps I’ll never really know how awesome BDC is until I try it myself, or, until I meet a trusted friend who has experienced it themselves first-hand.
I’ve heard that too. But I’ve also the same exact things about Airbnb. All of those things. Recently. Here on this forum.
BDC seems to work for some people, just like Airbnb or VRBO works for some but not others. Everyone’s running a different kind of business so that makes sense to me. If everyone simply chose booking platforms based on what they read on online forums about them then Airbnb would’ve gone belly-up long ago (possibly based on your posts alone ).
I’m not personally interested in expanding my short-term rentals to BDC because I’m not very serious about them but I can see why Chris might be. I think it’s because when hosts say they’re using Airbnb for monthly rentals it blows my mind that they aren’t using Zillow instead. I guess I just accept that we’re all coming from different perspectives and experiences.
I have had the same experience in the Northeast this winter as Margi1.
I blame it on a snowless season since I usually get skiers this time of year, being close to ski resorts. Could be the economy too.
Worrisome!
this explains why when I got a call from the Vrbo/stayz people yesterday she wanted to ask me further clarifying questions about my cottage being “whole” and “not shared”. I told her the pool and tennis court were shared and she said that’s fine.
I doubt it’s common for hosts to wait until just before the 24 hr mark to accept requests, if that is what you’re asking. I usually accept a request right away as long as the guest has good reviews and has sent a friendly, informative message with their request. But sometimes guests have no reviews, are new to the platform, or have sent a message which either raises some red flags, or which doesn’t give much indication that the guest has actually read the listing thoroughly, or something else that might cause a host to want to message further with the guest to determine whether to accept or decline.
Also, some guests are in quite different time zones from the listing, so if the host or guest has questions, it might take longer to make sure the booking is a good fit, as the host is asleep when the guest is awake. Or even if the time zones aren’t that different, the guest takes their sweet time in answering any host messages. That’s why I appreciate having that 24 hr. window, although I seldom, if ever, have needed to use all of it.
If you look at the data rather than just the raw stats you will see he is not correct and that Airbnb has by far the largest market share for short term rentals. . Most of BDCs portfolio as I am sure you know is not STR.
Airbnb has about 5 million listings and it operates in 220 different countries. It’s estimated that Airbnb controls about 20% of the market share of the entire vacation rental industry and has the largest market share of any single vacation rental company.
Booking.com was founded in 1996 in the Netherlands. Today, it has about 28 million listings, but only 5 million are short term rentals. It has 20.1 million monthly visitors whereas Airbnb has 150 million.
I don’t know if it’s common, but it’s happened to me. And when it did I ultimately ended up canceling the stay. I don’t think she really wanted my business but didn’t want to decline. I love instant book as both a guest and host.
I prefer the instant book option as well. Thank you for your responses.
How common is it that a listing was posted inaccurately by a host and then they decline the reservation even though it was an error on their part.
They haven’t responded back to any message yet either. As hosts, isn’t it best to address issues and work with the guest with the goal to get the business?
So you are a guest who has a host not responding? If so, why are you asking generic “how common” questions instead of stating the actual situation?
What do you mean by “listing posted inaccurately”? There are many reasons why a host might decline a booking. Yes, sometimes hosts haven’t kept their calendar up to date (poor hosting practice) or they are new hosts who have listed before they really knew what they were doing. For instance, many new hosts don’t realize that Airbnb automatically puts a 20% discount on new listings, and the host has offered a weekly or monthly discount without knowing that the discounts are cumulative, not exclusive, and see to their dismay that the price the guest was shown is such that after expenses, the host may not be making any profit at all.
There are also often tech glitches on Airbnb, one of which is that guests might be shown available dates that the host has actually blocked or have been booked through other booking platforms the host uses. In that case, the host would have to decline, and then contact Airbnb to find out why their blocked dates have been shown as available.
And of course hosts may decline a booking because there is something about the guest’s communication or past reviews that make them not comfortable with hosting a guest.
Of course a host should respond to guest’s questions as promptly as possible and if a host ignores your messages, you might be better off retracting your inquiry or request and looking for another place.
But keep in mind that hosts also have normal lives and may not be able to respond immediately. They may be at work, picking up their kids from school, may be somewhere there is no cell or internet reception. Or their time zone may be much different from yours and it might be sleeping time where they are. I occasionally get guest messages in the middle of the night. I answer them when I get up in the morning. Or sometimes I am driving or shopping in a noisy area and don’t hear my phone alerts. In that case, my response might lag by a few hours.
There are also occasional glitches where Airbnb fails to send a message alert. I once missed responding to request because my text alerts stopped. It took Airbnb a month to resolve the issue, but that taught me to check my Inbox daily to make sure I wasn’t missing any messages. You can check the host’s communication rating, which might be low if they regularly neglect to answer messages.
Business is VERY slow in Iowa too. I will probably lose my Superhost status b/c I won’t have three bookings from Jan to March. It’s costing a lot out if my pocket, but also gives me time to do things like paint & change out light fixtures.
AirDNA used to give DSM an A- rating, now it’s a B-. And people are still adding new places. It’s the large influx of larger ibvestment companies. Just crazy, hope it picks up this spring.
That’s weirdly comforting to know-- I heard a guy in Phoenix has 95 Airbnb properties he was assuming were going to be booked solid and he’s only got 45% booked.
Look, we’re just “spent 45 grand of inheritance money to fix up the basement as an Airbnb to pay our mortgage” place and all these people buying up properties like hogs to trough are killing it for the little guy.
I’m betting they’ll be selling those properties by next fall because if they’re rich enough to own 95 properties they’re smart enough to sell them off.
We just keep lowering the price because a little trickle is better than a dry well but man o hope it picks up- I just had a June weekend high school graduation booking cancel this morning!
Keep me posted Iowa, we’re your cousins up here in a Minnesota!
Margi
) that work best for our STR either.
).