07 Sep Top 9 Tips To Help Your Airbnb Listing | Airbnb Host Tips

Have you wondered why you have a low Booking Rate? In this post, I will share with you my top 9 tips to improve and optimize your Airbnb listing.

If you are not already familiar with this, then I suggest you check it out on Airbnb now!

Here is how:

1. Log into your Airbnb account
2. Hover over “Host” and click on the “Dashboard”
3. On the top bar, click on “Stats”
4. Click on “Views”
5. Select the proper listing if you have multiple units on Airbnb

What does it tell you?

Airbnb indicates two important factors in determining your booking rate: Views and Booking Rate. Booking Rate means the percentage of guests who book after viewing your listing.

The most I have ever gotten my listing was 4.9%. While this is only a figure to keep in mind, it is still important for you to consider how to best optimize your listing so that you can predict and extrapolate.

This is what I mean. If you have not gotten bookings in a while and you know what your booking rate is, then you can predict the next booking.

For example, say your booking rate is 2%, so for every 100 views you get, there will be 2 new bookings. Simple math. It is important to note that your booking rate will fluctuate from month to month and it is totally okay.

Now, you are armed with some basic statistics about your listing, we will now move on to my top 9 reasons for why your Airbnb listing sucks!

Host Profile – #9 

The first impression counts. Your host profile and profile picture is the best way for you to convey to your potential guests. Are you smiling? Is the profile picture showing your full face? The truth is, in order to have the best host profile, you’ll need not only a great profile picture but also a unique biography about yourself. I wrote in more details about it here.

Listing Title – #8

Does your title grab attention? Does the guest want to click on your listing from the search? I’d say that crafting an attention-grabbing title is one of the hardest and most ignored things about a high-converting Airbnb unit.

I know. It is definitely tricky to fit a clever listing title into 50 characters or less!

If you follow these steps below, you will be just fine!

Here are my tips for creating a winning title.

Be descriptive, but do not over-describe.

Again, your job is to create an attention-grabbing title. Now, imagine if you were a guest looking for a place to stay on Airbnb.

What would you click on?

“1 bedroom apartment in Mountain View” OR “Modern 1 bedroom apartment steps from Downtown Mountain View”

Do you see the difference?

Use Abbreviations – #7

Do not waste your limited character space for something that you can abbreviate for! For example, 1 bedroom apartment can be abbreviated to “1bd apt”.

Her is a list of popular abbreviations:

• with –> w/
• bedroom –> BR
• bathroom –> BA
• air conditioning –> AC
• central air –> C-Air (CA isn’t descriptive enough and could lead to confusion)
• walking distance to –> 5 min to
• downtown –> DT
• convention –> CON

Find Your Key Descriptors – #6

What do guests care about? And what stands out about your home?

Find one that best describes your space AND is most likely to register with your target audience. For example, I know guests care about having a clean home, so clean is my key descriptor in order to differentiate my listing from my competitors.

You can use: cozy, clean, hip, modern, luxury, spacious, charming, best, and etc etc. Be creative, but be honest!

Pro tip: Airbnb ranking algorithm seems to rank in descending alphabetical order. So, “best” would rank higher than “clean.”

Summary – #5

Do not leave your guests hanging after they clicked on your listing. The summary is a great place to make your listing shine because you are given more space to write what is unique about your listing.

Point out 2-3 major selling points about your place. Do you have a private pool? Is there a hot tub? What about its ambiance?

Guests gravitate to listings with a personality so don’t be afraid to give them that.

Use Proper Grammar and Spilling – #4

Your Airbnb listing photo grabs the prospective guest’s attention.  They click.

They read the listing summary…the guest is intrigued.

They hop down to your Airbnb listing description and it is riddled with spelling mistakes and bad grammar.

I do not know about you, but I would definitely pass on it!

Why is this important? 

Guests care about details. If guests see that you do not care about spelling and grammar, then they may be wondering what other mistakes that you could potentially make.

Using correct spelling and ‘proper’ grammar helps build credibility and trust between you and your guests. Go and ask a friend or family member to proofread it.

Detailed Description – #3

I had previously mentioned in my other post about the optional descriptions including the space, guest access, Interaction with Guests, the Neighborhood, and House Rules. While these are optional, but it is critical that you write them.

Give your guests the knowledge of a local and point out everything that they would want to know prior to booking your unit.

I love to give my guests as many details as possible!

Why? 

Because it will eliminate any questions that they might have. This also saves you some work on texting back and forth, isn’t that great? You want to organize your content so that guests can read it easily. The easier the read, the more value guests can extract from it.

This brings me to the next point…

Organization – #2

You spent all of this time going through the extra steps of listing all of the detailed descriptions, but is it organized in a way that is easy to consume?

You want guests to read it right?

If they are still asking you questions when you have clearly written about in your descriptions, then perhaps it is because you have made it difficult for them to read.

Here are my tips on organization:

1. use bullets and lists
2. use headers

Bullets and Lists

This is a great trick when listing a bunch of amenities.  There are tons of ways to make a bulleted list with simple characters.

+ Try it with a plus sign

– Do it with a hyphen

> Use it with a right carrot

* Or with it with a star

→ Even with an arrow

If you have many rooms, different size beds, combinations of beds in rooms, or particular amenities in rooms then let guests know.  Your guests want to know!

Here is a good example:

Room 1: Queen bed, attached full bathroom, 42” TV,

Room 2: Twin bunk beds, 1 queen bed

Headers

Give guests a heads up about what they will be reading before they read it.  They will see when topics are changing and retain more information. Headers provide an easier experience to find what they’re looking for.

For example:

-Kitchen

Stainless steel and gas stove

-Patio

Hot tub and a gas BBQ

-Bedroom

Queen memory foam bed with organic beddings

-Bathroom

Huge shower heads and side jets

You get the idea…

Photos – #1

I cannot stress this enough. A professionally done picture is worth a thousand words. If you are not a good photographer, then it is time for you to think about hiring someone who is.

If you want to stand out from your competition, then this is not somewhere you would want to cheap out. Don’t be that person… because you will end up eating the costs.

Here are some of my favorite examples:

Final words

Implement some of these tips and insights and see if your booking rate goes up!

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