Problems with 'new program' still not resolved. Tried several experiments...Nada...Anyone else?

Have seen a dramatic loss (enough to put me out of business prematurely) in bookings since the roll out. Old news I know for many. But…wanted to see if anything had changed (since they said they had gotten feedback and were ‘working on it’)…

In over five years, my tiny cabin in the Tennessee Cumberland Mountains was always booked out 3-4 months in advance. So much so I had to block weekdays after May 1st in order to keep up (I live on the farm and I do all the work myself, summer is way busier for me maintenance wise) . I always got at least 1 booking a week. I have a 5 day maximum stay and 2 day minimum. Always have. My view graph was always over 200 per day. I always ‘tweaked’ my listing every few weeks to keep it fresh, and was always on the front page of my area for a search for my type of property.

Since the roll out…Not ONE booking since. View graph shows from the time after this I went from over 200/day to less than 20/day. And you can no longer find my listing unless you choose specific dates that I have open (which, after being booked for three months , thank GOD, before the roll out, I have plenty of open dates) you cannot find me. My guests had told me prior that they often found me by ‘browsing’ my area. For a ‘cabin in the mountains with a view’. Bingo. There I was. They did not enter specific dates. Many didn’t have that in mind. Now, no deal. Oddly tho, if you stay flexible, the same group of cabins appear on the first and second pages (mine is unfindable after 15 pages, and after 3-4 pages it sends you over an hour or MORE out of the area) . This group has always been in my area, but now no matter how you search, they are there. ‘Superhosts’ and them being on the first pages, according to the new program info, is because they have a ton of dates available. But. if you go to their listing, they do not.

Additionally, Airbnb has been playing around with my pricing noted on my listing. I’m $105/night. Sometimes it shows up as $144/night. Insane. So now they have added that insult to injury. Pricing me out of the area market. And it’s not ‘inclusive’ pricing. My cleaning fee is $20. AND it is not the ‘total’ number that you get IF you find my listing thumbnail on the group. THAT is correct. if you are brave enough to click the ‘reservation’ button after opening my listing, it will then show up correctly as $105/night. Insane again. I cannot get them to fix this altho they admit it’s a ‘problem’. Uh…yeah!

So lots of ideas as to how to ‘fix this’. I’ve tried blocking off ALL my available dates for a couple of days, I’ve tried ‘snoozing’ the listing, changing photos, rewording the description (by the way they did away with the titles, then said they put them back, but they didn’t mine) . My photos are professional and depict my ‘amazing views’ up front. And my ‘title’ they gave me included the words ‘amazing views’ and the description repeatedly says that. Am I in category ‘amazing views’ for my area? Nope…
So although planning to retire by the first of the year, I am now faced with shutting down NOW. I cannot afford the outrageous STR insurance if I cannot get bookings. VRBO has never been a good source for me, but I stay on it. Really ticks me off. So all I can attribute this to, is an effort to ‘eliminate’ STR owners with small, unusual properties who have stay limits. Seems Airbnb wants you to offer ‘longer stays’ (they always have that ticker on my listing suggesting I should do that) and/or allow one night stands. I never have, and I never will. Neither my property OR my temperament is suitable for this.

I own ONE property. I am not an Airbnb guru. And it was wildly popular (just read the reviews which I am sure THEY do) and much loved. I have been a Superhost (whoopie) since the first quarter I opened over 5 years ago. I really liked what I was doing. I was just planning on retiring in 6-8 months because I am 67 years old, been in the people business for myself all of my adult life, and I was getting tired. But I hate that someone ELSE is forcing it early on me, and I don’t like the implications of why. Has anyone else seen ANY improvement? If so, would love to get input on what your thoughts are as to why/how this happened. I know I am not alone in this mess.

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Frankly, I have not even checked how I show up lately because it fluctuates so. We are also thinking of getting out so we don’t want to book too far ahead. We went from three rooms to one during COVID and are still bumping along with that one rental. Insurance and COVID almost killed us, but we are trying to keep a trickle until we decide what we want to do. I hope things pick up for you so that you can go out on your timetable.

thanks…doesn’t look like it, it’s been weeks now and no improvement. Hearing from a lot of folks that it’s the same. And now hearing from guests. Even prior guests complaining they are being funneled away from their chosen areas. And cannot find my listing either…It’s disgusting. Why ‘fix’ something if it’s not broken unless there is some other agenda? Why run some of us out of business after years and years of being very productive? And being excellent ambassadors of the Airbnb brand?

