No Booking Inquiries in Over a Month

[Giovanna80]

I launched my FT Airbnb listing (I do not live there anymore) in October, and had steady guests until end of December. My last booking inquiry was on Dec 29th. Cricket.

I have tried playing around with pricing but my prices are comparable to similar listings in the area, even a touch lower than most since I don't have hundreds of reviews yet. I can't seem to figure out what's wrong, other than a suspicion that my listing is ranking lower than others because Airbnb thinks my pricing is too high (though compared to others in the area, it's not)? Anyone have any thoughts? I'm paying for the condo out of pocket now this month but this is not sustainable. I have no more bookings since my last guest left this weekend.

Help!

G.

[Roy-And-Patti0]

everytime around this year- people panic because they are not getting any bookings or inquiries. the simple truth is that november thru february are the slowest and i mean real slow times for airbnb hosts. i am just like you, i was booked solid until december and than nothing. this happens every year, so dont worry it will pick up atfer february

[Jenica6]

Thank you. I feel much better now. I thought it was just me.

[Zacharias0]

You may be the lowest compared to your neighbors, but are high compared to what the potential guest wants to pay. If you are worried about sustaining a money pit consider lowering your prices to tide you over. Every day your listing sits empty you are losing money you can never make again, $50/day for a week is better than nothing. I adjust my prices lower a month out from mid-Jan through end of April.

[Victoria177]

I had the same thing happen to me. I found the issue after a while. Somehow my minimum amount of days for booking got set at 7 days instead of one. also if you set your place to instabook, the unit comes up more. make sure you log on often as well.

[Melissa183]

In the Caribbean we also have a low season and bookings stop. If suitable you could try to prepare the listing for business travelers. It has helpped me during our low season (March - October). Good luck! 

[Paul-and-Melissa0]

.... another Melissa! 

Pray tell how you prepared your site for business travelers?

Thanks!

[Michael242]

We have a drastic drop in interest over the past several months. The same months a year ago were very active. It seems to me that interest in our place died out at the same time that airbnb started strongly promoting "instant booking."

Our prices are extremely competitive...lowest in the area. And we have nothing but positive reviews (5-star, Superhost, etc.).  But after 50 successful visits, interest went blank.

I talked to someone at air..... they mentioned something about algorythms that went over my head. Sadly, we have to look for other ways to promote our little place now.

[Florencia0]

Unfortunately, I must say that I found the same happening to me and I believe it is all about ranking.

If you are not listed, guests won't find you and that pretty much explains why you/we don't have bookings nor inquiries. 

The ranking algorithm is impossible to understand it. At first, it seems they promote newbies which I find it reasonable to give them the chance to earn their first bookings but then you see listings that aren't new, have bad reviews or bad ratings and suddenly they are way on top of yours. So how could you explain that? You put a big level of effort trying to deliver the very best to your guests and suddenly Airbnb rewards the ones who didn't. It' very stressful to get this dried seasons from time to time when no one even makes a sniff in your account and you can't find yourself within the search results. 

[Giovanna80]

Thank you! I suspected it had something to do with the algorithms but couldn't figure out what to do about it... logging in every day, making little changes, etc. didn't seem to do anything. So frustrating. I've started getting inquiries again, slowly, so hopefully this dry spell doesn't last too long (for any of us!).

[Roy-And-Patti0]

 As I said in my original post the simple truth is that from November through February people simply don't book Airbnb. It has nothing to do with pricing or   Algorithms.  As you can see inquiries are starting to pick up. 

[Florencia0]

Depends on the area/city. Maybe that's true for Canada but be aware that low seasons aren't the same everywhere.

Whatever, INHO I believe your ranking assignment has much more relevance than the season in the number of bookings you get. We depend on an algorithm that seems to give rewards in the opposite way anyone would expect 😞

[Mary1286]

We have been listed for nearly a year, we had a couple of bookings then NOTHING! so have resorted to another booking company -higher price and are booked out most weekends! ABnB have indicated that we should drop the price but they dont seem to appreciate that in our top tourist region we are way lower in price to the majority of bnbs who also want a min of 2 nights stay. We have spoken to another host in the area who also says his place cannot be found through ABnB! frustrating as we have fabulous reviews from our other hosting site!

Mary- Kallista Victoria Australia

[Zoe34]

I had zero bookings for all of January, and only one in December.  I think next year I will prepare for the same.  In my area, people just aren't traveling much then.  From what I read in other comments, it seems the same everywhere.  I understand your frustration! 

[Michael242]

Hi! I guess I should not expect many bookings this time if year.

But last Winter was much better as far a bookings goes.

Last year was our first with airbnb, and we did pretty well.

But I guess that was just an anomoly.

I still think that the promotion of "instant check in" may be a factor.