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. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Lilian20

That's pretty cool and works!

[Daniel-Rusteen0 · Accepted solution]

I would be careful about editing photos too much as it could raise red flags within Airbnb and lower your search rank. You can also put phone numbers and emails in photos and an Airbnb employee does not go through all photos so a system has to do it.

To be honest, unless this is done professionally, it's likely to look trashy/spammy. 

There's many, many other things you can do when it comes to title/photos/etc. that are more powerful. Check out my blog at OptimizeMyAirbnb.com/Blog.

[Adrian-Francis0]

I hear you about putting text onto images.

I've had friends scammed on Airbnb like this.

Saying that, an Airbnb admin commented (like 4 hrs ago) on this post and it didn't raise any concerns.

Will have a read of your blog, thanks.

-Adrian Francis

[Lilian20]

Hello @Gerry-And-Rashid0 @Gina-And-Jose-0 @Marie82 @Joan107 check my latest post: 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosts/I-m-going-to-BOOST-your-airBnB-listing/m-p/372545

This will boost bookings too.

[David-and-Fiona0]

Cool. I have done something similar but my bet will be that Airbnb will start identifying and removing these kinds of images because they can be misused by unscrupulous hosts (diverting enquiry to email, promoting superhost when they are not etc etc) lots of platforms have bots that identify and remove these. Time will tell. 

[J-Renato0]

Thanks for sharing it !

[Annette33]

bonsoir @Lilian20 , aka je ne sais pas ton nom 😉 pourquoi pas?

great recommendations- again! thank you, always looking forward to your posts!

let's see: have you been up to tour de Madeloc?? I have!  and the French just said, " oh, des Americaines,  ils sont fou,"  when I asked for directions, well, I got there anyways 🙂

[Lilian20]

Hello @Annette33 - beautiful name but what do you do in life ? Mine is about traveling. 

Another tip to get more traffic to your listing is to change something to it. Therefore you may see my airbnb user name change from time to time. 

In the past it has already been : 

 - Just a traveller

 - Simply Travelling

 - Just Traveling

[Tim-and-Holly0]

Been doing this for years. We usually stay 90%+ booked.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15407139

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6108218

The formatting is not correct when the listing is opened (click on the picture to see what it really looks like). It is formatted to look great and fit the size of the pictures in the search results.

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Tucson--AZ--United-States/homes?adults=1&allow_override[]=&children=0&infan...

[Jeet0]

Thanks for sharing @Lilian20,

It works pretty well, I have been doing this since a year: https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/5740610

[Gina-And-Jose-0]

Lovely, If I were still flying with my Pan Am I would come to visit you, but what is 'level 10 '  ?  

[Daniel-Rusteen0]

I think it just means a Level 10 is either more active or has been around the community center longer than a lower level. But, no one really knows 🙂

[Joanna85]

It's alwas great to get a tip--especially when you want to stand out!

[MicheleandLouw0]

@Lilian20I did mine a while ago. Great tip!

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10756802