Hello @Mara1984 ,
Congratulations on your five star listings, it looks like you do a lot of things right, as your reviews are great. What I love the most about your photos is that you uploaded a floor plan of the apartment showing the beds, because as an international traveler seeing a king size bed in the kitchen area is not something I am used to, unless it is a studio. Here are a couple of suggestions from me:
1. Work on making the sleeping arrangements more appealing. I particularly suggest using brighter color bed sheets and setting beds up properly so that it appeals to larger audiences. The picture of the king bed in particular looks quite clumsy but it is a beautiful space that you can showcase better. I would suggest googling "king bed skirt" and buying one as it will add a nice touch to your bedding, making it look tall. I have used them before in my apartments in LA but now I host in boats in Florida and can't quite use bed skirts. Next you can google "king bed, staged" and check how it is set up to be more appealing to guests. Sometimes I tell people I swear by "throw pillows". I have decorative pillows, Lots of them throughout the boats and they add such a great touch of color and texture to any space, but I also absolutely Love Quilts. I found a type of cotton quilt here in US that is 100% cotton, it is like a bed spread, after you put your brighter color sheets on (usually we use fitted and flat sheets but I know in Europe it is more live duvets), you can put the bedspread all of the bed and it adds a really clean amplified look. I usually buy all my bedspreads with two matching pillow cases. I provide two regular pillows that come with sheet sets and the decorative pillows in front of them, then ideally have one or more small accent pillows. It makes everything look plush and cosy and will appeal to a lot of audiences. If you are getting both a bedskirt and bedspread I would say make sure they somewhat match in color, because you want it to blend in and look like one tall glamorous king bed, then if that is your best feature, you can use it for a cover.
2. Secondly, I would suggest taking pictures in brighter light or getting a photographer friend to do it for you. There are a lot of great cameras that can capture brighter shots and wide angles showing more space in each picture. I know I am not an expert in any area, but I would love to see the quality and brightness of your listing improved to appeal to all audiences. Get someone to photoshop some of your pictures, if you have a TV with Netflix or special features, either turn it on and have pictures taken, or get someone photoshop Netflix on TV. I don't care much about these channels and I just put up a fireplace picture on screen from YouTube before taking pictures, but every little thing can make a difference.
3. I would say improve on the decor a little more. I love you are serving welcome drinks etc. but maybe instead of so many coasters travelers want to see drinking glasses in the picture. Just little things you can shuffle to make it more functional. Or there are decorative vases etc, you can either shuffle them or maybe buy a fresh bouquet of flowers for the pictures while you are staging it to make it more attractive. My selling point is colors. I get drawn to beautiful bright colors. There are a lot of items that may add accents to your space other than pillows. I would suggest using them, or going to a furniture stores where where everything is staged to get ideas. If I was to use vases, they have to have beautiful accent colors.
4. There is a tall ladder for one of the beds with a curtain, as an international traveler I would not be clear what the function or the purpose of it is, maybe worth clarifying in your listing. Usually those ladders take you to a loft bed here in America, but it looks like there isn't a loft in your listing.
Other than these minor suggestions, you are doing a great job. I know it is a lot of work in the beginning, but always look at the brighter side and concentrate on the difference you are making in your community. Moving from all year round high demand hosting in LA to low season and hurricane and storm warning area in Florida, I was almost depressed for a couple of years with absolutely no tourists and no booking for my listings about half of the year (April to October here is the bad season and we had bad hurricanes the past couple of years) but I am now in my third year here and planning to do things differently whereby I can have a different strategy and different attitude for the low season (for me it is likely to live in Europe for at least 3 months in summer while I find a local cohost here as all my family and friends are in London), so I have to plan differently knowing that this is a different hosting climate here and completely different booking rate compared to LA. If I keep doing the same thing over and over, I will end up not hosting eventually. Having said this, you can always ask guests staying with you in a private message "I do everything to improve the hosting experience for future travelers and I would greatly appreciate your private feedback. If there is anything I can do to make any space better or more functional, I would really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you so much and welcome back any time". I have done so many changes thanks to all the little tips guests suggested. To give an example, I live on a boat on my own and host on another boat, I do not let guests to put toilet paper inside toilets because boats need to be pumped out and paper gets stuck. Because I live on my own, I did not care that my rubbish bin was open, like a bucket, one of the guests staying in a group told me she thought having a swing top trash can would be better suited for a bathroom, because when you put stuff in there, other people in your group do not see it!". As soon as I read this, a penny dropped! I had a next day swing top trash can delivery. That was such a minor thing, but I really appreciated that private feedback, because it looks so much cleaner and more hygienic just to have a swing top can in the bathroom in general. Because I live on my own I didn't care much about this little thing, it didn't bother me. Anyways, I could go on and on, but this my two cents, I do not understand German so did not translate your text but this is just a minor comment on the visuals. I wish you all the best in your hosting journey and maybe I will stay in your listing when I travel to Germany!
Sending love from the sunshine State, and if you want to warm up during the winters, come visit me, I will take you cruising, kayaking and fishing and maybe play piano for you. I love European travelers. My newborn baby captain is checking out today and flying to Norway, I am glad international travel is picking up in US. Take care.
Rose.
