Help please...No bookings for 5 weeks...anything wrong with my listings?

It was an emotional support unicorn!
Just like “better suited to a hotel” code!
Otherwise how would I know it was from one of the wonderful supportive members here…

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We noticed a little slow this year also. Not many foreign travelers as well. Last a few years we had so many groups from Europe, South America, Asia. This year not so many. Last summer, we had 30% guests were from China. This summer only 3 groups total from June to August.

Now no bookings for 8 weeks… starting to wonder what the hell is going on!

Very concerning. You have a few choices –

  • Ask Air to check whether there is a glitch in your listing
  • Have one of us do a test booking to see if we can not only see/msg you but also book? to test the glitch theory
    Actually on reflection, I think the heavy direct bookings are slowing your Air viewings / bookings? The algorithm is very much tilted to “if you are already busy on Air, you will stay busy on Air.” Since this is officially known as the @KKC Theorem (it’s not, just playin’) I will ping her to weigh in.
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Thanks…the algorithm can’t really screw with my listings as there are only 19 whole of house listings in my area and I have 4 of them, so there is only 2 pages.

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Same here . Other hosts drop their price to ridiculous level and they get booked very fast.
I have inquiries where people offer me half of what I am asking . Right now I have the lowest price of all available and it’s not much there left anyway. I see same houses just sitting there without being booked fro the same time frame as mine.
I am at 5 weeks now …this is my forth summer and it’s the first time that my house is not booked for such a long time

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LOL. Yes I do always say the busier you are the busier you will be but I’m not quite sure what is going on here. I did several random searches using an incognito window and none of the homes came up. I assume the dates I chose are not available or too far out. Finally on my fifth try the homes popped up on a weekend in mid Oct. I on the one I chose, Ithaca, that the calendar isn’t open past mid October.

So maybe it’s just a wierd confluence of dates that are being searched for not being available. I assume you’ve double checked all your minimum and max stay/number of guests/etc settings @Debthecat?

Interesting - I have no bookings in September and 3 are only half booked for August.

Beautiful properties! I have an idea I wonder if I can explain it clearly –

Right now, you are in a sense competing against yourself with four listings nearby to each other. This dilutes the power of your reviews.

I wonder if you could experiment with turning the four off temporarily as a pilot project, and funnelling everything into one listing, called whatever – “Historic Hideaways in the Northern Rivers.” Have that calendar synced (manually?) to show ANY date that ANY of the four are open. Note that guests will be assigned to one of four lovely properties each better than the next. Shuffle the guests in and out to fill gaps in your calendar. Offer discounts if they are willing to spend 3 days in one place and 4 in another to fill gaps.

Not sure if this would be feasible, you’d have to price / have descriptions to the lowest common denominator, but it might be a way to get enough critical mass on Airbnb. Or at least try it with your two or three weakest/weaker performers.

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/8072077

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First off, I have to say you have some of the most beautiful properties I have seen on Airbnb.

When searching for Grafton, NSW, 3 of your 4 properties came up on the first page.
I noticed that you did not fill out all description categories that Airbnb offers. I suggest you do that because it will rank you even higher.

You descriptions are decent, certainly better than your competitions’, but they could be written with a bit more of a salesy flair.

In most categories, you completely dominate the local competition.
Could it be the price perhaps? Someone similar might be undercutting you heavily?
Are you using your own prices or a dynamic pricing tool?

Will double check the listing- thank you
Re pricing - too small a market for dynamic prices

I would advise to go over competitors’ listings and see their prices for a certain period. It could be that someone just went around, researched and is constantly offering the lowest price.

Otherwise, try to improve the copy. Not for the search algorithm sake, but a better sales pitch will definitely result in more hooked guests. Think about your target audience. Could one of your houses be pitched to families only?

Apropos of Andrew’s observation, the listing titles (imo) undersell the charm here and could take advantage of the ability to be longer and have more selling points. Also, if you put your brand in the title, that allows Airbnb (Vrbo, etc.) to drive folks to your direct booking website (which I can’t find??) and vice versa.

Grafton Heritage: magical ‘Rosslyn’ w. garden pool, fairy tale gingerbread

Grafton Heritage: Jazz Age ‘Ithaca’ w. verandah, Persian carpets

Grafton Heritage: ‘Eliza’ w. brass bed, shiplap ceiling, courtyard

Grafton Heritage: ‘Azile’ w. 4-poster bed, entertainment floor *

… and maybe add a listing –

Grafton Heritage: ‘Eliza x 2’ Gorgeous, Comfy Duplex sleeps 10

  • I was going to ask you the meaning of “Azile” and then I got the joke!
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I had no bookings for three weeks then I found out that during the last site update that airbnb did the button that said the bedrooms and bathrooms were shared had mysteriously been checked.
I unchecked this and got a booking within a couple of hours.
Constantly check your listings, I go through all of them at least one a week.
I told airbnb about this and they said they would look into it and that is the last I heard.
I told friends who are airbnb hosts about this and they said that when they checked they had the same problem!

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Can everyone look at their views please? Yesterday I had 1072 views over 30 days and today it is NIL / 0 and I know it is not right …but once again wondering if it is just me or the usual Airbnb glitches. And…still no bookings!

I had a the same issue usually I am 85%/90% booked till last min and I had 2 weeks empty dates, when I contacted ABB they sent me a screen shot . And from that I noticed all my listing had less bed when they did they update all sofa bed disappear from the listing I had listing sleep 5/6 with 2 bed instead of 3/4 beds
asap I changed the setting I had the next days booking start coming again.

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Airbnb glitch finally got me, too. Went from over 2000 to 0.

Also said the data couldn’t be read because it isn’t in the correct format when I tried to click on it to see my progress graph. This is on the app on an iPhone 8.

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Speaking of beds and glitches I found another glitch when using the bunk bed option. I have a room that has 3 beds, 2 futons (I checked sofa bed since they don’t have futon option) and a top bunk bed over one of the futons. Airbnb switched my listed 3 beds to 4 because they assume a bunk bed means 2 beds, likely single/twin. I switched from bunk bed to single bed and the beds switched back to 3.

A prospective guest contacted me asking where my 4th bed was because it didn’t show in the pics. That’s when I realized the issue after some digging. Just an FYI for those that have similar bed situation to consider checking.

@Militaryhorsegal @Debthecat

Which raises ANOTHER point, are you all tweaking/updating your calendars daily and tweaking your listing descriptions periodically? Those also supposedly help you stand out.

Yes I do. I update my prices every night before bed. I increase the next two days at all my listings by $10 and the third day out by $5. Its amazing how many more bookings I get with the increased rates even though I indicate this in the listings info and encourage them to book earlier.

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