Airbnb/booking. com rental owners, are your bookings down?

[Oneafterthelaissezfaire]

Bookings have dropped off a cliff compared to recent years. I know it's Jan/Feb but we've always had a steady flow but this year it's just dead.

I have an annex next to my house so not ruining any towns before anyone jumps on me. Curious if it's the same anywhere else? I'm in the SE.

I’m having the opposite problem. We travel a lot for one of dc’s hobbies and a few of our usual rental apartment/ houses have been removed from Airbnb / booking.com etc. and are no longer available for rental.

we prefer to have more space than just a hotel room and to be able to cook for ourselves but are now booking more hotels.

we have found Airbnb fees getting a bit silly, and hosts really tetchy - one blocked me after my review included information that the bunk beds weren’t full sized (not mentioned in the property information) and that the curtains were thin and unlined so the south facing bedroom got light very early in the summer.

Airbnb always charge the same as booking.com (about 20%), but some hosts can elect to pay 12% and the guest pay 8% (which Airbnb then break out as a separate fee).

Hosts can also elect to have no cleaning fee, but most can't. A hotel is always going to have better economies on shorter stays because they have in-house cleaning.

That's why you get lots of broken-down fees when you book on Airbnb, and why short stays are more expensive than with a hotel. Just look at the final figure and see if you think it's worth it.

Once you've confirmed a booking with Airbnb, you don't have to pay any more fees, or do "chores". If you're unlucky and book with a mad host who tries it on, their customer services will have your corner.

booking.com have the same arrangements with hosts as Airbnb, and the same 20% commission (the host pays it). There's no particular advantage to booking through them. I'd say Airbnb are better at rebooking you when something goes wrong on the day, but it's still a lottery.

If you can find a direct booking site, go for it and you should save! But Airbnb won't help if you send your money to a scammer, or the host rips you off somehow. I saved €1500 on a villa last year paying cash on arrival to a Spanish host - but that's not going to be for everyone.

100% of my direct bookings are from repeat guests, so if you had a nice time at an Airbnb, send the host a text and ask if they'll give you a discount for next time.

Yes, very much so. I have 2 properties for couples in a honeypot location and my winter bookings are down. Next week both are empty which is very unusual.

There is complete saturation of the market. In my village a new property ( bought in lockdown and renovated at huge expense in most cases) appears every couple of weeks. Couple that with the cost of living crisis and its a perfect storm.

Even the properties that used to let 48 weeks a year ( amazing sea views) are struggling. Last August our local cottage company was knocking out 3 bedroom cottages for £525 a week. The owners can' barely have broken even if they have a mortgage and pay cleaners.

Basically there is far too much competition and not enough customers.

I charge a £30 cleaning fee simply to enable me to offer 2 night stays. It makes doing the cleaning and laundry worthwhile for a short stay.

I do agree though that adding £170 cleaning fee at the end is nuts. It is the actual cost of cleaning they are adding which should be factored in.

For hosts, PriceLabs will set your prices for you based on whatever other Airbnb properties you designate as your "market" - area, bedrooms etc. They then tell you how your occupancy compares to the market's for the next 7, 30 and 60 days. So yeah (in 3 areas in York) <30% occupancy seems be the norm over the next 30 days.

It's going to be a last-minute sorta month!

I’ve used air bnb in the past but find hotels nicer and actually cheaper. The good airbnbs seem to be so expensive and you never really know what you are going to get. Some have been really lovely - others not so much.

I think it's become a bit of a victim of it's own success. I'm not really a hotel fan and like the independence/privacy of my own place and would normally go to AirBnB as my first option. I'm now finding I have to search through so much dross to find a good place - listings with only a couple of dodgy photos, very old dodgy accommodation etc - plus the search function itself it really clunky/doesn't really let me search by the options I want.

The last place I actually booked in Devon was managed through a holiday letting agency but they advertise on AirBnB (I did check directly and it was still the same price). I ended up going with them as I knew what I'd get, but it felt odd as that's not really the spirit of AirBnB.

You really have to search now to find a individual owner managed hidden gem (as yours sounds) but I think some people just give up and would rather go to a hotel instead for usually less money (also don't get me started on all the 'cleaning fees etc!) and a know/better standard.

Sorry that's not very helpful for your situation, but I think maybe the glory days of AirBnB are over and as suggested by another poster you might need to look at advertising somewhere else/extra.

I've been looking to book but the prices are now only marginally different to hotel so I'd rather pay the £20 or £50 more and stay in a hotel where there are more guarantees,

We are going away and booking holidays as usual just never booking Air bnb again because of dodgy secret cam stories, racist profiling stories, owners being awkward and inflexible with keys and check ins/outs, too many weird rules and the whole cleaning after fills me with anxiety even though we are a tidy family. I know secret cams can be anywhere but the natute of airbnb accommodation means it's easier to hide. I just can't trust or relax in an accommodation like this.

I feel airbnb was more for premier exclusively unique homes not for a shed in your back garden filled with argos and ikea furniture and sharing a bathroom with rules around curfew or a totally boring suburbian council flat. Because at their prices I could get to a more professional and cheaper travel lodge or premier inn where i'm not 'vetted' and watched like they are doing me a favour hiring me a room.

