My Number One Tip that will Help you get More Bookings

[Lilian20]

In low or mid season, when accommodation offers exceed demand, you need your listing to stand out.

You already know that the title of your listing will make a difference as well as the number of comments.. but that's not what my number one tip is about. It's about the cover picture and what you can do with it to get more attention from guests and more bookings. 

 1) Get Gimp (cool software like Photoshop which is free and safe to download from http://www.gimp.org/ ) 

 2) Open the picture that you use as a cover pic.

 3) Add a bit of color and a very simple message such as  " WIFI " or " SEAVIEW " 

 4) Export as .JPG file. 

 5) Load in airbnb. 

Try it, you will have fun making your cover picture better as I have done here : 

https://www.airbnb.fr/rooms/14316022

or here : 

https://www.airbnb.fr/rooms/7195521

You can also put two pictures in one as I have done here : 

https://www.airbnb.fr/rooms/12043937

You may not be impressed so far but the ads with a special message and a bit of color on the cover picture really stand out in the search results.

See how the above listings look in this search results page : 

https://www.airbnb.fr/s?host_id=29330043 

Your turn !  

Show me your style, post a link to your listing in this conversation to show how you have handled your cover pic. I am looking forward to see how you do it. 

[Jessica281]

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16410430?adults=1&children=0&infants=0&s=AJPKpCuz

Love the idea, just did mine one. Great tips, thanks!

[Rhona0]

ewww.....dem sheets are crisp, dat kitchen is spic and span, dat toilet est propre propre propre.

ewww....merci beaucoup pour le tip, je voudrias le faire, moi aussi.

Merci!

[Gina-And-Jose-0]

This is excellent advice, for me , I don't even know how to find the link to my own listing, I am looking for that right now .  I am not very compuer savvy .  If you can tell me how to even find a link ?  I would be happy and grateful.  Gina  [personal information hidden]

[Lawrene0]

@Gina-And-Jose-0, since you say you are not computer savvy, I'll just jump in with two things. First of all, don't put your email address into an online forum. The administrators will likely delete it for you, so no worries this time, but keep it private in future.

The next thing is better. 🙂

The link to your listing is https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1669012.

You find that by previewing your listing (Host -> Dashboard -> Your Listing -> Preview) and then copying the URL (the address) that is in the bar at the top. Sometimes there are symbols after the number. Just delete those. What I have put here is all you need. 

Hope that helps. It's a good idea to take a look around the site and get used to it so you can take advantage of all the features.

[Gina-And-Jose-0]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, and again thank you,  Gina 

[Cormac0]

@Lilian20

Firstly, thank you for the practical help, I going to try out you suggestion in the coming days, here’s something I put together using Microsoft sway but I can’t post it on my hosting.

https://sway.com/h5yVqRlLDEET7f6l

Regard

Cormac

The Explorer’s Club Krakow

[Marie82]

Nice job

[Dee42]

Thanks for sharing, great idea. 

[Lizzie]

Great to see you sharing a tip here, thanks so much @Lilian20 🙂

[Daniel-Rusteen0]

@Lizzie Can you confirm text in images, or manipulation of images without putting contact info in them will not raise any red flags in the system?

[Gina-And-Jose-0]

I am not very savvy about this issue , why would you want text in an image ? 

[Daniel-Rusteen0]

I talked to an Airbnb ee at AO in LA and he hinted that text of any kind in images was not a good idea.

[Gina-And-Jose-0]

What is text in an image and to what benefit ? purpose ? is it ?  Also, not a good idea in who's idea and why and does anybody care ?  

[Lawrene0]

Hello again, @Gina-And-Jose-0. Text in an image just means words in a picture. You can go here to see my cover photo as an example: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/781817.

Some of the good reasons to put text in an image were outlined by @Lilian20 at the beginning of this post. In my case, I did it because the system took away our listing titles for awhile. When prospective guests searched an area, all they saw was the photo and number of rooms. I think that has changed - such things change all the time. But putting my listing title on my cover photo allowed anyone who searched to see what I called the place, and that was important to me since "treehouse" is in the title and some people are searching for that specifically.

However, like @Daniel-Rusteen0, I was worried that putting text in my photo would flag it as spam to the Airbnb system, and I agree with him, too, that a person needs to be very careful to make it professional. I would add that I also worried about making it too slick. I needed to add a little rustic to my professional by keeping it simple.

Why would it be spam? (I think you are asking that.) There are some scammers out there who set up a listing, then put text in their photo telling people not to book using the system, but to phone or email them first. They then proceed to take those people's money, as scammers do. 

Does this cover what you wanted to know? 

[Gina-And-Jose-0]

Yes, thx so much for the explanation, I had no idea about scammers.   I would never consider making a direct confirmation with anybody.  Never.  I have had requests to book one week via Airbnb then to book directly with me after that week by week and I flatly turned that down.  I see no value nor virtue in doing that especially since I am personally knowlegable and familiar with the u.s.a. squatter's laws and has personal experience with this situation.