Help! We have hosted for over a year and have had as many bookings as we could handle. Suddenly it’s dropped off to nothing. We r definitely in the shoulder season here in Tahoe, but last year we were fully booked. I have updated my listing regularly, lowered the prices, changed the pictures, added amenities… not sure what else I can do. We DO have it blocked for thanksgiving when the kids come home and for almost a month from mid Dec thru mid Jan. Could that be causing the problem? Help - I’ve been relying on Airbnb to pay kids’ college tuition!
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Blocking might be a problem. Why not just have less calendar available but have it open.
We’ve similarly had bookings slow right down. We’re getting a couple but not as many as we were. I suspect a lot of it is seasonal and more competition. Calendar availability might be an issue too - a couple of months ago we blocked off all of January, February and March for family reasons. We’ve recently decided to list for March now though.
As far as I understand, listings with dates blocked, as opposed to closed by bookings on other platforms, get less prominence in search results.
We’ve got a few days blocked in January and I tried opening them up and blocking on booking dot com, then synching the calendars. Didn’t work 
JF
I block calendar too all the time as I am rented often through other sites. I don’t see it as a problem. I ussualy check how many listing has are out there. After 4 years I know if the number is at certain point I have less chance to be booked
We’ve had no bookings for four weeks and were down to about 4 page views per day - and then yesterday we got three bookings! The downside is that it coincided with the arrival of what have turned out to be our worst-ever guests… Ah well, you win some, you lose some.
@Apeacefulretreat – not a really good idea to rely on Airbnb income for anything more than “mad money” unless you have become an Air Landlord with multiple listings…
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None of these things will have any effect. They are factors which have almost a mythical quality. There is no logical reason why they should have any effect, when you think about it. (I know there are hosts who claim it works but you’re the living proof that it doesn’t).
Forget all that malarkey and promote your listing yourself. Search this forum and there are many, many topics relating to this. I feel that if you use the time that you’re spending doing things that don’t work marketing your listing in a more positive way, that will be better use of your time.
And please please remember that Airbnb shouldn’t be relied upon for income unless you have back up plans. I don’t list anywhere else because I like to keep things simple but anything can happen so I’d never rely on Airbnb alone - have a few cards up your sleeve 
Another rare case of my disagreeing with Jaquo. I do think they have an effect and Pierre from smartbnb said it has an effect…on search ranking. That’s why one of the things the paid programs do is update your calendar every day. The logical reason it is a small part of search ranking is because Airbnb rewards active hosts. The busier you are the busier you will be. If you are changing pictures, prices, description that signals the machine that you are actively attempting to work your business. I if you set up a profile and then don’t touch it it signals that you aren’t very interested. There are, no doubt, people who don’t even log onto their account. That said, higher search ranking doesn’t guarantee bookings.
Anecdotally I think Airbnb rotates hosts up and down, perhaps even hiding a listing a few days and then reappearing it to give more active hosts a shot at getting a few bookings. This is a thing I’m guessing about based on posts here and my own experience when I was a smartbnb subscriber. I was usually in the top ten in search but then some days would show as having a big X meaning my listing wasn’t appearing for some searches at all. Then after a couple of days the x would go away. As southendbootboy says above, it is often reported that it’s very slow and bookings will come in bunches. A sudden reappearance at the top of the search ranks is one possible explanation.
Also it’s hard to compare year over year because the competition increases each year. If you can be patient and take last minute bookings you will find that the cheaper places get booked first and then you will eventually get bookings. We have had many panic posts here about exactly what you describe and then it turns out the month filled in nicely.
Finally a comment about blocking off time. I am one of those who experienced this first hand. I’ve blocked off chunks in two different years and in both cases there was a clear decline in the number of bookings. If I blocked off 6 weeks it seems it took about a month to 6 weeks before business was back to the prior levels. This fall I have blocked off big chunks again. Most of my calendar is blocked because I’m holding it for a direct booking client. However he isn’t here most Saturdays and a few other days sprinkled here and there. Given my prior experience I didn’t expect to get bookings for my open days but I have them available anyway. To my surprise I’m having good luck so I’m clearly up there in search for available dates. So I’m undecided on the effect of blocking.
I concur with others that it’s scary to rely on Airbnb. There are many things that can happen that are outside of your control. There are even hosts who claim their listings were shut down for “no reason.” I’m sure they aren’t telling us the reason but they are outraged anyway. I tried to collect a list of potential threats a couple of years ago.
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I’m not sure what u meant to have less available but to have it open? I thought that’s what I was doing when blocking?
Thank you for your responses! Ironically, I JUST removed the extra person charge (I had added it in about a month ago) and suddenly I got Two bookings! Don’t know if it’s a coincidence…
I haven’t marketed at all outside Airbnb so those are great suggestions. Thank you!
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I mean go for one month ahead rather thanks 3.
What about listing on other sites like booking.com …? If you are relying on the income you need to branch out.
Are you on other platforms? I get half my bookings from Vrbo. I’m also on TripAdvisor but get nothing from that platform.
hi did you like smartbnb? It seems u stopped it?
tried blocking 2 months for the first time and I agree with the people above …it was bad…pushed my listing/bookings down a lot…would not do it again…I guess putting ‘unavaiable’ is better…maybe Airbnb takes a negative view of people blocking…now need to see how long it takes to recover…
I did like it but they had some issues at the beginning of the year with a minor Airbnb update. My one little listing at $45 a night is manageable without it. But I learned some stuff and I’m glad I subscribed. The founder Pierre is so helpful.
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I don’t know if unavailable is better. I don’t know if the algorithms know the difference. If it can’t be booked it can’t be booked.
Good tip. My bookings have slowed, but I have also raised prices significantly this season to be more in line with the property management companies that all list on Air. I went and unblocked a lot to f dates for next summer, hoping that will help.