New listing

[Annette945]

My new listing has been up for 2 weeks. So far only 2 bookings. Looking for feedback. Previous listing for my house was under the property manager’s account, with 27 reviews with average 5.0 rating. I am starting from scratch with no ratings yet, no super host status. Looking for help to get the new listing optimized. Thanks!

www.airbnb.com/h/quaysidequidividi

[Bettye6]

Hi @Annette945 ,

You listing looks fabulous.

I love that you show your home as the first look, that means a lot to my guests and from feedback I still keep true to that belief.

Your home looks beautiful, with how bright, clean uncluttered and the personal touches of local artists. Personally I would not change a thing. 

I'm an an American and your rates are a extremely cheap as compared to mine which is outside of Chicago and 1 town over are at least triple my rates. With that in mind I would not suggest a decrease. Having done research mainly through AirBnB tutorials and just googling a huge house that sleeps more that 6 is not on the forefront, especially in my area.

With all this being said, have your tried social media, like Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, my husband has even pointed out AirBnB listings on TicToc. I have only used FB but have read that this is a inexpensive way to put your place out there.

Curious as to why you dropped the Management company as they were doing so well? I do not use one as I just started and it is an extra cost I can't afford right now.

My apologies that my suggestions are not many though possibly Social Media can help. 

From your home's perspective I would not change a thing!

Good luck,

Bettye6

[Annette945]

Thanks so much @Bettye6 ! I have a Facebook page for the house with over 800 followers and instagram with over 600 followers. Am trying to grow those numbers through Meta ads. Hope that helps. You are not the first person to tell me that my prices are low. I do intend to increase them over time. But right now I am trying to secure bookings and good reviews, and am hoping the lower prices will help with that. I am parting ways with the property manager for a number of reasons. My operating costs are high, so I have to be careful about the bottom line. There are lots of things I can do myself and enjoy doing, so it doesn’t make sense to pay someone for those types of tasks. Really appreciate your feedback on my listing! 😊

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Annette945 !

Wow! What a great property! Some suggestions below. Try things out for a few weeks. If you’re not receiving more interest, change it. Never let your listing stay stagnant. Other hosts can offer ideas, but these are the things that stood out to me.

Previous Property Manager Listing

I see two listings (one is the property manager and one is your new listing). Looks like the Property Manager Listing is $278/night and your new listing is $330/night? Wouldn’t you want your new listing to be at a lower rate to encourage guests to book with you and not the property manager? Perhaps you have a contractual restriction that is in play here?

Missing Important Sections of Listing

If you look at the property manager listing, you’ll see ALL the listing information is complete. Your listing is missing quite a bit of important information and protections for you as a host. You don’t have House Rules, Guest Safety Information, neighborhood info, etc?

Turn OFF Instant Book

Looks like you’re using Instant Book. I would turn OFF instant book until you have gone through your entire Listing and added these sections (especially House Rules and Guest Safety) before anyone else can book. Remember, guests agree to abide by all house rules when they book, but you don’t have any House Rules on your listing?

CAUTION!

I suggest you read through these Airbnb Help Articles BEFORE  turning Instant Book back on:

Understanding your new listing settings before you publish

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3107 

How to Setup an Effective Listing Page

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/how-to-set-up-an-effective-listing-page-12

Get Help with Your Listing from a Superhost

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3011#section-heading-0-0

Informing Guests About Security Devices

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2914

Airbnb automatically defaults some of your settings after you publish. You may wish to change these settings before accepting guests. Some defaulted settings include:

• Instant Book is ON – (you may not want this)
• Calendar open 12 months – (I would change this)

Calendar

I would turn OFF instant book for now until you are able to get the hang of it. This is a large property and you need to be able to screen guests. After you have a few guests come through, you can consider turning Instant Book back on. I would make your calendar immediately "unavailable by default".  This blocks your calendar to prevent guests from booking until you have a chance to edit your listing and add important information. Only open up 3 months or so on your calendar when you open up dates. You are discounting your price to encourage bookings to get those 3 important reviews (so your star rating will appear). You don’t want someone booking 1yr from now at your reduced rates!

