Where am I going wrong with Airbnb?!

[salindahind]

Never used Airbnb before but doing a round the U.K. driving holiday next year so doing various short bookings and one long booking (which I've had no trouble booking through Airbnb)

I've just started the short bookings and trying to book a 2 night stay in Edinburgh. I've tried 3 properties now which all show availability and once I've 'booked' it's pending for 24 hours but the owners never respond so the booking is cancelled and 'I'm free to book somewhere else and won't get charged' ......but I'm running out of suitable places to try and book and can't understand why no one wants my custom??!

Am I missing something obvious here?

I have an Airbnb and now don’t accept any Airbnb guests with no reviews and first time users . Everyone of my first time users have given me a low rating and rating my place as though I am a 5 star hotel! My area is really popular and all the hotels are extremely expensive as demand is high. I’ve run my place for years and have done a total revamp recently, I have coffee machine , leave out wine and I have Netflix, it’s warm , clean , has a very vintage style (sorting cottage feel with claw foot bath but modern appliances etc) I’m around 120 euros cheaper than our local hotel a night ….
I get rave reviews from frequent users of Airbnb but not first time users. Basically Airbnb rating system is confusing ; if you give less than 5 stars in a review, that’s actually considered bad or a problem, hosts can actually have their place removed if they get too many 4 stars!!!
I made the mistake of letting first time users book and almost all gave me 3 and 4 stars in reviews as if they are reviewing me like a hotel. I’m totally open to constructive criticism but it was clear they didn’t get how Airbnb works ; so they’d give me 3 stars and a really nice review 🤷🏻‍♀️ , my listing then dropped down in search results so eventually would affect my business , im just lucky I live in a busy place. I spoke to other hosts who warned me not to accept bookings from first time users.. I think this is the problem. I’ve totally stopped accepting booking from new users and my rating system is back up etc.

I’m in Edinburgh & wouldn’t accept a 2 night booking a year in advance in July/August. Although the official festival begins in August there are loads of things going on in July too. You may want to try booking for 3 nights? I also don’t accept anyone without reviews due to a bad experience.

But Edinburgh is insanely busy even before the 'official' festival kicks off - think of the thousands of performers, crew, support staff etc who will be arriving in advance of visitors.

I used to live and work in Edinburgh and it's not an exaggeration to say the population of the city practically doubles for about eight weeks at the height of summer.

I think you've just missed the boat here. As PPs have said, the odd Premier Inn here and there will do you.

As others have said, 2 nights just before the festival kicks off is not an attractive booking.
All Airbnb/short term rentals in Scotland need to have applied for a licence end of October, I think, and must be licensed by end of July next year. Wait to see if this affects available properties. I do feel for people who live in tenements where nearly all the other flats are now short term rentals. Don't know how objections will affect the granting of licences.
Also as previously suggested, Premier inn or Novotel at Edinburgh Park. Close to the tram and has parking. Driving in Edinburgh at the time you want to come is horrible and parking in central areas, nonexistent.

Air BnB veteran here. Another thing to consider as well as the festival etc is that you may be just over 12 months in advance and some hosts don’t officially release their calendars more than a year forward. They have them blanked out so wouldn’t come up in your search. If you wait a few weeks, until it’s under 12 months away, you might find more options open up.

We own a guesthouse which is on Airbnb and Booking.com along with other sites. But I never use Airbnb when I travel because many of the hosts are unprofessional. And they are always suspicious and either think you’re going to make noise or have a party….It’s like a hotel where you practically have to feed the cat and slink around so you don’t wake Grandma. Too many crazies with eccentric crap going on who want to make a fast buck with subpar hygiene and without the hard work that comes with the hospitality industry…no thanks. I expect the same service that I offer, which is respectful and professional.

That so bizarre (the reviewers I mean, not your place which sounds lovely). If a place is described as homely then that's what I expect.

To be honest, my requirements are that it's clean and that it has everything it says it have.

Even if I include a 'would have been nice if', if the place is as described then I still give 5 stars.

I get all the points about it being busy and owners may not want a 2 night stay - totally fine.

Why aren't they saying that then - it's not difficult? Why is no one responding and just ignoring all contact / messages / booking requests? Is that how Airbnb works - on the basis of ignoring customers?

Because they can't be bothered? You're booking for two nights. You can't neg them anywhere other than moaning on here.

I'm guessing they're holding out for a longer booking.

Book a hotel instead.

There are issues with short-term lets in Edinburgh. The council is trying to change the regulation's to restrict likes of Airbnb as there is a shortage of properties available for longer term lets and are pricing local residents out.

Try the Adagio apart hotel if you want central basic self catering.

Because Airbnb impose ridiculous rules on hosts & sometimes it’s easier to ignore than say no as you can be penalised.

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Try booking. Com

Good point from PP, Airbnb has lots of settings for hosts and it defaults to a max of six months ahead unless it's changed to a longer or shorter period. Also hosts can/will set their minimum stay period which you will see when making your booking.