You are not in the "scheduled" rotation.

I say this because ever since HA was purchased and removed the metallic rankings I have tracked when I am getting inquiries and bookings. It seems to be about a three week cycle of 4-5 contacts all at once then crickets.  I try to kickstart it by going in to my listing and making editing changes to the description, adjusting a rate period, adding an amenity or a date block.  I do any thing I can think of that might "refresh" my listing to where the algorithm would deign to display it.

This Is just my opinion....

Try using a device you have never used to search HA/VRBO and see where/if your properties are being shown in a search. I have searched my properties at the at the local library on occasion.

Nothing here either, if it was not for my repeats I would be in a world of hurt! December and January are normally our busiest booking times. So far nothing from VRBO/home Away.

Its our peak booking season to and for the first time we are getting many more reservations from Airbnb than from Homeaway. 

u0999 did you happen to see my comments about how all 3 of your listings drop off when specific, very important search filters are clicked? 

I just search Gatlinburg using filters as ohst8er mentioned, when "mountain" is used as a filtered 2 of your properties do indeed drop off only your new one remains. Check your amenities to be sure that mountain has not been removed. If it is still showing on the dashboard try unchecking it, save then checking it again then save. The new one disappears when filtering "good for families" but I think the only way to fix that is to get guests leave a review mentioning it is good for families.

In year's past, have you had winter photos this time of year yet were getting summer bookings? Try using summer photos on one listing and see what happens.

There are a lot of choices in Gatlinburg.  I get 863 results in a $150-$250 per night range for a weekend in May.  Most people are looking on there phone these days.  looking through some, I doubt I'd look at more than a few dozen before picking one to rent...Ones with the first picture of the view got me to look first, I think when there is so many that first picture is often all you have to catch their attention...

I am in Sevierville.  (I will caveat this statement by saying that last year was our first full year, so I don't know what's considered normal for me.)  Last year, we did not get a single summer booking until March.  Then, it was one after the other and by April, we had 95% of the summer booked solidly.  This year has been completely different, so I don't know how it will go normally.  We had 60% of the summer booked by October last year.

So, I think you are fine.  Apparently March is a good month for lookers since we got our complete summer booked that month last year.  I think your calendars look great!  My husband doesn't really want to book the winter, so we have priced ourselves higher, and we don't have a single booking until March so your first half of the year looks very good.

For some reason activity off of VRBO/Home Away has really slowed down for us. Two years ago we were 80% VRBO, the balance repeat bookings. In 2018 we were 65% VRBO, about 6% Facebook, 2% Home Escape and the balance repeats. So far this year we are already 69% booked compared to prior years, we are only 36% VRBO, 4% Facebook, and 60% Repeats. Definitely something is going on.

I think the lack of bookings may be in the pricing.

I am willing to consider that the properties at lower prices "may" be getting shown more often

I would consider testing this by lowering your rates for a few days before the weekend when people are looking, and then raise back during booking times.

See if that gets your properties seen more and in front of more eyeballs without taking a huge financial ding.

You may end up with a couple of unwanted bookings at the lower rate, and that can be costly,  but the others who fall in love with your house may not notice that the price has changed because they were browsing with emotion, and not pricing.

I know this sounds weird, but I think low price is a driving factor of being seen although I am not sure this is a metric or widely discussed.

I had my busiest booking day ever in 9 years yesterday! I could barely keep up with the requests, inquiries and instant bookings coming in one after the other......and I had lowered my rates for a few days last week, but then had second thoughts and upped them again....but wah lah ....the traffic it produced was amazing. And nobody asked me about the rate increase.

I also reduced my minimum # of nights.  I needed to fill dates in.

coincidence?  yes of course maybe.

hmmmmmmmm

I think at least part is because there is something wrong with the government (no, I am not trying to start a political debate).  With the trade wars with China, the government shutdown, and the general mess the government is in right now, it's spilled over and consumer confidence is down.  The growth of the economy is slowing, and I believe people are more hesitant to plan as far ahead as they used to plan.  

I agree with the responses below.  I'm active for awhile then silence.  I book in Myrtle Beach and it seems to be going as normal for me.  I have been on VRBO since January 2016. 

Hey u0999

One thing that hasn't been discussed (or perhaps I missed it); how is your market rank doing? Do you track it? Do you know what it was last year vs. what it is this year? I'm not asking you to publicize it, but certainly it is something that I would consider in attempting to answer your question.

In my experience/opinion, REVIEWS on the site by travelers is the number one factor affecting market rank, and market rank is the number one factor affecting exposure, which affects views, which affect inquiries, which affects bookings. (I know you know that...)

But how does your market rank compare this year to last year? And how many reviews have you had posted on HA sites in the last two months of 2018 vs. 2017?

Just a thought/question for your consideration.

If you read things like VRMIntel, they report that Property Managers are reporting that inquiries from HA sites are dramatically down across the board.

I have had no inquiries for 3 months, then 3 in one day!  No idea what's up with that.  I've given up trying to figure this out.  Will probably just switch out of vacation rentals and do 2-3 month stays, visiting nurses, professors, interns etc.

In the good old days, before Expedia, I used to start getting a flood of inquiries for Spring/summer (Washington DC - very popular Spring Break destination) in September, then another flood in January.  By late Jan. I used to be pretty much booked solid from March 1-July 31.  Now - basically zip.  The market is flooded - with so many bad listings - that I understand potential guests are just getting frustrated and fed up, but **** it still hurts!

Remembering someone bringing up website traffic....  I looked on alexa.com.   VRBO traffic looks like a normal seasonal fluctuation.  Homeaway is a whole other story..Homeaway was ranked about 5000th last year, but this year down to 7,500 for traffic..A significant drop...where VRBO is ranked 2,777 and was about 3,000 last year this time, a much more similar ranking....   People just aren't using homeaway like they did last year....

In Myrtle Beach I am doing about the same as the last two years.  I clear caches and cookies every time I go into VRBO.  I do believe they show certain properties for awhile, then display other properties.  Our rentals can't possibly be on the 1st page every time, but that would be nice.  Haha  If you search for Myrtle Beach there are hundreds of properties.  If you use their filters it narrows it some but there are a lot of owners who advertise their unit as oceanfront when it is not.  And they falsely advertise other filters too.  If you break down more from Myrtle Beach to an area or resort or building it is much easier for the traveler to search and our properties show up much better in a smaller area.  But, some travelers don't know to do that, they just search a large area like MB.  I do believe ranking is a big factor and that's why they have that now.  If you watch their videos and things like bad photos will hurt your listing, I don't believe that.  I see many on the 1st page with horrible photos, descriptions and their info in not informative.  I believe it all goes back to algorithm.

recently  I was loookng for a place to go later this year      I noticed   that evolve had many listing in that area here on vrbo       each of those    under owner fees   listed not only cleaning  but another fee      if the property was owner run that fee   didn't show           now I had to search to find this   

  I wonder  if  vrbo fees  and now  half the listing out there have even more fees      if we aren't chasing the users away !!!!!!!!