25 tips to get booked!

[Harry22]

Hey Airbnb hosts, started this list as an answer to a question but it turned up pretty big so im sharing with every one. Hope its helpful to some people and please upvote it if you liked it. 

Here's what I’ve found so far in order to promote my listings:

1. Build a complete listing, fill in all the available information and be honest, you will probably hurt your future reviews if you lie.
2. Get verified. If you are into serious business, provide as many verifications as you can (I think you can have as many as 7).
3. Fill in your profile, have a friendly picture (not one after a metal concert) and write a couple of nice and true things about yourself. A lot of people chose pictures where they are with their significant other, I guess it makes them look friendlier? – that could work too.
4. Have a competitive and descriptive title (ie. mention some upcoming event in the area) - keep in mind they show up in google, so you might get hitsfrom there. Also mention other selling facts, ie. “close to Subway station”.
5. Have a competitive price, easy and simple, check what is offered in your neighborhood and, if possible, beat the price of the similar listings that are your competition. Also use the extra charge per person option, have a lower price for 1 person then gradually increase for added guests. Will make your pricing fairer.
6. Upload many and nice pictures I have an average of 20 per listing, and they were all shot with a good camera and underwent some light editing. Current mobile phones also get great pictures but well, I went all the way. Always consider Airbnb Free Photography service which gets the job done and provides of an extra verification for your profile.
7. Fill in the pictures titles - have the potential guests spend more time on your listing. Check your main (first) picture, how it appears on multiple devices. It might be a great picture by its self but when cropped by the airbnb layout it may appear worse. Manually crop it or change it. Also, I think 3:4 landscape ratio is the best for Airbnb, it appears well in most devices (except android app that allows portrait view 4:3)
8. Make sure you offer the basic amenities (I found that spending 30$ on a steam iron and a hair blower was worth it)
9. Get as many "tickable amenities" as possible, available (ie. a CO detector might cost $10, its probably worth ticking)
10. Probably worth getting the business ready title (recently got it on one of my listing, can’t say how much it was worth it yet).
11. Start low. The lower (but fair) the price, the more bookings, the faster you register more trips, the faster you get reviews, the faster you look like a cool host on search results.
12. Start with low standards. Cheap cleaning fee, friendly cancelation policy, loose house rules etc.
13. Find a way to afford 1-night stays. Probably are not worth it as much as long stays but having your place available for one night will increase your impressions on search results
14. Be a good host! Airbnb works with ratings, the more 5star ratings you get the more Airbnb algorithm will like you. Good and many reviews will also attract a potential guest.
15. Ask for recommendations. Connect your Facebook account, see which ones of your friends have Airbnb accounts and ask them to write a couple of nice things about you. They will fill in the spot until you get some solid reviews.
16. Don’t cancel confirmed reservations. It does hurt your host rating.
17. Reply ASAP. Besides convincing Airbnb that you are an active host, I have found that replying within 4-5 minutes to a message surprises the guest and increases their liking towards you as well. Even if you don’t have something to say to your guest, write a quick “Thank you for your interest, I will come back to you with more info ASAP” within less than an hour of the original message.
18. Reach superhost status, it is supposed to place you under better order on search results, plus gives you a nice badge on your picture, guest have the option to search only superhost listings. There is a special page on your profile (Stats on desktop and Performance on mobile) that tells you how close you are to being a superhost.
19. Get wish-listed. Not really under your control, but ask friends and guests to add you to their wish-lists.
20. Allow Instant-Book. It is supposed to increase your search result rankings. I also believe it makes you stand out in the map view, attracting clicks from guests.
21. According to several posts/blogs around the web, regularly (daily) updating your calendar will make the Airbnb algorithm believe you are an active host and award you a better position. Same thing is rumored to happen if you log in every day and if you daily update the texts of your listings. I don’t know if there’s an official Airbnb confirmation on this but, well, it’s probably worth a couple of minutes of your day.
22. Be active on the community forums. Again, getting thumbs-ups is supposed to increase how much the Airbnb algorithm likes you.
23. Look for your listings regularly. I have found out that people sometimes cannot find my listings even in areas/searches when no other listing is available. I try to produce specific searches that would force Airbnb to find my listings and after a couple of times they usually appear to my friends too. That probably is my own idea/conspiracy theory but I’m just adding it here towards the end of the list. Also have people regularly visiting your listings by sharing them your direct links (like mines at the end of the post, under my signature) just to let Airbnb know that we are regularly checking. You can get the links by clicking the preview button on your listing management page.
24. Promote your listing through Google or Facebook. A cheap, well targeted google or Facebook campaign might get you some fast customers. The return of the investment will be immediate. You can also use more SEO tools, set up a website with unique links to your listings, spam your friends on FB, pay for some clicks probably, I don’t know if it’s worth it and I won’t and get into more detail.
25. Lastly you can also register with other similar sites competitive to Airbnb. The tools are provided to you in order to migrate listings and sync calendars but I have found that Airbnb is the easiest to use and probably attracts the coolest and politest guests of all.

