Help, new to airbnb, haven't had any bookings

Been live since September but haven’t had any views, any bookings, and obviously no reviews.

I will be honest and open and say that I am very jealous that many of you go live and in about a week or 36 hours–you already had your first booking. I am very interested in how you managed to make that happen.

I live in a very well known tourist area in California so bookings are happening from left to right constantly–daily!

Things I have already done:
-Photos of space
-Summary of space
-Long description of surrounding area, food areas, attractions, driving distances, house rules, parking, amenities provided
-Dropped my price to battle the ‘‘competition’’ (70 for a night and 50 for weekend)
-Added discounts for week and month

What should I start doing? Should I start ads? Where should I promote my listing? I don’t want to venture into to google ads because I heard of a higher percentage charge.
Your help is greatly welcomed.

This is VERY strange. When I just put my listing on Air, I called them and asked if everythingis ok with my listing just to be sure.,
If you are in touristic California area with your very low prices you would definitely got bookings by now. And why your price is cheaper for weekends than weekdays? It should be theother way around.,
There is something off here. In California as I know there is no seasonal ups and down like here in South Florida. It’s very very strange that you are not being booked but even stranger that you have no views also.
I would call Airbnb immediately.

are you willing to share a link to your listing, so we can see if anything stands out?

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Yes very strange. I thought the usual wait would be a week tops but now I’m starting to question if my listing is even appearing on the website.

I even lowered my pricing even more. Hopefully this can get the attention and my first reviews my private room deserves. (I dropped it down to 45 a night and 55 on weekends. Let’s see if anything happens)

I’m still going to contact airbnb and hopefully get this resolved.

My private room is plain but has a lot of space and furniture to store a lot of luggage. There’s a huge walk in closet and a full bath with double sinks…isn’t that appealing?
Maybe. But I notice many of my competition has hot tubs or a big pool. My backyard is big enough to fit 2 pools but I use it to store cars at times or host big BBQ’s.

I’m not sure what the deal breaker is…perhaps I excluded breakfast, washer and dryer? I also opted out of interaction with my guests because I have an ill family member that needs to be taken care of (its nothing major) but I do not feel like interacting with guests any time soon.

Help me out, what do you see that I am doing wrong?

No but if you scroll up to a previous response I’ve made- I did provide what my amenities are and how much I’m changing the price.

That doesn’t sound pleasant but I am willing to deal with it all. Even those that are loud music listeners to food crumbs on the floor to a hairy clogged drain! I am a little upset about it…maybe my listing doesn’t scream fun or vacation dream spot?

If they didnt just boook then we could discuss why, but no views?? Thereis something wrong here. Call Airbnb and ask them to look into that. You room sounds lovely.
I don’t have a pool also and I am in South Florida, am getting booked all the time. WE went through slow summer season but still I made enough to pay mortgage
There are so many travelers every day and everyone has their story. Some don’t even care about amenities as they are there for a day or two. By the way, what is your minimum stay? Do you charge deposit? Cleaning fees?
Are you close to airport? beach?
Still even if you are not all that you should stilll have views at least .
I don’t provide breakfast also, and laundry use only if they stay 5 days or longer which almost no one does.
And about interaction : most guests don’t even want to interact that much. As soon as they shown to their room they pretty much want to be left alone. They are tired after flight or seeing sights all day

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Oh I should definitely call. I emailed them but maybe a direct call is in need. I am really questioning their ads–I heard airbnb lets new hosts at the top of the search results. I was pleased to hear that but its already been more than a month.

Also I will mention that I do charge a cleaning fee of 40 and an extra 20 for the second guest. And a hefty security deposit if anything gets broken (should I delete that?).

My minimum stay is 2 nights and my max is 25.

I am close to the airport (15 min drive) but an hour away from any beach. If you can suggest helping me tweak certain things, maybe dropping every extra charge and bumping my night stay? Should I increase it or keep decreasing it?

Have you gotten people that steal your stuff? That’s unfortunate if you have.

