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By the time August came around I was feeling completely burned out from Airbnb. We had 98% occupancy June - September.
September came around and its become SO slow were only booking on the weekends now (though we have someone checking in on Friday and staying for 1 week).
We are in RI. Does anyone else notice this? Could it pick back up at any point or are we in slow season until next Spring?
Perhaps we find winter activities we can add to keep people coming all year-round.
Who were your guests during the summer? Tourists and vacationers or some other type of traveler? Where is your listing located? On the shore or inland? In a destination city or a suburb? How many other Air rooms are near you, what do they charge and what is their approximate occupancy? The answers to all these questions should give you some idea as to what to expect over the winter.
We opened our Airbnb room this past July and were booked nearly solid through July and August. That being said, we live in southern Maine, very near the coast in a summer resort town, so we expected bookings to drop dramatically after Labor Day, and indeed they have. Just weekends in September and so far we only have 6 days booked in October. I don’t expect any more bookings until late May of next year.
Given you’re also in New England, I think you will experience a slow winter as well, but perhaps not totally dead like it will be for us. Do you live near any major winter attractions, such as a ski resort? You can add all the winter activities to your listing you want, but unless people are already thinking of your area as a destination, I don’t think it will do much good.
Your experience mirrors mine precisely: barely a dark room night from launch in late June til end August; a few short September bookings, most quite short notice, and currently nothing at all in October but three short bookings in November. Ah well.
Summer was slow here (hot-as-hell Houston) but September has been a total dead stop. 19 views on the established room, 11 views on the new room (which has had NO bookings since I opened it in July). Not a single inquiry / request in the last 30 days. I am hoping that it picks up at some point, but since this is my first year I don’t know the seasons yet.
Yesterday I spent an hour and looked at every single listing in my area to see if anyone was getting bookings, based on whether they had reviews. There are a few repeat business travelers who stay with the same people over and over. Those might be short stays; I have a 3 night minimum. If I dropped that to 2 or 1 I would probably get a few extra bookings, but frankly it’s not worth the time spent cleaning, plus cost of food / toiletries and utilities.
It was fun reading the reviews though - several hosts in my area have burned themselves badly by cancelling bookings at the last minute and one of the locations near me that I thought might be competition just had a flame-war level review. There are several listings that are closer to the airport that are also cheaper than my listing, but they are also 1 night stays and the rooms are very basic. They probably do volume business and it makes it worthwhile for them, but I am looking for a business traveler who stays multiple days.
I’m experiencing the same thing. On the positive side, since I have reviews and the advice of this forum, my rates are higher now so I’m making almost the same amount of money. It just feels so slow after a busy summer! I can’t wait for next summer, I should rake it in!!!
It is quiet here too. The more and more hosts add to Airbnb, the more each of us will experience this slow times.
I’m now wondering what a flame-war level review looks like. Color me curious.
Host Drama! They really should do a drama show about this. Maybe Netflix would do it. They do oddball stuff.
I am in South Florida, and we have 8 or more months here slow season. We cant change this fact, there are no tourists, or miniscule amount.
But why to only host vacationers? Why not to switch to working people on a project?
Workers are MUCH BETTER GUESTS than vacationers. They are never home, and when they are home all they want to do is rest. I found my workers guests to be much more cleaner than vacationers and less maintanence.
You will be surprised to find out that is also hard for them to find a decent place to stay during their relocation.
And the best part that they can pay higher price, because in fact most of them are not paying, corporations pay for them.
I am on my 5th corporate pay, and i love it. I really dont want any vacationers anymore.
It only takes 1 good corporate guest to occupy your room for a whole month or 2. My 2 guets now occupy both rooms until November and may be longer if they agree to my higher rate.
I found them through Craigs list. I think AIr is good for busy times only.
We are of course increasing holiday rates to try and make up the difference. We might offer use of a snow mobile, cross country skiing etc, to try and bring more people in. This was our first year so we are still learning.
We would totally do a corporate rental, but nobody has ever approached us to do it. We don’t want to do long term rentals where people actually move in, as the place is already furnished and we don’t want people “living” here long term.
Not long term like a year, longer term like a week or 2-3 weeks. These people do need your furniture:), they are here until project finishes. I am telling you these guests are the best. I had vacationers for more than a year, workers are so much easier.
When I put weekly and monthly rates this is when all these corporate people started inquiring.
I am on vacation myself for the whole month (writing this from an Airbnb in Rome, heading to Milan then to Nice) 
, I decided to go on vacation in September when I saw that I had no hits for this month at Disney Paris.
I had blocked my calendar a long time ago but I checked the competition in my area and they have few bookings. The ones who charge low prices (60 to 90€ for studios or one-bedroom apartments) are booked up though.
Reservations for October are good and I received today my second reservation for November.
September was slow here but eventually almost booked up with only a few vacancies. Main difference is last minute bookings.
Update: we have our first October booking!