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You’ve posted about two different booking requests in the last couple of weeks, so it sounds like your listing is showing up sometimes at least. Is that just significantly fewer than usual for you? Since we went down to only one listing, a couple of years ago, I guess that only one request or IB a week is what seems normal to me. But you’re obviously frustrated, so it must not be normal for you.

It sounds like you were getting a lot of bookings from people browsing without dates and so the automatic week search is affecting you. Maybe it could be worth a try to make your maximum a week and see if that helps. I totally understand not wanting guests there for too long at a time, but maybe if you booked weeks then you could just take fewer bookings overall and still have your downtime/without-guests-time. For example, if you had one 7-night booking, that is almost equal to booking every weekend for2-nights so you could put up with guests for a week and take the rest of the month off if you wanted.

Anyway, just an idea. I also think that, if you were willing to take the chance of getting a whole week booking that you might also get shorter bookings as well because I know that some guests are just using the “any week” search to do browsing. I’m looking to book a couple of places and that’s what I’m doing, even though I’m not going to book a full week, it’s just the only way to browse right now.

Either way, I hope it picks up for you, it must be frustrating.

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I am in much the same situation as you, although not ready to retire from this business - I just have one private room listing and therefore other platforms are not suitable. And I have a 3 day minimum and a 2 week maximum. My “opportunities” page is full of things I will never agree to- instant book, long term bookings, last minute bookings, one night bookings, discounts, pets.

I can’t really tell at this point if the update has killed my bookings, as this is my dead season anyway, and I haven’t bothered to try to find my listing. But my views have plummeted, so that’s a pretty good indication of what this “update” has accomplished.

You are kind of missing the point of @shadowmnt’s post. Of course hosts can change their booking strategies to try to get bookings. And that’s a smart thing to do if one normally has a hard time getting booked. But to be forced into changing what has always worked perfectly, due to a very poorly designed, bot-controlled algorithm and messed up home page, is exactly what the poster is rightly upset about.

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So sorry to hear that @shadowmnt have you had the same experience on other platforms you list on/direct bookings - in terms of falling demand?

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Thanks for the idea…just for fun I’ll try it. But am pretty much tired of the whole mess. Yes, I had two inquiries, both odd and one obviously scam stuff, and only one booked but turns out they had ‘saved’ me from prior to the rollout.
In any event, I will give that a try. I’ve tried everything else! And it’s frustrating because it all worked so well for so long. And I know other hosts feel the same way, I worked hard to make this a very very special place, and that paid off superbly, and I’ve had such lovely guests overall (always one or two bad apples but hey) and they’ve usually told me how much a difference staying here had made for them…It’s those folks I feel so bad for, that cannot find this place. And making me quit ahead of schedule. I did contact everyone and said they were welcome to book direct once I am off this platform. If I still have my cabin.

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I gave some insight into how guests, who used to browse without dates, are working around that now because she specifically said that guests not being able to browse may be affecting her bookings.

But I don’t have to justify my POV to you and shadowmint can surely speak for herself.

You’re not going to bully me into validating your bizarre universe where it’s acceptable for business owners to stomp their feet and throw fits instead of being flexible and adapting to change or making business decisions. A universe where market saturation, the economy and the changing patterns of travel are ignored in favor of hysteria over a boogeyman that changes the UI of an app.

Many of the hosts who say they aren’t booking “like they used to” (which is not the same as not booking) also happen to have listings in places that when you search 6 weeks from now say “1000+ listings available”. The oldest business killer in the world is competition. It’s not only a UI issue, there are so many factors right now that it’s likely accumulative, the updated, market saturation and inflation and some people also think guest dissatisfaction. It doesn’t make sense to sit aside instead of trying something new because the update may never go away. In the meantime, hosts can start to eliminate the other issues.

If you owned a taco stand and had been peacefully co-existing with 100-300 other taco stands for any amount of time, but then come 2022 and now 1000 of your neighbors have taco stands, could you really convince yourself that the only problem is with the app where people order the tacos? Or could you see that some taco stands are not going to sell as many tacos? And that there may be additional reasons? Reasons that might be able to be ameliorated? Why wouldn’t you try?