All the things that you mentioned might be the cause of no one booking, but still it doesn’t explain why there was no views.
If you are close to airport like me people have a tendency to book for just one day. You have a minimum of 2. Since I clean myself I don’t charge cleaning fees at al. When people do their search they most likely put a limit on price. Yours despite the fact that it’s so low originally goes up significantly if they only need 2 days and if it’s 2 people. It adds another 20$ per additional person a day plus another 20$ per day cleaning, brining new price of 45$ to 85$ a day.
Of course if they stay longer then the price per day goes down. But why would they stay longer?
Are there any touristic attractions near by?
Then deposit. You said “hefty”. How much exactly are you asking for security deposit?
I assume it’s a room in your house, correct? If that’s the case what do you think they can break in that room? Renting a room is much “safer” in regard to people breaking thing and damaging because they don’t have a full use of the house. Do you keep breakable items in their room? If yes, just remove them. Don’t put anything expensive in guests room.,

I had couple of glasses broken for the 8 months I am hosting, and that’s all.

I am on Instant book. Though most people here don’t like Instant book, I really like it. Because I am close to airport, people often book me in case of emergencies.,
To sum it all:
elevated price because of the second person charge and cleaning fee
Minimum stay limit
Remoteness from tourist attractions
Large security deposit
These all can contribute to your place is not being booked. Have you checked other listings in your area and see what their total price comes to with all the extras?
Total price is a huge point here, because if your total comes to much higher than your neighbors than it could be a reason why people are not booking you.

why are you being so vague – if you don’t want to show your listing, maybe tell us what neighborhood you’re in?

I don’t like being so specific at times. So excuse me, pardon me. Bleh. I’m in the Coachella valley.

Okay I have taken your advice and put a lot of thought into it and decided to stay with a low nightly price and high weekends (45 & 55) or (60 &30)?. Unless I switch that around, do people like having cheap weekends or cheap weekdays? Idk I’ll look into it some more.

I took out the security deposit. I doubt people will break my mirror (its really big and covers the entire double sink area and stretches to the ceiling. So I’m only worried about that.) But the security deposit is not going to be added to the bill if they don’t break anything…why would guests run away from that? Does airbnb favor hosts side if it does get claimed?

I took out extra charge on the 2nd guest.

Other people in my area charge high 60s & 70s mostly, I saw one that priced 54 per night but all of them average out to 2500 (per month) with all the extra fees added in.

Hope I at least get some views now…this is very strange…

Have you snoozed your listing by mistake? (just a thought?)

No it is currently listed and active. I just searched for it on another computer and its there…ready to be booked. Guess competition in my area is tough…nobody would even consider viewing my list since it has no reviews. I’ll keep trying though! Maybe I can add references.

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As another poster said, we’d all be happy to take a look at your listing and see if anything stands out to us. I’m also a guest, and I shop around my area all the time to check out what everyone is doing. You just have to put the link in here.

I’ve had great success when calling airbnb. The recording will tell you that the wait is 30 minutes or so but it is often much shorter.

Good luck, hang in there - oh, wait, is it off-season?

They charge high 60, 70s a day with all the fees added or not?
If they charge 69$-79$ a day total with fees why would you charge 45$? . This is way too low. You really have to see what others are charging if you are brand new to Airbnb and may be for a bit lower but not to the point that you stand out . We all had no reviews when we started, buti got my first booking the same day my listing was out.
Also, I don’t change my price depending on how many people are in a room. Really , the second person will use just a bit more water, and extra towel.
Where you are at , it makes sence to increase weekends rates.
Fellow hotel prices and see how they increase, decrease their prices.
Good luck, let us know how it is going for you

That’s OK to want to maintain your privacy on a forum like this.

I’d say you might need to change your pictures - your first picture, in particular, needs to look appealing. Some of the listings in your area look pretty pretty bad with very poor first photos that very few people would want to click to investigate further. Compare yours to others in your area - could you take better, more appealing photos and decorate the room and bed a bit better? Other listings with no reviews also have no bookings for Nov or Dec so maybe it’s just a slow season in the desert.

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