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Not sure which threads you are picking these listings out of- you said it was from that one thread I linked to, which had 8 posts. Try the Airbnb updates section, which has about 4 separate threads on this update, with hundreds of responses. (yes, some of the hosts rant on endlessly for pages and pages, but I wouldn’t call them trolls- they are legitimate long time hosts who have seen their bookings fall off a cliff- they’re upset. Not to mention the ones who, for instance, have lakeside properties, their listings have great photos of the lake, lake is mentioned half a dozen times in their listing info and reviews, yet they can’t be found in the lakeside category)
I just spent some time doing the same research and while there are indeed some hosts who show no availablity for June and July, I see plenty of listings with lots of open dates in June and July. They are not newbie hosts- they have been hosting for years, have hundreds of reviews and high ratings. They know their market and booking pattern and are not simply imagining that their views and bookings have evaporated exactly in conjunction with this platform update. And the ones you see who don’t show listings may have a listing under another account. You might ask them why they have no listing showing, instead of jumping to the conclusion that they aren’t hosts.
Personally, I can’t assess my own situation, as this is always my dead season. Hopefully things will have been rectified by the fall, when I normally start to get bookings.
JJD said:
“I suspect that a lot of people expect to book farther in advance than they are booking. And I think the days of getting a lot of bookings far in advance are over. People don’t want to take a chance anymore, especially with the economy as it is.”
This is a very interesting statement. In 7 years we have not been booked at least 1.5 years+ in advance, now and as of March 2022, 3-4 months ahead. A lot of hesitation, especially in the U.S. who will undergo yet another total flip in November; turmoil in an election year coupled with a very lousy economy (to say the least) makes people very nervous.
For those who are insisting that the booking procedure works just fine and just like it used to, it doesn’t work like it used to if you don’t input dates. And it isn’t true that guests sometimes don’t want to search without dates. Plenty of guests do.
While many guests have a set time they want to book for, others may have flexible vacation time, want to just see what’s out there in the area they want to travel to, and peruse the listings. They might decide on dates after narrowing down the places that are attractive to them, and then checking the availability and base price. The way the search engine has changed, they can’t do that anymore, because if they don’t enter dates, they are only shown week-long availability places.
Muddy:
You are 100% correct about what is really wrong with the new search feature - it defaults using availability (of one week because their ‘research’ showed them a lot of bookings were 1-week and longer); it should have stopped at just showing listings by category, nothing more.
That was the original idea, but someone at Airbnb got too tricky and tried doing too many things at once.
You nailed it there. They tried to change too many things at once. It wasn’t an update, it was an entire revamping of the platform. Which might have been okay, had it been a company that has excellent techies and programmers, and solicited plenty of suggestions from hosts and guests beforehand, which Airbnb has consistently proved they do not.
Categories, populated by an AI with an IQ of 50, a home page full of outrageously expensive famous architect-designed homes, the ridiculous Split Stay suggestions, which show split stays in places 6 hours apart, or days apart, in some cases in different countries, and making the normal search confusing and taking away the ability to peruse all the listings in an area without dates.
The “Any week” in the search box is confusing to many, and all that clutter of categories and high end listings is distracting and confusing. Several years ago a guest (who wasn’t some old fogey, but young and tech-savvy) told me she found the Airbnb site too cluttered- you can imagine what she must think of it now.
That’s me - the Putney Vermont showing up as Putney London host. I’ve tweeted, customer serviced, community center commented, emailed etc. etc. etc. We are all still showing up as being in the UK. To be clear, once guests click through from search results to our listings, they do show up as they should. But on search results for “Putney Vermont”, all listings show up as “Cabin in London”, “Yurt in London” etc.
Our Airbnb bookings are in the toilet for July
July is usually our biggest month and there is only 1 booking, so 3k$ vs 500$ in income is tough…
We are going hopefully ballistic on returning private booking guests and hopefully going to get bookings on other and new platforms.
Our prices were raised for the intro of our fabulous new amenity, by 10%, which a lot of hosts are doing, for inflation anyway, with no new added amenities.
For some reason Glamping Hub bookings are rare too, so this adds to the deficit.
exactly. Glad I am retiring also, just 6 mo sooner than planned. And that pisses me off. I don’t like a megleomaniac being the one to make me quit sooner. Over 5 years of a wonderful, wildly successful ride to all end literally overnight. And until you’ve experienced it (those who haven’t I wouldn’t wish it even on an ex) don’t indicate it’s this, or it’s that, or gas, or whatever. To those who’ve it’s happened to, it’s obvious what is causing it…AND all those ‘glitches’…like the cancelled bookings because I got put in NYC ‘accidentally’ (I’m in the mountains of Tennessee, so they were close)…Arbitrary price changes on my listing depending on what ‘view’ you are using, as in $34/ per night HIGHER, and I can’t get it changed…Can’t find my listing anywhere, it’s not in the 'tiny house, amazing view (and it says that in the title and in the reviews and in the description), not in cabin…NOWHERE. Always booked before the day of the change, nothing afterwards. Over 200 views daily, less than 20 the day after…It’s a rotten mess, and one has to wonder how they can be this stupid ‘accidentally’??? One wonders the ulterior motive…
I cannot find my listing on the Air map for my area. Apparently guests are still finding me so I’m not wasting my time to try and search for it. I really feel for the hosts who depend on that income and are not getting booked. My business model changed because of covid. I only accept bookings for over 31 days and I’m happy to be booked until June 2023. Longer term bookings dont scare me. So far its been great.
I think they drop you down the search ranking as the calendar fills. If you are booked up for nearly a year in advance then you wouldn’t show up in many searches.
It’s not odd if you look at it from their global perspective. They are trying to increase the number of overall bookings by presenting some of the less successful properties first to try to get them booked, too.
I think one of the requirements to be hired as an Airbnb CS rep is that you have to be able to prove that you can explain things in the most convoluted manner possible. If the user says “Oh, thanks, that’s totally clear”, they fail the test.
