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I’m freaking out more than a little over here. Bought a house in July, spent 2 weeks renovating and updating, put it on Air and immediately started getting reservations. Was booked almost solid for a month. My last guests left on Sunday, and I have nothing on my calendar now!
My listing was removed over the whole service animal thing for about 5 days. Since it was reinstated, I’ve gotten one booking which was ultimately canceled by the customer because she lied about the number of guests and then didn’t want to pay for all of them when I asked for the ages of her kids when she casually mentioned that she forgot to put them on the reservation. Other than that, I’ve had ZERO bookings since my listing was reinstated.
I’ve searched for my city and found my listing, so I know it’s there… but I’m just baffled as to why my bookings have suddenly stopped. I would understand if they slowed down due to school starting and less people traveling, but stopping completely?
Before people ask, my overall rating is 4.7. I had a few 4-star ratings at the beginning because there was still a hint of cigarette smell in the house from the previous tenant, and even though I disclosed it in the listing, people dinged me for it. All my recent reviews have been great though.
Greetings @jkamm If you haven’t already, you might try listing on other platforms as well. Another arena would be Traveling Medical Personnel if the home is within 1/2 hour of any hospital. There are a couple platforms for them, depends on your area as to whether or not they are successful. Craigslist is another option as well. Just keep careful track when you are on multiple platforms. My bookings slowed just recently but I do have a few over the next couple months. It can sometimes be helpful to tweek your listing every few days. Change a word or two here and there in the description, change the photographs. Also try using symbols in your listing title, stars, hearts, etc, the ones available in Word, Type it out in Word, copy and paste it into the Title box. Just a heads up, hearts show up Red on mobile devices and make your listing stand out. I am the ONLY one in my entire county that has them! Good Luck!
Oh- I forgot to mention that! During the time that my listing was deactivated, I listed on VRBO and TripAdvisor. When I was reactivated with Air, I synced all my calendars between the 3 platforms. I’m kind of suspicious that might be doing something weird. I do plan to make my own website when I have the time and start advertising elsewhere, but so far, Air has been good to me with bookings, so I didn’t feel it was that urgent (until now, haha.)
Thanks for the tips about the symbols- I will try that out!
Also, don’t apologise for the cigarette smell. Humans will see an apology, and feel they can run with it, and use it against you, like you’ve given them permission.
Do you wonder: if you hadn’t mentioned the smell, would they?
EVERYBODY who has large listings catering to families drops off bookings around mid-August to mid-September – school’s back in session. Summer (or Winter depending on where you live) Vacation is over.
I don’t apologize for it. I simply disclose it in my listing for people who are allergic or sensitive to smoke. I figured that no one can hold it against me if they know about it ahead of time. Of course, we all know that would require people to actually read the listing.
You have lost the new host boost to the front page and being shut down as well has pushed you down to the back of the line up. You are now with the rest of us battling to get back to the front of the queue so you can be found. You need to tweak your listing every day to show that you are “live”
yes, believe her. I develop websites for a living and I know how these things work. where you are in searches depends on many factors. it’s their algorithm. they want you to login and make changes very often, but in your case it might be the offense what matters.
I make most of my money on vrbo anyway.
It is also true that after the initial period they push your listing from being on the front page. also the fact the vacation season is over.
Also I wouldn’t advertise on craiglist. You don’t know what kind of people you would attract and they might do damage to your house.
Get an ozone machine and clear that place up. We bought one and it has done wonders. Granted, we just busted a renter for smoking on the property (outside) and they punished us with a weed/vape fest in the master with a bombing of women’s fragrance.
Yep – happens to us here in SW Florida every May – booked solid through Apr 30th, a couple in early May… by the end of the month, nada. A handful of random 1-3 nighters in June, July, August. The a slow build up to late November.
We’re in south Florida too and we also don’t have any bookings after a group that is coming on Friday. I’m hoping it will pick back up during the holiday season when people are traveling to visit families.
You’d be better spending your time promoting your listings away from Airbnb (on social media for example). I have never done the ‘tweak’ thing and only go to Airbnb to use the messages system. Spending an hour or so a week promoting your listing is better. Honestly. (I’m in South Florida too and don’t have a problem whatever the season - except when there are hurricanes due )
UPDATE: This may be a coincidence, but I found it strange. I switched my listings on VRBO and TripAdvisor to inactive this morning and unsynced my calendars to see if it would make a difference. Within 2 hours, I had a reservation.
I have. I run it a couple times a week. We’ve also painted, put new carpet, replaced bathroom fans, ceiling light fixtures, outlets, light switches. Basically anything plastic in the house that could absorb the smell. We have done EVERYTHING humanly possible to get rid of the smell. It’s better, but it’s just a waiting game at this point for other smells to cover up the cigarette particles still in the walls.
See, I don’t either, and that’s why I was concerned. Mine is more the people-passing-through-town kind of reservation, not a vacation destination.
After a few bad reviews from awful guests and me having to cancel one of them, I got no bookings and started to panic that I was in the dog house. I’m a 4.9 Superhost by the way, always fully booked. I made sure to work on my listing every day for a few days for the sake of the algorithms and got a friend to ‘book’ a two day stay (he never stayed, I paid him back, it only cost me the Airbnb fee) so I could get his great review (worded by me) that would help push the bad reviews down. It worked wonders, and my calendar filled up for a whole month in just a day or so afterwards. This was the first time I’ve had to do this but I was desperate.
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