Increasing bookings rate

[Becky86]

Hi, I see that I have only had 1.7% booking to number of views. I would like to increase this. I have been booked almost solid since Feb, now, not much. I would love siuggestions. The name of my listing is St Louis Bed & Sometimes Breakfast! 

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Becky86 The best way to incease your booking rate is to update your listing daily and also try to set different prices for different time during the year. Good luck!!!

[Becky86]

 Thank you but I already knew all of that. I'm looking for the reason why it may not be booking

[Paul154]

@Becky86,

@Oomesh-Kumarsingh0 has the best suggestion for getting higher in the listings. This increased visiblity will increase your booking rate.

The question "Why aren't people choosing me?" is a difficult question to answer. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to ask the people who don't book with us. Asking the guests who do book is biased.

Have you tried booking your own place?  Have you asked a friend to book your place?

That experience may help you answer your question

[Joanna85]

I was booked also from February until mid August then things pretty much dropped off.  I have been upping my price a hair but every so often, so that may make a difference.  There is also a lot of competition where I live, which is driving the prices down.  Also, I am sure as we get closer to the holidays, bookings will be dropping then picking up again after --which brings us back to February.  I agree that messing with your price even by a dollar every day or just simply making a little tiny tweek to your listing will somehow make a difference in the algorythm, but ultimately it is other variables that gets us booking like time of year, competition, etc etc.  I even have started getting messages from Airbnb telling me to give 10% discount to folks who book xyz days--I think that is indicative of it's just a slow time.  The key in this airbnb venture (for me at least) is to just persevere.  Stick with it and be the one that's still standing, weathering the highs and lows.  Also, a great bit of patience helps.

[Steve2743]

I think it's largely just the time of year. Summer is over, college kids are back in school, people are done with vacations for now. It's frustrating, I know. I also find I go through phases where I'm getting no new booking, then just as I'm starting to panic, my last scheduled guest is about to check out, and suddenly I have a string of several bookings within a few days. I don't understand the algorithms they use, but it would be nice if they were publically available. 

[Candace30]

Thank you for your post, I'm encouraged. I just started hosting and was excited by my first 5 bookings. For the past 2 weeks, it's been radio silent. I just lowered my rate. My fingers are crossed.

[Suren0]

I have similar problem. I started doing airbnb a month ago and in the first 10 days my listing was booked for a 1,5 months in advance. But now I have already 5 days a zero views of my listing. So people just don't even see or open my advertising. I have positive feedbacks from my guests and 5 stars review rate.  Does anyone know what's the reason?

[Floyd5]

My current booking rate is 2.7%.  Since I'm in Florida, the winter months are the busiest.  I'm thinking the reason for the low booking rate is because I'm not the cheapest in the area. I wonder what other people are getting for a booking rate.   

[Matthew285]

@Floyd5 your booking rate is actually pretty high.

I posted a question some time ago asking people what their booking rate was, and most answers were lower than your 2.7%.

Mine is currently 1%. We are doing very well though. While a high booking rate is nice, I just want bookings. How many people it takes looking at my listing for that to happen is entirely secondary.