The Airbnb platform has worked very well for me over the last 10 years (using it exclusively for my bookings), but I’m now considering listing on VRBO as well.
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You mean polite as in knock on the door and ask them? I give at least 24 hours’ notice unless it’s an emergency.
For every stay of more than 8 or 9 days, I go into the rentals to change bedding, change towels, do a quick clean and so on.
I give the guests 24 hours’ notice and I give them the choice of the day. “Would you like me to clean for you on Wednesday or Thursday?” This closed question avoids any “oh don’t worry about it, we’re fine” response.
I also give them the choice as to whether they prefer me to go in when they are there, or when they are out.
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I can’t really blame people for that. Everything they buy, every service they use these days asks for a review.
And the review culture is, of course, a perfect venue for people who love to nitpick and think their opinion is of great import.
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It’s literally part of how people decide to or not to pay money to stay at our STR’s though.
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Never been that busy.Have been hosting since 2015.
Year 2023 is fully booked. Never had this high price.
So I guess it varies
Can I ask why you’re assuming the slow down in bookings is purely down to a change in Airbnb’s algorithm - - rather than external factors such as a major recession, over saturated markets etc
What are bookings like on the other listing channels you list on and for your direct bookings @LetsShareThoughts
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I think it’s a combination of things as you suggest- especially STR over saturation.
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I don’t think so. One of my “worst” guests was a local overnight stay. I gave them low stars, honest written review and wouldn’t host again. They only had a handful of reviews but they were okay reviews. If hosts won’t be honest, or won’t leave reviews because they don’t have anything good to say and/or are afraid, it’s only going to get worse. Such hosts think they are looking out for their best interests but eventually the “trash will be passed” to them too.
My bookings seem slower when the calendar is open but I block off a lot of time due to my own travel, being busy with the dog boarding business and direct bookings. I don’t use other platforms but it makes perfect sense to me that Airbnb would “reward” hosts who are more available. They may also be “punishing” hosts who book direct. Air can’t tell why a date isn’t available but obviously direct booking or booking with a competitor would be reasons.
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Certainly, your experience is the outlier for current market conditions. Is there something about your target demographic or location/listing ?
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Airbnb was our “bread and butter” for years - we’ve been doing this since 2013. But right now the only bookings we’re getting are from 1. BDC (whom I dislike immensely), 2. Direct bookings, 3. Vrbo and 4. Personal (no $$). We have NO Airbnb bookings right now. NONE. NADA. ZILTCH. ZIPPO.
I checked our views on Airbnb the other night. They only keep the data for a year, so I checked beginning from last March until this month and WOW!!! what a drop in views!!! We were getting 500-900 views a month, every month…and then for the whole of January 2023, one listing had 2 views and the other had 9 views! That is completely nuts!! I don’t know how to fix this. How can you force someone to view your listing?
The other thing I noticed is that when I search my town with an incognito window when I know my units are available, at the top of the window it says 1000s of listings in Kihei, HI. and Airbnb only shows 15 pages (and some of the listings that are showing up are not even in Kihei - they are way on the other side of the island). We don’t show up on the first 15 pages. Neither do many many other listings, obviously…however, if you use the map and zoom in on an area of Kihei, then we show up on the first page.
The other thing I noticed on the first 15 pages of listings is that no one has the overall rating that we have (ours are 4.95 and 4.98). Most are WAY lower than ours. So, what is making these listings get top priority?? From what I can tell it’s price. They are WAY lower than what the market bears.
They all have cleaning fees, and they all have cancellation policies, some more strict than others. Very few have weekly discounts or monthly discounts.
So, it’s price. That’s it. Lower your price considerably and maybe you’ll have a chance to get on the first 15 pages. Ridiculous. Doesn’t Airbnb want my money?
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Located in the capital of Iceland. Right downtown.
ICeland is trending alot and I guess it is the reason. Record breaking tourist numbers in the country.
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This is very good research you did and I congratulate you for doing it.
Local markets change, sometimes radically, and sometimes quickly. I have watched this is several places in the residential real estate market.
I have close relatives who have lived on Maui for about 30 years, currently in Kula. My understanding is that Maui tourism is being discouraged because of Native Hawaiian objections to over tourism, and because of water concerns. I’ve seen multiple posts on TikTok about both of these issues. One post I remember urged people not to go to Maui at all (and so to consider a different island.) Whether tourism is actually down in Maui I don’t know.
What I would do in your situation is temporarily price these properties so that they appear on page 1 or 2 of the search–assuming that changing the price will actually give you this result.
I would try it for 2 weeks just to see what happens…this assumes you have enough vacancy that you want to bother doing this, of course.
People don’t like to hear this but it’s possible you are priced too high for the current AirBnB user market.
Personally I would want to figure that out if I could.
The market is the market and that’s just the way it is.
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I have one of the lower priced rentals in this town and my listing often is on page 4 or 5. Last year it was on one or two.
Last February I got 300+ views, this Feb–100. It’s been this way for months now.
Air still says there are 1000 rentals here which is ridiculous. Yeah, maybe 1000 in a 100 mile area.
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Your money? No, they don’t care whose money they get. If they connect two guests to units bringing in half the fees of one of your units, it’s exactly the same to Airbnb. Lower ratings for some units don’t impact them either. If all rentals were low rated, they would be concerned but as long as they can say things like “hosts in your area make XXXX a month,” or “Airbnb rentals average 4.7 stars internationally,” or other things that sound good in press releases, they are happy.
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Very interesting post to read! I actually contacted Airbnb today about the sudden drop-off in bookings and their response was overall the platform in January & Feburary (from SuperHost support) is slow on their end but they are ramping up. Interesting observation comping from the company itself…
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It also assumes that the host can price any lower and still make it worthwhile to host. I would rather my unit sat empty than do things to get on the first page that would mean I was just breaking even.
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Yes, of course. That goes without saying methinks.
People with multiple properties, like the original poster seems to have, often have debt service to consider. If you’re paying on a loan (or mortgage) you pay whether the unit is occupied or not. So just making enough to cover debt service can be a reasonable business goal.
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Kula is beautiful! I would love to live up there, but we have to be closer to our business which is smack-dab in the middle of the touristy areas.
Yes, some of the young people that are on Tik-Tok are discouraging people from coming to Maui. However, tourism is up and somewhat surpassing pre-pandemic levels. And it’s sort of like shooting themselves in the foot - Tourism is the main industry, unfortunately - and it touches most, if not all that live here in some form or fashion. So, to get rid of it would be devastating.
You hear different things from different sectors - we don’t have enough water to sustain or superlatives such as we have the most fresh water in the world. I’ve heard that we definitely have more water than O’ahu and far, far fewer people. So, it’s hard to know what/who to believe. And Maui county keeps allowing the building of more subdivisions, so they must know it’s okay…right?
Yes, even for a time right after we reopened, Governor Ige asked people not to come to Hawaii - and some people listened at the time. I think we had one cancellation due to that message.
We might try this on Airbnb, just to see what happens.
True, people don’t like to hear that 
. And I would tend to agree with you however we are getting the price we are asking on BDC and Vrbo. We have had a surge of bookings from BDC in recent days, every day. But, my husband and I call BDC “Cancel Dot Com” because very few make it to fruition.
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Ah…I should have put a smiley face next to that as it was said in jest.
It’s a bummer for sure - but also good to know that we don’t have to be perfectly rated to still get on the first page.
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You are correct when you search a location you often get properties outside of that location coming up.
However I don’t agree price is the main factor . It’s likely to be immediate availability.
If you’re using other channels then your calendar will show limited availability on Airbnb and therefore you will go lower down the rankings .
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