That pretty much sums up what information I have gathered and tried during the past few months.

A nice round total of 25 tips to promote your listing.

I hope it’s not very overwhelming and that it is helpful for new hosts that want to get in the game!

Also i'd love to hear the opinion of some more experienced hosts. 

Please gimme the thumbs-up if you found this helpful

Regards,

Harry K.

---------
Live your myth in Greece:

Mykonos: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13655047
Athens downtown #1: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13337047
Athens downtown #2: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13567058
Family villa near Athens: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13364268

[J-W-0]

Super helpful. Thank you! 🙂

[Phinyamas0]

Thank you very much for your advise.

I'm a newbie starting out in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Ever since I put up my listing I haven't receive any booking.  I will use your tips as a guide to improve my lisitng. Are you able to give me further advice? 

[Maya79]

Hi Harry 🙂

Thank you for this post! We are new to AirBnB and since our first few weeks, the number of views and bookings we've received have quieted down significantly. These tips are extremely helpful...especially #5! I never would have thought of setting up our pricing to be based on single occupancy.

Brilliant!

Thanks again,

Maya

[Brendilee0]

Thanks Harry, I'll try  your tips.

[Moud1]

Hey Harry,

Thanks for your tips, we have tried most of them and guess what ? They work,  we even doubled our booking! however, we are not sure about the one, about Facebook Ads, did anyone here tried it?

[Anton59]

Dear Harry

Interesting and really gives me a guide to improve my hosting.

Besides that, would you kindly advise how to host property in multiple sites (is’ it possible? ) without clashing each reservation from deferent sites.

Thanks a lot for guidance

[Maura42]

This was sooo helpful. For what it’s worth, I share your conspiracy about listings sometimes going into never-never land! I learned several things I didn’t know, thank you!! 

[Lara103]

"Also use the extra charge per person option, have a lower price for 1 person then gradually increase for added guests. Will make your pricing fairer."

I like this, but how do you really know that someone is not bringing additional guests without telling you about it, especially if you are not meeting them in person? I could see a lot of fraud in this situation.

[Alice371]

Hi @Harry22..  from your  experience when you link your  airbnb account to your  facebook account or even linkedln...is it safe ? as we put our bank account and credit card detail at airbnb account .

Thank you.

Cheers

Alice 

[Jnanesh0]

Hello Mr Harry. Great tips, I really loved all the recommendations that you had to offer.

Here are few of my listings,please take a look. Any advices and your stay if you're looking forward to visitng India will be most welcomed. 

https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/18144110?s=51

https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/12956343?s=51

https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/21520100?s=51

https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/21466336?s=51

https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/21684880?s=51

[Karen1027]

These are fantastic tips thanks Harry. I havent had the opportunity to read through everyone's input here so forgive me if it is mentioned. I began hosting on Airbnb in April and must say I am very impressed with this site. One thing which is really bothering me a lot is this smart pricing because the tip suggestions are extremely low. I have had my listings on smart since April but am now changing them to base rates. Can anyone please advise on the smart price scenario?

[Letti0]

Karen the general rule of thought is: Smart pricing isn't very smart. 

[Matt453]

Thanks for the advice; I'm a new host and I'll definately be taking some of these suggestions on board. I have a quick question about the verificaions and am hoping someone can help me out. I'm struggling to get my LinkedIn Verified; it doesn't even appear on the list of things I can verify (only google and facebook appear- see attached screenshot).

I wanted to know if I was alone in this?

Is this something specific to my location? (I'm based in the UK)

& of course what is the solition & what other verifcations are available to me.

Thanks in advance!

[Mrs--Donna0]

I almost always return to this post over and over again, your tips does work. I make a website, yes I did it myself, and I notice it is helping me get more booking. [Information hidden]

[Ha10]

@Harry22: That looks very helpful for my listing. Thank you very much and hope to see many articles like this from you. Regards!