Find your niche! Advertise accordingly.
Ours is an "entire place" whole house rental in a quiet neighborhood of a town that is close to a big city. It's not in a resort location or tourist attraction location. Our listing comes up when people search for the big city. I became aware that guests who are new to Airbnb don't know how to use the site and sometimes don't realize our location may not be a good fit for their needs and or desires, even though we clarify the location in the listing. So be as clear as you can about the location and figure out the type of guest that it will appeal to. Prior to the stay, if you sense or become aware that the guest may do better with a diferent location, talk with them about it.
We decided from the start to make our listing family friendly and we cater to the needs of families with young children and infants. We listened to what our guests found helpful and adopted some of those ideas. Anticipate what a guest might find helpful. For example, on a very rainy day we anticipated the young parents of a toddler may be stumped what to do, so we visited them at the house with a list of "Rainy Day Places and Activities for Kids". We also provide necessities for parents of infants, such as odor-blocking plastic bags for used diapers and organic natural baby soap.
Our listing has attracted a wide variety of people. We became aware that our guest house is located less than a mile from our county court house and is on the bus line to that location. When two attorneys booked our spot while in town for a trial, I realized a new potential market. They had some suggestions for improvement for their business needs that I readily adopted. I also asked them to spread the word about our accomodation and location within their professional network.
We also discovered that there is a market for environmentally concious guests who appreciate natural cleaning products, energy conservation, and recycling. So we've made our house envrionmentally friendly. Some of our guests like to explore the great outdoors and appreciate having a mudroom with a washer/dryer and clothesline. We provide umbrellas for rainy days, travel size coolers, picnic blankets and separate towels for use outside.
These are just a few examples of how you can find your niche and cater to certain types of guests.