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

[Emily-and-Andrew0]

Hi, Any thoughts on the booking rate % I can see mine varies and is about 3% but don't know whether this is good or bad. 🙂

[Kim176]

Hi Harry, just wanted to echo everything on your list. Those are definately the most essential management practices to keep that view count driving & I think* I have one more we could put in that list which worked wonders for my listing (at least for a couple weeks) but in reality I found this article because I've noticed my view count pretty low on a more consistent rate as well and ofcoarse started researching(again). So while I dont guarantee these results on a consistent basis, making this one change did yield me some very high views for a good month. I'd also like to mention my listing was no longer under the New category and the big event weekends and days were already booked before making the change to my Listings settings. 

My average daily view rate was between 10-20 Views per day for the first month and half after my Listing opened. I was no longer listed as New and didn't really get many views when I was. Now I manage all my prices Manually since day one and continue to do so, going with the market and making sure to be competitive and keep a healthy booking rate. - but it was in mid-decemenber that I went into my Pricing Settings and changed my Base Price from what I had set when listing (around $80/night) to 10$ under the Recommended Price Tip - so for me it was 65$.; My view count for the next month averaged out to 33 Views a day with a week long stretch of 37-47 Views with 2 days during that strech of 72 & 66 Views a day. My Total number of travelers who saved the listing is now at 194. Now I dont feel its cheating the system in any regards because my nightly rates can actualy be much much cheaper (like 35$ cheap-entire place) for example on weeks that are soon approaching and aren't booked, including on 1-2 day windows between bookings

So I believe bringing the Base Price down regardless of what your nightly rates actually are does game the AirBnB algorhythm into pushing your listing higher in the Rankings and could have been the reason I had such a high surge. BUT this last month I'm back to my starting average of 10-20 views a day. I'd love to get back some input on my findings, as I've mostly debated it with myself factoring in all the potential factors & circumstances - but given that my soon coming "hot" slots were already booked & it being Low Season in Montreal, its hard to tell; Because now we're in february approaching High Season and my view rates are back to being and trending relatively low. I'd love to hear some feedback, should you have any thoughts and or results having tried it. 

*Another note I had would be for No. 21: daily editing of the listings Texts - I found that when I did it previousley (with pictures as well) my listing would actually disapear, checked with multiple devices and even refreshed the page from a visitors browser that was open prior to changing my settings and even that Disapeared; page read Listing not available and couldn't even find it on the map aka Full Ghost. Was like that for more then 2 hours leading me to call airbnb both times (text update/photo) and ask what happend to which they just said its a technical glitch... I know that they do supposedly ghost listings to spread the views for everyone, which is fair I guess, but I've never seen mine hidden for more then an hour, so maybe glitch maybe because of the Text and Picture updates.  

But all together I think you covered everything Hosts can do to maximize their results! 

Awesome List! 

[Blanka4]

Really good tips Harry, thank you for sharing !  🙂

[Lisa438]

Thanks for all your great points very relevant.  I have only just started and have 10 stays.  Really upset that put all my effort hosting with a couple at weekend totally messed up my kitchen couldnt have been any friendlier went out of my way to tell people how to get around in Blackpool and let them come earlier than check in .  and kept bags till late next day as couldnt accommodate as new booking coming that day.  Left me virtually no feedback no mention of anything i did for them ...gave me a 4* which is fair enough but mentioned none of my help ...then said want to come back .....i dont want them back ....what can i do?? 

[Big-Mamma-S-Budget-Rooms0]

you can respond on their review. ofcourse you wont say that you don't want them back 😉 but mention everything you did for them, say that you are sorry you didnt get 5 stars after puting so much effort, if they can recmend you what else you can do "next" time to get 5 stars cuz you are new in this and you would "love to have them back". That way other guests reading your review will know what happened

[Cynthia135]

Thanks Harry these are great. Much appreciated. Left you the thumbs up!