A SNAFU
is a balls up
Situation Normal All F’d Upq
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Our observations on viewing numbers: we have two separate listings, one of which receives circa 400 views per month, the other circa 80. These steadily started to decline recently and we responded by tweaking prices down slightly, but the decline continued. It then became apparent that view numbers were not being updated by ABB, until after a gap of four days they were restored to show a rise to 450 and 100 respectively. Shortly after this, numbers for July disappeared completely, leaving only a few days in June, circa 30 and 60. Yet a day later, total viewings were 650.
The In-House IT Boffin advises us; “Don’t touch that dial… it’s a ghost in the machine. Big data technology can do that and it will sort itself out eventually”. In layman’s terms, don’t panic, it’s not you but a systems glitch on the ABB platform.
It has lost us business though. It’s the end of July, school hols have started and we are close to the UK ferry port of Dover. We had far more guests crossing from/to France in June than we currently have now. TG for the channel swimming season, which begins in August; two long bookings…
I now have a completely blank view for July showing no views and no bookings 
But do you already have some bookings already Helsi, to tide you through? This is a real bummer going on, and clearly affecting folk across the board. Has any one ideas on what to say to Airbnb, because it really isn’t good enough.
Hi Joan
Yes I have bookings in July and had at the last count about 280 views, it’s just they have completely disappeared from the stats, which are now showing a complete blank for July.
It’s def the system. I’ll get himself to ring them up. He has a talent for reaching through the corporate bull…t.
I also have two people trying to book for Aug and Sept respectively. Although we can talk to them, the platform seems to be stopping them completing the booking, and giving them daft pricing not-of-our-making. Fortunately, we already know one of them and have simply “reserved” (blocked…) for him, but the other is new to the site and becoming increasingly confused and cross, believing we are mucking her about. Feels like a red flag but given the circumstances???
This morning my views are back to normal. I had nothing for the past 8 days but today it seems back to normal and showing me actual view each day instead of a flatline. Hopefully it will resolve for everyone else soon.
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In response to your point about having zero views for the entire month of July, my account did the exact same thing yesterday.
Yesterday, I called Airbnb and got somebody on the phone within 3 mins.
The service rep on the phone was flabbergasted, and incredibly kind. He said he’s never seen an account be as hot as our’s was and then so immediately cold (every day booked for 3 months straight and then absolutely no inquiries or bookings for a few weeks straight).
He couldn’t figure out any issues, and said he was even actually able to fulfill a fake booking, so it should be working. Then, he looked deeper into the files and said we had tons of views that weren’t showing up in the system, but something had to be messed up…because that many views should’ve resulted in several bookings, yet we had none.
He put in a ticket to the technical team, and said they will call or email within 24-48 hours to help figure out if there’s some error on the account.
Then, ironically, 5 minutes after the call, we got an inquiry. 5 minutes after that, a different person booked a 5-day stay starting tonight.
I’m hoping something was triggered by the call, and/or by his prodding around on the page? I’ll keep you posted to see if we eventually get back to full steam.
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Same here, can see the views chart looking more normal today instead of a ‘wasteland of zeroes’!
And I got a booking this afternoon! (It’s a UK booking though, I’d like to see an international one to be fully relieved.)
My attempts at getting the Airbnb CS to locate the fault haven’t seen the light of the day - they keep saying ‘but it works here.’ !
It’s confusing whether zero views on the Stats page itself means actually zero views or not. Some folk above have had bookings in the last few days despite the zero-view situation.
In my case, and it seems yours, the barrenness coincides with the zero-view glitch.
It’s possible there are two distinct defects in the system, one where only the views chart is inaccurate, the other where actual viewing/booking is not happening. The Airbnb team doesn’t seem able to figure this out.
Do let us know if you get any other info from the Airbnb folks or elsewhere.
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I have views but I’ve had no new bookings since about 3 weeks ago. June and July I was at 97% occupancy and now I’m down to 50% for august and zero bookings for September. I’ve played with pricing and nada. I’m going to have to switch to a full time tenant and leave Airbnb if august and September don’t improve. I’m in DC so I thought with conferences and meetings etc that I would get regular stays not just summer tourists. I have no idea if it’s a glitch since I just started in May.
Weird, my views have also flatlined.
I did have a lurker recently grab up some October dates as soon as they opened (I’m on a 3 months out open date schedule) – and I didn’t think to raise my rates for the Marine Corps marathon (DC area) in time! At first Grrrr. But then I found out my guest is actually coming to RUN the marathon, so that’s pretty cool and why should I be greedy? Now I’m planning to leave some extra energy bars for her! Guess I’m not cut out to be a ruthless capitalist.
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A ruthless capitalist can be defined as you one who leaves extra energy bars on such an occasion so the customer really likes the service and comes back to stay again and again! 
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If you just started in May you had the new host boost which is now wearing off. Also, it’s pretty typical to not get bookings too far ahead of time so I wouldn’t worry yet.
August is next week and I have tons of empty dates some of which I’ve cut my price for. I can only give this until September and then have to decide if a tenant is better. With air I have to pay the utilities, wifi, cable even if it’s empty but I don’t have those expenses with a tenant and it’s guaranteed money. I am also a remote host so I lose on what I pay the person who cleans and does all the laundry which is more than the cleaning fee I charge. I hope there’s an uptick soon! Thanks for letting me know about the new host boost
I go through the same thing in my head all the time. 