Wondering if others are having less Airbnb stays this year. We’ve kept steady with bookings, but 90% have been with the VRBO site. Have been a Superhost since beginning with Airbnb, but this year we’ve only had 8 bookings. (Plenty with the other site). It’s odd compared to the last few years.
Every day you are booked on VRBO is one day less you are available on Airbnb so it makes sense. And Airbnb moves you down in the search ranking if you aren’t available or you never tweak your listing. I only list on Airbnb and when I open my calendar things are pretty much normal. I just opened most of August last week and got 5 one night bookings for the period between now and Aug 19th in 3 days. Next weekend is blocked but if it wasn’t I expect it would be booked as well.
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We are hopping with reservations this summer in Massachusetts.
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Fine here in Florida. Two apartments back-to-back.
Of all the OTAs I only use Airbnb.
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I guess that makes sense, but I keep getting bookings from VRBO and rarely Airbnb now. Not that I’m complaining, it’s just unusual. I did tweak pictures and description a bit to update like you said. Don’t want to lose superhost bc of not enough bookings.
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Maybe you should block off some dates on VRBO and book only via Airbnb until you hit your number needed.
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That’s a good idea. Thank you!!
It seems like this kind of comparison information would only be of value if you are asking about other listings in your area and concerning properties that are similar to yours.
In some areas of the world some booking platforms tend to be used more than others, some hosts only list on Airbnb, and while some areas may see an uptick in bookings some seasons or years, other may experience a downturn.
For instance, after Covid travel restrictions were lifted, travel trend iinformation showed Americans and Canadians booking overseas travel more than before. And hosts in markets that become saturated with listings may find their bookings taking a dive.
There are also factors that tend to drive traffic to other platforms, like Airbnb introducing the split-stay feature, which guests can’t turn off, and I have read many guest posts complaining about, saying they are going to start booking through other platforms because of it.
I always respect your responses bc they are well thought out and detailed, so thank you. You and KKC.
In general, those who are using only Airbnb in this area are doing well. I’m curious about your last paragraph and wondering what can be done. There is definitely more traffic on VRBO in this area (Western North Carolina, US). It’s unlike past years.
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I don’t think there is anything that can be done by hosts about that split stay feature.
There is a thread somewhere on the Airbnb Community forum (you can probably find it through Search there) started by a guest, with several pages of agreement by other guests, about how they hate that the split stay feature can’t be disabled, that it makes search difficult, and is driving them to book on other platforms.
I’m sure many guests have complained directly to Airbnb about it, and Airbnb is aware of complaints that get a lot of traction on that forum. If they aren’t going to listen to guests who say it is driving them away from booking on Airbnb, they certainly aren’t going to listen to hosts about it.
Airbnb seems to be incapable of admitting a brilliant new idea they came up with that they get feedback on that they are not improvements for either guests nor hosts, and in fact are detriments, were a mistake and should be either scrapped or changed.
I have no idea if the split stay feature is a factor in why you are getting less bookings through Air as opposed to VRBO, it’s just one thing I’m aware of that guests have said is leading them to book through other platforms.
And of course if a guest has had a bad experience, and a legitimate issue, where Airbnb was unhelpful, they are going to be inclined to use other platforms.
The split stays may only come up depending on what filters a guest inputs. For instance, there aren’t a lot of private room homeshares for 1 guest in my area, so my guests probably don’t have that pop up if those are the filters they used. But a three bedroom home where there are lots of those types of listings that have availability would likely show more split stay options.
How many total years have you been hosting and how many of those on VRBO? You say superhost since the beginning but beginning of what? Your hosting or the beginning of of the superhost program?
I am in the middle of my high season and I’m up in bookings and revenue even though I have had to reduced my rates for dates close to the reservation date. I have been extremely proactive in checking my rates and availability with similar units on Airbnb and reduce rates and run promotions on weekdays that are open.
I’ve been running back-to-back bookings and I’ve noticed that my cleaning is starting to get 4 stars. I think it’s just that I have an older home but I do plan to replace 30 year carpet in bedroom even though it’s shampooed 2-3 times a week as soon as the high season is over.
I’m only on Airbnb. I’ve considered other platforms but since I’m booked up, I’m staying with Airbnb for now. (Yes, I know the all eggs in one basked) but I just can’t deal with more than one platform.
I’ve got 3 more months of back-to-back bookings and I’m looking forward to the slow down (but will probably bitch when I’m slow). BTW - that’s when I’ve tried to be more creative with bookings but never found a way to really make it work, so now I update my Airbnb, deep clean and take the occasional bookings over my slow season. I use the opportunity to travel.
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I hope you can replace it with some sort of non carpet flooring. If I lived up north I would look into heated flooring. Maybe it’s only cost possible in bathrooms. I stayed in an Airbnb that has it but it’s a hot water recirculating system in the floor rather than electric.
Thank you for your thoughts on this. Perhaps more guests are simply using VRBO than in the past. This could be one reason.
I’ve only been doing this on both sites for three years, but this year there’s a clear difference for us anyway. It was 50/50 pretty much. This year I’d say 80/20.
Superhost after the first year.
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We put in heated flooring, as we already had a boiler, and it works very well. Very even heating. Put tile above it and barefeet the tile is not cold in the dead of winter. [Used “Warmboard”]
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Unfortunately no because I live below. I need the carpet for sound-proofing. Plus my house is so old, it does not have the capacity to put in heated flooring nor do I have the budget. Sadly, there are beautiful hard wood floors under the carpet but it’s too noisy. I replaced all the other carpets with a nice low pile rug and berber for the hallways. I used temper-pedic padding to help with the sound.
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I wonder whether mass-loaded vinyl would work well to block sound transmission, although maybe your solution is working well.