My bookings are waaaay down, any advice?

[Nikki13]

Hi I've been doing Airbnb for 14 months, and up til now have been near enough fully booked. My flat is in Bournemouth UK. I get bookings for all sorts of reasons as opposed to just summer hols. This time last year I was booked up til new year. But since end of October I've hardly had any. I'm still getting views on my listing, I've got really good reviews. My pricing is ok, and I'm using smart pricing now to see if that makes a difference. It does say on the website the bookings are 30% down compared to this time last year. I just wondered if anyone else is having the same problem?

Any advice welcome, I just want to know if I should be panicking or not. Does anyone else list with other sites?

Thanks

Nikki

[Marie312]

I am also way down and I am close to San Francisco. For the month of December I brought my prices down but still no bookings. 

I am thinking it is our election and folks are nervous but that wouldn't affect you. 

Good luck.

Marie

[Nikki13]

Hi Marie

Well it's interesting that you say that. We had the whole Brexit thing this year and it seems trade has been down in general ever since.

Fingers crossed things pick up for all of us soon.

Nikki

[David126]

Last year you may have benefited from the new host bump.

Have you noticed more competition, it has been a looooong time since I was in Bournemouth, you said that you had bookings last year, did you notice why they were staying with you, would any of that change.

There are many alternatives to AirBnb, they are all different in how they operate, not sure if one is more popular than others when it comes to your area, type of listing.

[Tim15]

Airbnb have recently started showing only instantbook properties on a search and making guests click on a button to see all the others. If you're not using instantbook this could be the reason and if it is send feedback to let them now how you feel.

[Nikki13]

Tim that is really interesting, I didn't know that. It definately feels like something on airbnb has changes rather than something I'm doing or not doing. I don't use instant book as I'm a remote host and live an hour from the flat so it takes me quite a bit of time for organising bookings and cleaning etc. Do you use it? Who knows maybe I should try it?

[Nikki13]

Thanks David, I definately did benefit from the initial new host bump, but remained consistent throughout the year. I'm near a university and a lot of students were graduating this time last year and so parents were staying at my flat. Haven't had too much of that this year. Who knows but will defo look at other booking sites too thanks.

[Tim15]

Hi Nikki,

It seems that now the button for instant book is on the off mode so the guest has to switch it on. This is an improvement but as it is at the top of the page it would be tempting to switch it on as it is not made clear that this will hide all the other properties!

Airbnb still has a bit of work to do on this.

We don't use instant book as we like to have some personal contact with the guest beforehand - the same reason we don't do same day bookings.

I see you're in a university town so the graduation days will be busy - might be worth having a word with the university to see if they have a list of places for visitors to stay during the year and could add your Airbnb page.

Tim