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Let us know how it goes! I never realized how much I browsed without putting dates in until I started looking for a couple of stays recently. The week thing is annoying.

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But that isn’t what is happening, and your insistence that thousands of hosts having seen their previously high views and bookings plummet overnight in exact conjunction with this roll-out, is due to something else, is truly bizarre and disrespectfully dismissive.

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Well, it’s not thousands of hosts, not that I’ve seen, that are positive it’s the update all by itself that’s the problem.

No, it’s just a different opinion than yours and that shouldn’t be a problem, it’s allowed on this forum.

Can you agree to disagree?

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Of course we can disagree. But you keep insisting, with no proof, that very few hosts have had their bookings affected by the update. You counted 14 where? On this forum? Because there are sure more than 14 on the CC and other hosting forums, and every day there are new posts from hosts who aren’t newbies to hosting, but were unaware of how the update has made views and bookings plummet, asking why their bookings might have suddenly dried up.

You also seem to be unaware that corporate wisdom counts every complaint as representing anywhere from a couple dozen to thousands more dissatisfied customers who didn’t bother to complain, they just went elsewhere.

This isn’t just about hosts- bookings have plummeted due to this roll-out because guests can no longer figure out how to book normally. When they input a location, week-long availability appears in the dates bar and many don’t realize they can change this. And most of those guests will simply book through another platform, or book a hotel.

Hosts can tweak their listings til the cows come home, to try to appear higher in search, but if guests can’t figure out how to book the dates they want, none of that helps at all.

Just because you are getting booked as normal and are adept at figuring out how to book a place in spite of the new format, doesn’t mean you are representative of the majority of hosts and guests.

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It’s June 30th. Has your ‘name’ been changed back yet? Mine hasn’t…

Yes my title is there but it’s under room type which as I understand it is the way it’s going to stay

yes

My old title was short so it is the same. I have given up on figuring out each changing system. To my surprise my house now shows up first when people just search for my town with no dates. However the "rate"showing first is $10 less than my nightly rate. This is because the rate when someone searches without dates reflects my weekly discount. What a mess.

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That’s why I took away the weekly discount. That and my ideal is 2-3 nights. Don’t want to encourage 7 nights.

Why I’m worried about 7 nights I don’t know, had my last guest 2 nights ago and the calendar is empty.

I don’t have a taco stand. I have a unique property that appeals to a certain demographic. It was designed that way. People who were looking for MY type of property, MY type of experience found me easily. It’s why I was always booked with MY demographics easily. I don’t have a condo in a highrise, a 3/2 in a neighborhood…or a gazillion properties. My property (and many many others) is different and appeals to a different traveler. That works for me because I do not want, nor do I HAVE to be booked 30 days a month. Booked all weekends, holidays, and a few weekdays in spring and fall works for me. Additionally, I am within 90 mn of a bustling, busy city with people looking to get back to nature. NOT the other way around. Easily reachable from 5 states. I HAVE very little ‘competition’ for this type of traveler. I’m not booking ‘like I used to’…I’m not booking AT ALL. Why can’t some of you get this? Our bookings and views plummeted to NOTHING the day after the roll out. Gas issues, economy issues DO NOT cause literal overnight results like this. Listen… " US travel and tourism is expected to [exceed prepandemic levels this year" according to world travel and tourism bureau just issued last month WHEN gas was high, WHEN inflation was soaring. So much for your ‘taco stand’ analogy. Which by the way, was rather insulting to those of us who DO NOT HAVE TACO STANDS…When are folks like you going to get it into your head that not ALL Aibnb STR hosts have the same damn property types? It’s IMPOSSIBLE for me to be pushed out by ‘thousands of taco stands’. I don’t HAVE ‘thousands’ of properties here in my mountain community…Here it is in a nutshell. Straight from the horse’s mouth, uttered by SOME folks’ hero, our beloved Mr. Chesky, he who knows ALL about what travelers want.
Quoting "Airbnb’s new categories are aimed at solving the travel-shopping dilemma that the starting point on most travel-booking sites is the travel destination, making people first decide where they want to go before being able to search for the kind of place they want to stay. That can result in time wasted searching multiple areas individually if all you really wanted was some house, any house with a pool somewhere warm.