We have a small annexe which we've had on Airbnb for 7 years. We just open up select weekends but took a bit of a break since last October. Now I have reopened it the bookings do seem really slow. It is always a quiet time of year but I think having had to put prices up has had an impact too. Unfortunately I had no option as heating, professional laundry and welcome pack contents have all gone up in price quite a bit.

Cleaning fees really wind me up as it just looks grabby. I'm a host, I don't charge a cleaning fee and just factor everything into the price per night.

I’ve used them a lot and still will, but I’m finding that a luxury hotel is often cheaper, some won’t take two night breaks (a pain if you are working), the cleaning costs often appear at the end of booking and prices have really risen hugely for places that look very sub-par.

I’ve had my first bad Airbnb experiences this year. A really damp flat that triggered an asthma attack and actual white mould under a bed. The host was lovely but I can’t believe it was a new development. And also cleaning behind drawers etc is being neglected in a lot of places.

I won’t book unless it’s got 4.8 or above.

Used to use Airbnb for short bookings but the fees are insane and not worth it for less than a week imho. Staying in basic hotels now instead.

I’ve stopped using Airbnbs due to massive cleaning fees (and a lot of them still have a whiff of dog from the previous guests) and a list of rules/instructions. I appreciate that’s not you, OP, but it’s hotels for me from now on.

Increasingly find places have lists of rules - don't park there; this or that mustn't be done. I have no intention of being a bad occupant but I want to be able to relax, not worry about 101 restrictions.

I used to take the kids on a few weekends away using Airbnb over the course of the year, but now it seems more sensible to save the money for one bigger, better holiday. So thats what I'm doing.

A lot of UK towns and cities aren't what they used to be, unfortunately. Plus, it really adds up when even tea and sandwiches at a cafe has become £70+ for a large family, and a lot of attractions are shoddy and unmaintained, a lot of high streets are bookies and charity shops.
Of course the businesses need to charge more due to the state of everything/costs rising, but it takes it out of reach for a lot of people.

And the cost of train tickets makes it unpleasant.

The last one we used, was an awful experience too. The people running it had no idea what they were doing, were constantly hassling me to receive parcels at the address, the lock was broken so we couldn't get in, it wasn't cleaned properly so we lost 3 hours waiting for their cleaner to sort it. They were clearly cost cutting and it made me resentful to have to do so much more cleaning upon leaving (it wasn't even clean enough to stay with, even after waiting for their cleaner had wasted half our evening!!) compared to a hotel, which is much simpler. .

Also, anecdotally, among younger people who are now unable to buy a home, they are very resentful of Airbnb. Maybe five or ten years ago they were the target market, enjoyed it .. but now reality has hit, they are trying to get mortgages and everywhere has been hollowed out and everyone priced out.

I have moved back to hotels as same price as AirBnBs with less hassle and more of a luxury feeling.
Only time I would use AirBnB now is if I were eg moving to a new city and needed a stop gap for a month

Also hotels give you fresh sheets every day and create jobs. I have started to become resentful of paying off mortgages for people who don't work and maybe it's petty but that has fueled my return to hotels personally

We used to have several short UK holidays every year but it has become so expensive.

One airb&b place had rules which were so complicated that although the actual place was fantastic, in a perfect location, we won't be going back.

The other issue is that so many places say they are dog friendly which means we automatically disregard them. I'm not paying good money to stay in a place where a dog has been snuffling round the bedroom or lying on the sofa.

When we do return to a place we always book directly with the owners, it is usually cheaper that way.

On the whole we have switched to aparthotels in towns and pubs/hotels for en route stops.

I hate looking at the Airbnb map of available properties to discover that I need to add on another £65 for cleaning and £30+ Airbnb fees for just an overnight stay.

There seem to be a lot more people popping back garden (or pub carpark) studios/mobile homes on there for 3 star hotel prices.

Hopefully your bookings will perk up once the weather improves, OP.

Ah yeah, I have a dog and even I find dog friendly places slightly disgusting. No way are people not letting them sleep on the bed, regardless of rules. Plus I'm very nervous of importing fleas back home with me 😵 (I wouldn't take my dog with me unless it was an emergency).

Anywhere that's being mainly cleaned by guests probably isn't clean enough. In some places I am certain, that because the guests do the bulk, the real cleaner is in and out in half an hour.
We've seen some shockers; people who have clearly just dunked the cutlery and put it back into he drawer, personal waste under beds, big greasy handprints, bannisters seem to be an area that's always missed, ugh. And not cheap places either! I hate being ripped off. All this is just stuff though, ultimately it always boils down to money and what people can afford/are willing to pay, just like selling houses.

Of course NAAB&BALT (Not All AirB&Bs Are Like That 😅) but that's the problem, you don't know til you're in, and I have to be a lot more cautious with cash now. A funny anecdote of a shitty place from the Before Times is now our one chance of a break potentially ruined. It focuses the mind.

At a hotel, someone just comes and sorts it. With an Airbnb you may be waiting for two elderly owners, who are a four hour drive away, to somehow sort their shit (like I was in the last place I paid good money for)😅 even though they are probably on ten times the income I am. It did grate immensely.

I do work though, so it's giving me a job running the BNB amongst other things. I try so hard to make everything lovely for my guests, I find it very satisfying looking after people. I'm sad that so many are being ripped off.

I don't accept dogs for that very reason! Probably excludes me from a lot of searches but I don't want my customers exposed to dog hair etc