Critique my listing - Lynne & Gary from Johannesburg, South Africa

[Lynne407]

Greetings friends. We are not really new hosts, but we feel like we never really got going with AirBnB. We get a lot of bookings from booking dot com and a few from another OTA, and fortunately quite a lot from regular guests who book directly. We get excellent reviews from guests on the various platforms, which we are very grateful for. 

All this leads us to believe it must be our listing on AirBnB  which needs attention and we would be grateful for any suggestions/ constructive criticism you may have. Note - we have 4 units all listed separately - 

https://www.airbnb.co.za/rooms/19288374?preview_for_ml=true&source_impression_id=p3_1633359065_19y1R... 

https://www.airbnb.co.za/rooms/19620766?preview_for_ml=true&source_impression_id=p3_1633359643_wJYVW... 

https://www.airbnb.co.za/rooms/13203691?preview_for_ml=true&source_impression_id=p3_1633359684_KUUKN...

https://www.airbnb.co.za/rooms/19384574?preview_for_ml=true&source_impression_id=p3_1633359716_ZbRrm... 

 

[Linda3345]

I looked at the first listing, but I realized I am not equipped to critique your listing, as I have no idea of the price/currency, or what people expect. Probably others who have more experience can give you better information. 

[Sarah977]

@Lynne407  Like Linda, I'm not familiar with pricing in your area, the competition, so hard to know if Airbnb guests find it expensive or what. 

Your listing looks fine to me, the place is lovely, your descriptions are good, all the necessary information seems to be there. The only thing I would do differently is to retake some of the photos. They are taken in that real estate format that distorts the space and makes it look larger than it actually is. It's better to take a few photos of the space from different angles than to try to get it all in the frame by taking the sort of photos you have now. A bed photo, for instance, is much more inviting taken from closer up,  so guests feel like they want to crawl into it. Same goes for a comfy chair people could picture curling up in with a book.

I've read complaints from guests before about listings looking much more spacious in photos than in reality.

But I don't think that would have anything to do with low bookings through Airbnb as compared to other platforms. I really don't know what the discrepancy might  be, but I know people tend to book more through one platform vs. another, depending on what area of the world you live in.

Quite honestly, the more you can build up your direct bookings the better. Airbnb isn't an easy company to deal with if you expect anything more than to use them as a listing site. Once you get into needing assistance with a bad guest, or refunds, or damages, they are endlessly frustrrating to deal with.

[Lindie6]

Hi @Lynne407 what a lovely place you offer. I realise your initial post was put up some time ago (and we've all had to deal with a pandemic since then), but I was wondering if your experience with AirBnB has improved.  We seem to have had a similar situation (many bookings via LekkeSlaap, BDC or directly) but NONE via ABB for 5+ years. In desperation I recently deactivated the listing and set up a complete new listing (of the same place). I was encouraged when ABB sent a photographer and uploaded the images, but even so, I've not even had any enquiries. I wonder if I'm wasting precious time and affort on a platform that clearly doesn't want to work for me. Can you please tell me if I'm impatient or unreasonable?