Find out if your Airbnb bookings are down due to market conditions, and learn how you can deepen your understanding of your market to price and scale more competitively.

Peak travel season may be approaching for many regions, but as an Airbnb host or vacation rental manager, it may not feel like it just yet. Slow Airbnb seasons can happen for a wide variety of reasons, many of which can be unrelated to how great your property is.

Though you might feel anxious at the sight of a slightly empty calendar, there’s a lot you can do to understand why your bookings have slowed and turn that trend right back around. Here’s how to get started. 

If your Airbnb isn’t fully booked to your expectations, there are a few things you should look for. Start by comparing seasonality; year-over-year (YOY) data can reveal if slow bookings are typical for this point in the season, or if this year really is an exception.

Be sure to check out our latest Airbnb industry report to deepen your understanding of short-term rental (STR) trends and why 2021, versus 2022, was a unique year for travel. Your slower-than-normal bookings may be the symptom of a larger development in the industry.

Next, investigate your Airbnb pricing strategy. You might be excited about your prices, but are they truly optimized? If not, you’ll detract guests, lose potential revenue, and be unable to effectively compete with other listings in your market. (Your top competitors are likely using a dynamic pricing tool, so don’t get left behind with an antiquated, data-blind business plan.)

Finally, take a careful look at more nuanced property-level insights. These include metrics such as:

Lead time: Do you tend to pick up last-minute reservations or get booked months in advance?

Future occupancy: How many nights is your property booked over the next six months?

Booked rate: Are your listings getting booked at higher or lower rates than those of your neighbors?

With AirDNA’s MarketMinder platform, you can compile key metrics into a custom comparison (or just “comp”) set. This eliminates guesswork and arms you with a clear understanding on where you stand compared to other hosts with similar listings in your market. Are they pricing more competitively? Offering amenities that edge yours out? These are all factors that can diminish your bookings. (Plus, you can see your competitors’ occupancy rates and booking lead times, too, to determine if they’re also slower than normal.)

How frequently should I adjust my Airbnb prices?

How frequently you adjust your Airbnb prices has everything to do with your market—and that’s just the first variable. Optimal pricing often varies depending on general demand for your market, seasonality trends, and your competitors. Arbitrarily adjusting your pricing can not only be challenging, but it might also be the reason why you’re not securing new bookings.

Dynamic pricing is key to a fully optimized Airbnb calendar. If you aren’t sure when or how to adjust your rates, simply upload your listings to MarketMinder’s My Properties tab which unlocks the Smart Rates pricing tool. No more estimating and gut-checking; Smart Rates will optimize your prices based on real-time market data. It’s also easy to do. Uploading your properties only takes 60 seconds, and customers report up to 24% more annual revenue when using Smart Rates.

How does my Airbnb stack up to others with the same amenities?

Airbnb features seven million properties around the world. Even if your competitors make up just a small fraction of that total, the time it takes to manually research all of them can really add up. Are you missing some listings? Are there other amenities that would drive more Airbnb bookings?

Custom comps, which we discussed earlier, allow you to compare listings based on the amenities that matter most. Determine if you’re behind in bookings, missing key offerings, and pricing with intent—all based on accurate, actionable analytics. (Understanding your competitors’ properties is just as important as understanding your own.)

If you know your competitor’s Airbnb address, you can start by entering it into Rentalizer, our free Airbnb calculator, and discover how much they earn each year.

My bookings are down. Is it just me, or is it my competitors, too?

Before you panic that something is wrong with your listing, you’ll want to research upcoming events, how your neighbors are performing, and what the next six months in your area look like. 

Future pacing data allows you to compare bookings across an entire market or comp set. You can research YOY changes in rates, how many homes in your market are booked versus available, and how many days in advance travelers are booking their stay. 

Pro tip: Scroll to major travel holidays such as Thanksgiving, Labor Day, busy summer weekends, etc., and see how frequently the majority of bookings were made. 

The market above, Miami, shows that over 50% of bookings on a July weekend was reserved 60-plus days ago. With bookings still being made in the last week, you should make sure your rates are aligned with the going rate. Let’s dive in. 

Here, we’re seeing rates booked at $252, with the available listings over 30% higher. If you aren’t sure how your rates compare to those properties most similar to you, you’ll want to compare them with our custom comps Airbnb competitor tool. (You can even get started for free!)

Be sure to brush up on vacation rental host best practices.

If you’re worried that slow bookings might be unique to you, you can also refresh your approach to hosting. Better understanding tools like Smart Rates can make all the difference in getting bookings, but so can following tips for vacation rentals such as taking great photos, earning stellar guest reviews, and even becoming pet-friendly.

When your Airbnb bookings are down, your first instinct may be to panic. Don’t! Knowledge really is power when it comes to improving bookings. Take the time to better understand how your property and pricing strategy fit into your comp set and your market—and then make any changes you need to get back on track.

Should I drop my rates to get more bookings or increase them to capitalize on nightly revenue?

Choosing your pricing strategy is a long game and should be based on competitor pricing, occupancy rates, and what the travel patterns look like six to 12 months out. Smart Rates allows you to compare rate strategies and see the rates of your competitors each day.

Are my open days slow for everyone, or is it just me?

Pacing charts can quickly tell you whether the rest of the market, and/or your direct competitors, are booked on the same days in question. If it’s a trend for everyone, you’ll be one step ahead on how to change your rates to attract more guests.

What are my competitors making in a year?

Enter their address into Rentalizer, our free Airbnb calculator, and see for yourself.

Are other hosts dropping their rates for available dates? 

Are you keeping detailed records of your competitors and their nightly rates? If not, the Future Demand Analysis in MarketMinder will show you insights on specific rates as well as YOY changes for your competitors. If they’re dropping their rates, you’ll be the first to know.

See How My Bookings Compare To My Neighbors

My Airbnb Bookings Are Down—What Now?

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