Drop off of views / bookings after new listing posted a month ago? Are we doing something wrong?

[David12163]

Hey Everyone, 

We have a listing that we went live with around a month ago in the Clearwater FL area. During the month, we received a number of bookings for the month, and have had high viewership numbers. However, we have not seen any new bookings for the rest of July besides the Fourth of July holiday. We have contacted AirBNB and they have told us that there is nothing wrong from their end. They can see that we are getting views, but those aren't translating into bookings. 

We aren't sure what we're doing wrong. We have high quality photos, adjusted prices down, but are not sure how views translate to bookings after the initial push by the algorithm. Does anyone have any recommendations? Would greatly appreciate it. 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1170204134991197301?check_in=2024-07-22&check_out=2024-07-26&guests=1&a...

[Tori3159]

Hi @David12163 ,

Just checked out your listing and while I think there are some great things about it, I wanted to point out what fell flat for me, since that's what you're looking for 🙂  It's really about the photos - they are all too dark and many of them make the ceiling look very low.  Turn lights on!  Up the exposure - hire a professional photographer.  The other thing I noticed is lack of enough art/color on walls.  Your kitchen is so cute and colorful, but the rest of house needs some more light and color? Some of your photos are too small for wall space (above dining table) and there really needs to be something big/interesting above that little leather couch.  (You can find some inexpensive colorful canvases on amazon) Your outdoor space and furniture are great, but photos look so dark and flat that it takes away from it.  So just hire a professional photographer or re-do photos with lots of lights on and more exposure and sunshine :). Best of luck to you!  You've done a great job with the furnishings 🙂

[Joan2709]

Hi @David12163 

Luv your place! Took a quick look and several things stood out to me:

Title

Your Title should list the best most unique features/amenities of your place. Right now your title is repeating what guests already know; no need to repeat it's 2BR/2BA Home in Clearwater. All that is info available already on the thumbnail photo. Try something like:

"10Mins to Beach! | Pets | Game Room"

Amenities

Looks like some of your amenities are missing in the amenities list? Suggest you go thru the amenities list again and be sure to select every amenity you have. Don't forget to add the details when you see the pencil icon to the right of the list. For instance, you have a fenced back yard that appears it is private, but I don't see that under your amenities? Having a fenced backyard is very important to guests traveling with pets. Looks like you have beach chairs for guests to use in a photo, but I don't see you have selected "beach essentials" in amenities. You show "washer" but didn't click the pencil icon to show it's free inside the unit like you did with the dryer:

Photos

You have a full kitchen, but your photos show the room as "Kitchenette." I would add "Kitchen" to your photos and delete the Kitchenette Room and move photos to the Kitchen Room. You have a nice, fully-equipped Kitchen, but you're telling guests in the photos that it's only a Kitchenette?

Photo Captions

Add captions to every photo so guests know what they are seeing in the photo. Try to describe what they can be doing in the photo, not just a label. For example, for the patio, say something like "Enjoy a BBQ and relax on our spacious covered patio."

Cover Photo

I do like your kitchen photo, but market research shows exterior twilight photos do really well on Airbnb as a cover photo. I would take a photo from the back yard looking toward the house. Turn on all the lights inside and looks like you have string lights around the patio so turn those on too. Wait until twilight and shoot looking back towards the house and include the patio area and BBQ. Try that as a cover photo.