Title

Guests already know this is a 4bedroom home from the Airbnb sub-title. Don’t waste your 50 characters repeating “4bedroom home”. I would say something about how close you are to the water (what is the name of the body of water in the drone shots?) Hot Tub, Deck, etc. instead.

Photos

Captions

Put captions on every photo! Love the photos, but have no idea what I’m looking at? Especially your photos of the area.

Cover photo

Your unique amenity is how close you are to the water and you have a great kitchen, deck, and huge back yard. I would not put a photo of the street side exterior. That to me says “noise” and “traffic.” It doesn’t highlight your best feature which the gorgeous location. I would put the exterior, street side photo towards the end of the photos (or eliminate it).

Suggest you make photo below your cover photo for now. It shows how close you are to the water and the beautiful landscape. Guests will want to click further to see more.

Next 4 photos

Should highlight your best amenities (huge back yard, beautiful kitchen, hot tub, deck, firepit (reshoot photo at night with fire going in fire pit). etc.)

Add a Host Guidebook

This is easy to create on Airbnb and you can actually send your Guidebook to guests when you message them. It's easy to do. Just click the (+) sign to the left, share recommendations. Your guidebook will appear and just hit the plus sign to send it to a guest.

Wishing you much success! Let us know how it goes!

[Annette945]

Thank you sooo much @Joan2709 !! 
So many good tips here!!

I will get to work on this very soon and will keep you posted!!! 
Really appreciate you taking the time to review the listing (and the property manager’s too) and provide these detailed suggestions! 
-Annette 😊

[Annette945]

I have now updated the listing -- I think it's looking better! Thanks Joan and Betty for your help!

www.airbnb.com/h/quasidequidividi 

[Annette945]

Oops this is the correct custom link: www.airbnb.com/h/quaysidequidividi 

the “y” in Quayside was missing before! 

[Joan2709]

It's working great now! 😀

Arrow on Cover Photo

Sometimes Airbnb will not allow text on a photo (you added the property name to the photo). They may flag the photo due to this. I believe the arrow is acceptable though. I believe they do this to prevent hosts from adding links, etc. to other rental platforms?

QR codes

You can create a QR code using the custom link and add that to checkout messages and in social media accounts. Another good tool is to create business cards with the QR code on them for guests to take with them. Good marketing tool! You can't add a QR code to the listing page however. 

[Joan2709]

Hi Annette!

Fantastic job!! You really have a knack for this and I think you'll do amazing going forward! 😀

Neighborhood Info – Add to Host Guidebook

Great job adding all this info! I get a real feel for the area from all the information you added. Take all that information and add it to your Host Guidebook, so guests can see it there as well. Guests who have never been to the area will really appreciate all the info and your recommendations.

Photos & Captions

Great job again! I can clearly understand what each photo depicts and the captions tell the story of your home and area in pictures!

Cover Photo

Right now I see you have a photo of the entryway as your cover photo. It’s a nice entryway to be sure, but it’s not the most unique feature of your listing. Remember, this is the photo guests will see when scrolling thru listings in the area. You’re trying to get them to STOP scrolling and click your listing; it’s the “bait” photo you might say 😉. I still suggest you make the gorgeous drone shot of the water in the background (your home is in the foreground). This photo would make me stop scrolling and click your listing to learn more. Your photo of the entryway wouldn’t make me stop scrolling (at least for me  😊). I would suggest just indicating on the photo your home with an arrow indicating your location. You can use paint or just paste the photo in Word and add the arrow.

If you didn’t want to use that photo, I would suggest the photo below (gorgeous kitchen) for your cover photo instead of the entryway. Try out the water photo for 2-3wks though. If you don’t get any bookings or interest, then change the photo to the Kitchen photo. If that doesn’t work after a few weeks, find another unique amenity photo to use (maybe the hot tub, or the deck view photo). Below is an article about the importance of your cover photo and the next 4 photos. These photos are key and every time a guest clicks your thumbnail cover photo, Airbnb counts that and adds to your search results algorithm. The algorithm determines where you appear in search results, so its very important to the success of your listing:

Select and Edit Photos For Your Listing

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/select-and-edit-photos-for-your-listing-222

“The cover photo is displayed in search results and is also a part of the grid of five photos on your listing page. Because it’s so important, it should be the most flattering and attention-grabbing photo of your space.”

