Post by High Priestess on Oct 13, 2015 21:28:02 GMT
tracy shared Oct 13 2015
Slow bookings
Hi everyone,
I have been hosting for about five weeks and I was booked the whole month of October. Since I booked the last weekend in October about 10 days ago I have been slow. Very few inquiries and only two nights booked in November. What can be causing this? How can it go from one extreme to the next?
Is this particular to Boston? Do people suddenly fear the snow come November?
Andrew (andrew)
Boston is busiest when families have school holidays and when university semesters are beginning, with occasional spikes for public holidays. Now you have a low season until spring.
Vicky:
Did you get bookings straight away when you listed? If so it would suggest a lot of your guests book last minute and as you are booked for the next few weeks won't be showing up when they are booking last minute. Hopefully you will get some nearer your calendar being free again
tracy
That's what I figured. I do get last minute or just a week or two in advance. Boston is flooded with tourists even in the winter so it's odd it would be totally dead. I understand January won't be as busy as July since people don't want to get stranded due to weather , but there should be a few bookings. I reluctantly lowered my price even though I was much lower than I should have been to begin with.
Douglas:
You also got the newbie bump. Airbnb puts new listings at the top of searches so you'll get more bookings at first.
tracy:
That's what I though, but I still come up at the top when I search.
Bekah and Brian (beeandbee)
You're going to keep coming up "at the top" on your own computer because of browser cookies. Try a first time search on someone else's computer. without being signed in.
Andrew
Another thing is that there have been a lot of bugs in the site for the last week or two that may affect many people's ability to send inquiries or requests, depending on the platform they're using. It's impossible to know how much business we lose when these things occur.
But yes, it's completely normal for the volume of requests to be inconsistent over time. Actually I think it's the #1 question asked in this forum. When you can see a slow stretch coming, it's a good time to plan ahead for it - market to longer-term visitors, schedule home repairs, have more friends and family, whatever suits you best. But no matter where you live, you can never assume that you'll always have a steady stream of interest; even if the demand for vacancies is stable, the supply of listings can dramatically change at any time.
Slow bookings
Hi everyone,
I have been hosting for about five weeks and I was booked the whole month of October. Since I booked the last weekend in October about 10 days ago I have been slow. Very few inquiries and only two nights booked in November. What can be causing this? How can it go from one extreme to the next?
Is this particular to Boston? Do people suddenly fear the snow come November?
Andrew (andrew)
Boston is busiest when families have school holidays and when university semesters are beginning, with occasional spikes for public holidays. Now you have a low season until spring.
Vicky:
Did you get bookings straight away when you listed? If so it would suggest a lot of your guests book last minute and as you are booked for the next few weeks won't be showing up when they are booking last minute. Hopefully you will get some nearer your calendar being free again
tracy
That's what I figured. I do get last minute or just a week or two in advance. Boston is flooded with tourists even in the winter so it's odd it would be totally dead. I understand January won't be as busy as July since people don't want to get stranded due to weather , but there should be a few bookings. I reluctantly lowered my price even though I was much lower than I should have been to begin with.
Douglas:
You also got the newbie bump. Airbnb puts new listings at the top of searches so you'll get more bookings at first.
tracy:
That's what I though, but I still come up at the top when I search.
Bekah and Brian (beeandbee)
You're going to keep coming up "at the top" on your own computer because of browser cookies. Try a first time search on someone else's computer. without being signed in.
Andrew
Another thing is that there have been a lot of bugs in the site for the last week or two that may affect many people's ability to send inquiries or requests, depending on the platform they're using. It's impossible to know how much business we lose when these things occur.
But yes, it's completely normal for the volume of requests to be inconsistent over time. Actually I think it's the #1 question asked in this forum. When you can see a slow stretch coming, it's a good time to plan ahead for it - market to longer-term visitors, schedule home repairs, have more friends and family, whatever suits you best. But no matter where you live, you can never assume that you'll always have a steady stream of interest; even if the demand for vacancies is stable, the supply of listings can dramatically change at any time.