“Travel is the ultimate uninformed purchase. The whole point of travel is to go somewhere you’re unfamiliar with,” Chesky said in an interview Tuesday. But finding a stay starting with a search box – the default starting point for Airbnb and competitors – is like a fill-in-the-blank that people can’t fill with places they’ve never heard of.

“We think if we can move away from the search box, we can help you to travel,” Chesky said.
Really??? Incredible that this man holds a position like he does. Move AWAY from a search box? Better tell Amazon this great idea. OR Google! It was WORKING BEFORE…nicely…successfully. For a huge majority of US and the traveler. Have YOU heard from any travelers? I have…they are frustrated, furious, and THEY have lots of choices.
Again, some of the ‘holier that thou’ folks seem to think they know better what a traveler wants than the traveler themselves. What a bona fide insult. And then rush to defend this megleomaniac and his ‘new plan’ to “redistribute” the traveler. Yes, he said that.
And no, finding ‘other’ marketing programs isn’t working either. There are huge problems with Booking, with all the little fledgling start ups. Maybe down the road some ‘competition’ for Chesky will turn up, especially if this ‘great plan’ of his ends up hurting his wallet. VRBO has always been an alternative for me, however, their ‘demographics’ are not quite right for MY property (or for a yurt, tree house, boat, etc) as it’s older people. And my property has a loft bedroom, and other issues that many older folks shy from (although I have had my share from Airbnb). These things matter, and I am just sick and tired of people making fun of those of us who are struggling, who KNOW it’s the roll out, who can put 2 plu 2 and get 4. Without all this yapping about PHD theories, imaginations, and blame on the host. “bizzare universe” ?? You think that suddenly going from a successful business to nothing overnight is a bizarre universe? Wow… You got a lot of nerve making judgments like that about people/properties of which you KNOW NOTHING. SOME of us are different, some of us actually know what the hell we are doing and what works, what HAS worked and not we’ve been blindsided by this moronic idiot and his ‘new plan’. Hey dude, I’ve been in the real estate, long term rental, hospitality and STR (we used to call it ‘executive rentals’ before there Airbnb was ever even thought of) since Hector was a pup, and maybe you too. Don’t talk to me about YOUR bizzare universe where you think everyone and everything is the same , Or should be. And that all our ‘foot stomping’ is because we are ‘inflexible’ and unable to ‘adapt to change’…Hey Buckwheat, as long as I’ve been in business, you don’t think I know how to ‘adapt to change’??? You think I haven’t lived through harder times than the snowflakes of today are dealing with? You make me laugh. Hard to do when some a hole slams you up the side of the head with a 2x 6 overnight… I truly feel heartbreak for hosts who have said HERE that they rely on their business to survive, who have bills to pay. And haven’t had TIME to ‘adjust’ and ‘be flexible’. People like you are of no help with your arrogance, name calling and ‘wake the fck up people’ attitude towards so many who have been slammed legitimately by this. And people like you do nothing for anyone else. Sad…and yes, I’m pissed, I’m disgusted, and I’m getting out. Because I’m tired of ‘adjusting’ and ‘being flexible’ when I had a commitment from a company I made a commitment to. Hope you remember all your nasty comments when someday, someone breaks THEIR deal with you and then you might know how many of us are feeling now…Oh yeah…just for fun…HERE is what comes up in my area when you try and ‘search’ (that stupid search thing again) for cabins with views…the photo (supposed to be pro remember) that comes with this ‘title’ is a fence with snow on it…
Cabin in Altamont
SUITEMtnWdlndsTreetops&LogKtchn: SpaBathPorchFrpit
3 beds
Sep 6 – 13
$195
night
That’s MY competition…THIS comes up but not me…give me a break…I’m going to go make some tacos…

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Thank you Muddy… common sense words and supportive of hosts.

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You’re sad, pissed, disgusted and lashing out. There’s no need for you to insult others on the forum that volunteer their time to help others. She’s donated a lot of her time here, especially during the pandemic guiding others on how to apply for unemployment in the state as an airbnb host. She is one of the smartest, most competent and most helpful members of the forum. She may not be the nicest, I don’t know, I’ve never met her. She may not say what you want to hear but her opinion was one plausible viewpoint on what is happening.

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That’s not the point. The point is JJD has been very helpful many times.

For the 1000th time I suggest that people who don’t like the comments of other members use the mute or ignore features of the forum instead of starting :poop: that is going to get the whole thread closed down and members sulking off.

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