Use this photo for cover

or this photo - shows gorgeous kitchen with

beautiful views outside windows

Custom Link

For some reason I couldn’t open your custom link as you have it: We use custom links as well and have allows had to use the https:// in front:

https://airbnb.com/h/your custom link

You mentioned you have an active social media presence, so how you have it must be working for you? 🤔

Co-Host

After you have handled everything yourself and you feel things are running the way you want, maybe consider a Co-Host (not a property mgmt company). Co-hosts are a better option I believe than property mgmt companies. You do have to consider they will need vacation time/sick time (as I believe other hosts have mentioned here). I think you said you don't live in the area right now, so this might free you up to concentrate on marketing and your social media presence. The Co-host can handle the day-day guest communications (if you wanted to go that route). I'm a co-host myself and it's alot of work just handling the day-day guest communications and maintaining your House Manuals, updating your listing and Host Guidebooks (paper and digital) etc.

Luv to come for a visit sometime! Great job again! I think you'll be very successful. It's obvious you care about your home and hosting. 

[Annette945]

Thanks so much Joan! 

I had a typo in my custom link, that’s why it wasn’t working! Oops. 

will try out the new cover photo and see whether it helps! 

my husband is currently my co-host but he has zero experience so I’m hoping he’ll learn quickly! If not, I’ll have to let him go! 🤣

I have a PDF guidebook which I created on Canva. Is there a way to add that to my listing or send it to guests after they book? 

would love to welcome you for a visit sometime! 

Annette

[Joan2709]

Hah!  Yup...it's rough when you gotta fire the hubby! 😀

Cover Photo

You can always edit the cover photo with an arrow that shows your location in the photo (I suggest doing this). You can use paint or paste the photo in Word and simply add an arrow with a red outline to show your home to give guests a true perspective of how close you are to the gorgeous bay! We have drone shots and use an arrow to show the home location in relation to the view. Seems to work well. Try it for a few weeks. If you don't see an uptick in bookings, then maybe change to your gorgeous kitchen photo or hot tub.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization/Airbnb Algorithm

Having captions on your photos is a data point the algorithm uses to determine your search results rank. Great job on adding the captions!

Categories

What category does Airbnb show on your listing page?  This is another area that would give you more visibility for guest searches and your rank. Are there any national parks nearby? You probably should at least be under "Countryside".

Host Guidebooks

I would still send your electronic Airbnb Guidebook to guests when you send your Welcome message after booking using the (+) sign next to the message area. We also have PDF verisions of the Guidebook that we send on another rental platform. You should be able to send a PDF on Airbnb as well, but let me check. I have sent PNG and JPG images using the image icon next to the message area. You might try attaching your Canva PDF Host Guidebook using the image icon with your next guest and see it works.

Remember, things will change often in your PDF version (and paper copy) of your guidebook. You'll have to constantly be updating the PDF version and ensuring the most current is being used when messaging guests if you go that route. We add a disclaimer to our paper guidebook (and PDF version) that says:

"We make every attempt to keep the information in this Guidebook current. If there is ever a discrepancy between this Guidebook and the rental platform/website, the rental platform is the most current and shall apply."

This way if a guest ever tries to point to something that is outdated in your PDF version, you can mention the rental platform is actually the most current, up-to-date information.

House Manual

Not sure if you have added a House Manual under "Info for Guests" on your listing, but if you haven't I would do so. This tells guests everything they need to know about the home; how to turn on the TV, heating, cooling, how to use appliances, etc. They can access the House Manual on the App as well.

Check-In Instructions

I would add this to the App on your phone, if you haven't already (You can't do on the desktop). You add your check-in photos and descriptions for step-by-step instructions on how to check in. Unfortunately, there isn't any Airbnb Help articles that I have found on how to do this, but don't think you'll have a problem doing in. On the Hosting view on your phone, just scroll down and you'll see where it is. You can also create a custom link to your check-in instructions and paste in your Welcome message. It will take them directly to the Check-in instructions on their phone. Send me a private message if you would like to know how to do that.