@Helen744 I cost $2,500/hour. But I'll give you some free consulting. If you do exactly as I say, you could dig out of your hole in less than a month. I will assume that you don't want to invest any money, so I won't suggest any hard capital investment/renovation updates to your listing (but your place has INCREDIBLE bones/layout/elevations/structure and with $100K invested, you could be the best listing in the region). However, can you come up with $1K to invest? Oh, and this is going to be short and tough love. You seem like a wise person, so take it and listen carefully.
- Your pictures are absolutely horrible. Horrible quality, horrible lighting, horrible angles, horrible features, horrible everything. Find a REAL PRO to come in and photograph your listing ($350 at a minimum). And make sure they do daytime, twilight, and drone pics. This is non-negotiable.
- Once your images are done, pick the BEST ONE to be your featured image; the other 4 images must be DIFFERENT and feature as much of the home as you can muster. THIS is how you get your hangtime and hopefully start getting clickthrough. Your current 5 pictures are all awful - and there're all of the same awful stuff!
- If you're going to feature any people in the photos, have it be actual guests or models; nobody wants to see you.
- Have a landscape crew come through and make your landscaping look flawless. Edge the walkway, trim the hedges, make the home's exterior look like the Ritz Carlton (and maintain it).
- There should NEVER be a vehicle in any picture unless it's a high-end vehicle. And certainly don't feature an image with a vehicle on your freaking lawn, good lord!
- In your listing, one should never, ever, see an unsightly loose electrical cord. Eliminate them (both for your pictures and the best you can once guests arrive (painted cord covers work well)).
- There is a trash can in view in your kitchen photo, get it out of sight. Forever.
- If you're going for a cluttered/tchotchke "homey" look in the kitchen, that's fine; but make it much more organized.
- On top of the armoire/free-standing pantry in the kitchen, there is a bunch of stored stuff; NOTHING that the guest isn't going to use should ever be out/in site. . . Ever.
- There is a laundry basket in your bathroom picture. Seriously?
- You find your homey art to be charming and you're proud of it; it's chintzy and looks cheap. You can leave it as your décor, but stop featuring it in your listing photos (your photographer will know this, but just case).
- Your copywrite is abysmal. Like, absolutely abysmal. Riddled with typos. You punctuate some thoughts but not others; pick one or the other
- Go look at my copywrite. Tell a fun tale about your home in the "About This Space" section; how long it's been there, how awesome it is (because YOUR HOUSE IS AWESOME, but I can't tell it is from your lack-of story). Then, use "The Space" section to hard bullet your awesome amenities listed from most to least important
- Learn how to properly space-type with punctuation (i.e. there is a space after every comma, and commas some directly after the word they are placed; 2 spaces after every period, and so on).
- Add keyless/contactless entry. Let the guest decide if they want to meet you. Chances are they don't. Sorry, you're doing this to make money. And you need to do what most guests want. Most guests want keyless entry and to not meet the host. And they certainly don't want to keep track of a hard key (and you certainly don't want to replace it when they loose it).
- Stop talking about COVID-19 in your copy. Period.
- You are missing attributes (i.e. the verified speed of your Wi-Fi, the size of your TV). When you're listing is incomplete, you get dinged by SEO (it's like being in the army and your sergeant makes you do push ups because your boot cuffs aren't properly ironed. It's stupid. But don't give the algorithm any excuses. BE THE BEST YOU CAN).
- Either you are booked solid from mid-September onwards or you don't have your calendar open. No wonder you have no views! What is going on? Airbnb gives preferential treatment to actual full-time STRs. Are you a full time STR? Then your calendar should reflect that. Open it up!
- Your reviews are absolutely horrible. Just horrible. Being a 4.82 is a single 4-star review away from losing Superhost status. That's so freaking bad. And if you're taking this line of work even remotely seriously, you can't be flirting with losing Superhost status. You are competing with hosts that are 4.99s. Sorry, but you need to be a much, much, much, better host. EVERY guest. Not just 95% of guests (that's easy). But with 99.9% of guests. Your rating matters more than anything. In fact, I'd probably abort this listing entirely and start over once you spruced up your place and have pro photos. Ask Airbnb if that's OK with them first (so you're doing the right thing). But your listing review specs are absolutely awful. 4.82 is extremely, extremely bad.
- You need to fix the punctuation in your bio. It's embarrassing.
If any of the above offends you, then you don't really want to be a better host. But I think you want to do better. So you won't be offended. I'm offering you facts. Do what I say, be a better host, and you WILL improve. And you will improve QUICKLY.
I truly hope you do what I say. YOU WILL SUCCEED if you do.
Good luck! (I'll bill you $1,250 later, I spent 30 mins on this!) haha!
