Sudden drop in bookings.. Need advice!

Hello All,

I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with my listing. I started in April and been pretty fully booked May and June. And now, I have no bookings July, Aug, Sept. I’ve also try to set the price a little lower.

Would love to get suggestions on how I might be able to improve my listing:

Thank you!

Just imagine if everyone in your area did that. You’d be giving your accommodation away and not making a penny. Try adding value instead of lowering the price. Not everyone buys the cheapest and low prices can often attract guests who are less than careful.

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What a great house. Don’t lower the price any further. It’s summer in Austin and you are out of the way for families that might vacation in the area for summer. I see you already have your price up for the Austin City Limits weekend you have available so assume you’ve also checked which weekends are UT home games and set the prices accordingly.

When you started you may have been boosted in search. With families coming for end of school year activites and it not being too hot yet, you were busy. Now there is lot of competition. Be patient and you will get bookings closer to the dates.

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@jaquo, That’s a really good point… hmm, do you have suggestions on how I might be able to add value to my listing or have suggestions on certain part of my listing might be turning people off? I’m at a lost right now because I’ve tried adding things like iron board, hair dryer, even board games, netflix, hulu, lots of kitchen equipment, yoga mat, etc… (link above, for some reason, some time the forum allows me to post the link and some time it doesn’t)

@KKC, Thanks for the insight! I hadn’t thought about the UT home games. I need to look those up! How far do guests typically booked out? Do you see a lot of last minute bookings if you host here in austin?

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@KKC I love that your listing has things like internet speed and “In this house, we believe in…” sign up there. What a great idea!

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For some reason the system is automatically flagging your link as spam so I’m reposting it here if anyone else wants to chime in.

I don’t host in Austin, I’m in El Paso but I’ve been to Austin many times including to ACL Festival and I know that the football home games bring in a lot of people.

Of course :slight_smile:
Try these ideas and more:

Don’t underestimate pictures… your cover picture has poor lighting! I was not so good with my photos when I first listed. People kept saying “pictures don’t do it justice”… when I buckled down and took better photos my bookings picked up (think: light! open window blinds, open doors, turn on all lights, add light to eliminate shadow lines). Your cover pic looks like it was taken on a cloudy day or in the evening… outside should be bright and sunny if possible!

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You probably have a ton of competition - Austin is the home of HomeAway/VRBO. Have you considered listing on several sites? AirBnB is not the only site for a whole-house rental - and may not even be the best site.

Thank you! You are so nice!

Thanks jaquo! Nice article, I do leave cookies and water for guest. But i can definitely follow some of the other suggestions here

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Hey dropnothing, thanks for bringing this up. I had suspicions since some guests seemed surprise and they would text me how beautiful the house was. I wasnt sure if I choose invest in the Airbnb professional photographer but I think it may be worth it. And yea I took the photos in the evening when I finished decorating the place

PitonView, thanks for bringing that up. Have you host on VRBO? The 2 friends that also host told me they usually get better guests via Airbnb. So, I am hesitant to do that right now. Do you know how true that is? I’ll have to look into VRBO if my Airbnb can’t maintain itself well…

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Our main platform is VRBO. Nearly 2/3rds of our bookings come from there. AirBnB fills in a few weeks here and there, and more last-minute bookings than VRBO. The AirBnB guests are generally looking for discounts or shorter stays, or to pack more people in the house than my limit, but we are starting to get more of the VRBO crowd booking through AirBnB.

However - we are a true “vacation rental”. We live in Houston and rent out our second home in the Caribbean. Our price starts around $400 per night.

The VRBO shoppers are mostly used to signing a contract to rent out a property, so you might be able to screen out some troublemakers by forcing them to sign a contract.

I like photos # 10 and #22 better than your lead photo.
I think you should move this into your main description: " neighborhood’s running trail & lake 3-5 mins drive from the house where you can run, fish or take a walk in nature after dinner." There are probably some guests who will key into running trails and a a lake.
I also think you have 2 many double and single beds …which are great for families, but when couples travel they often want a romantic King. I would push some of those Twins together and use a convertible strap and offer up King Beds.
Otherwise, you can not create a demand during a low season. Use down time to improve and clean.
good luck

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