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

[Avery10]

Thanks for these helpful comments.  I didn't know about daily updates to the text of the listing.  I will start doing that.  The AirBnB app for mobile phones is very helpful in replying quickly to guest inquiries. Thank you.

Avery

[Nurse0]

HARRY!

I was looking in my history for this post. I wanted to say THANK YOU HARRY! 

I struggled with my first listings and couldn't get any booking for a week. Then I found your tips and I followed most of them. The next day I got 2 bookings! Now it's 10 days later and I got 9 bookings already. I am so thankful that you took your time to make this list.

P.S. The biggest mistake I made was the name and the listing description that looked pretty but do not have the keywords. Hence, it didn't show up on search.

Have a good day everyone 🙂

[Jimmie3]

Enjoyed. Good suggestions. Trying to do most of these. How does one advance levels? I see some are levels 2 - 3 etc.

[Huma0]

@Jimmie0, the levels have nothing to do with status. It's just the more you post on the forum, the higher your level goes up. If you're active on here, it will go up quite quickly, but it doesn't really mean anything!

[Jeff535]

Thanks Harry.

Posting on Home Away gives even more exposure to my home page photo on Airbnb.  I’ve kept different prices on different sites and am happy to tell you, I often get groups telling me they found my place on both sites and booked at the cheaper site.  It is a marketing ploy but has made my guests seem like they got a better deal and after good inquiries, I often get 5 star reviews.)

[Sariya0]

Thank you for the great tips @Harry22. Good info to keep around. 🙂

[Grace279]

Hello Harry,

i enjoyed reading your post.  You made a lot of great suggestions and I will follow them.

Regards,

Grace

Villa Hibiscus and Villa Azule

[Huma0]

@Harry22

I remember looking at your post some time ago when I was still very new to hosting and now, with more experienced, I can say it's great advice very much worth following. A couple of points though:

15. Ask for recommendations. I tried this early on, before I had many reviews, sending requests to several friends on Facebook who were also Airbnb users. Actually, I only asked for recommendations from friends who were former housemates so they could write about what it was actually like to stay in the house. However, despite all of them saying yes, it didn't work. There was some sort of technical error that kept happening (I have seen other hosts mention this on the forums too). The only one who managed it happens to be a director at one of Airbnb's competitors, so he's very tech savvy!

21. Some time ago, Airbnb posted a Q&A on this forum about search rankings and confirmed that regularly updating your listings makes no difference whatsoever to your position in search results. I don't know why they would say this if it wasn't true, but after that, I stopped constantly tweaking the listings like I had been doing. My bookings did not decline. Actually, they went up. So, I don't waste my time changing anything until it needs changing. Does being active on the forums help? I don't know. Maybe? I've not seen anything to confirm or deny this.

My listings are fully booked most of the time. I do worry sometimes when a certain month is looking quiet, but then the last minute bookings come in and it's fine. I am not sure what I am doing right, but I do most of the things that you mention, so I guess they must work! Having the Airbnb photographer round probably made the biggest difference and then having built up some good reviews.

[Lisa1671]

This was a very helpful and great read! Thanks for the advice Harry 

[Jason-and-Carolina0]

Great post and great read. As newer hosts We’re glad to see that we are already doing almost all of these. It could be some of the reason why we have earned superhost and great occupancy rates. We’re so glad our Airbnb experience has been sooooo positive and look forward to continuing to be a better host in any way possible. 

[Lorna112]

Kudos - Agreed!  

Are you a host looking to visit the Orlando Disney Universal area?  https://www.airbnb.com/hosting/listings

Let's talk - please message me - we can definitely work out a price and the escape lodging you will love - I also welcome TIPS from you more experienced hosts.  So please message me if you are thinking of visiting and want to work something out 

Are you a host looking to visit the Orlando Disney Universal area?

2 bed rooms - 2 queen beds

Lots of things to do ! 

[Eugenia35]

Awesome!!!!!!

[Laurel61]

Thanks, Harry, for taking the time to write the tips.  After waiting a few weeks with no booking on my Squirrel Haven ( we are a bit nuts here), I finally have some guests coming this summer.  But that’s months away, so I’m going to try some of your tips; I’m not tec savvy but my kids are, so they can help.  

[Stephanie]

Glad to hear you're using @Harry22 's guide @Laurel61 ! Looking forward to hearing about any new bookings you acrue! 

[Laurel61]

Thanks Stephanie,  our first guests are arriving this afternoon and I’m a little nervous.  We don’t have anymore booking until the summer, but it’s a start.  I still have some questions so I’m glad this forum is available, Laurel