Help

[Gold-Legend0]

I have been hosting since about May, and I thought this would be my way towards financial freedom. But my house rarely gets booked, and the bills are starting to pile up. Can someone help me figure out how I can get weekly bookings and make sure my house is able to pay for itself? 

[Emiel1]

@Gold-Legend0 

- Maybe move some sentences (about smoking/parties and furniture damages) from the description to a secondary place (like "the space" or "Houserules").

- Your calender shows host is not available on Mondays.

Some guest maybe think they can not book a week, as every monday is greyed out

 (but offcourse they can book a week, just not check-in on Monday)

- In "other things to note" the information seems to be outdated:

"All bookings during weekdays call for larger discounts than weekends, as of right now. Kindly inbox me to inquire about this deal for the month of may and June."

[Sudsrung0]

@Gold-Legend0 

I think a lot of people are suffering in the STR business right now.

The only thing you can do is play around with the wording in your listing.

Dont make it difficult for people to book after reading what @Emiel1 said,

Other than that try other platforms some might work for you.

Try Facebook there is loads of groups you can post,

[Gillian166]

@Gold-Legend0 
you are renting the whole place, to 7 people, for $249/night? (that's the price i see anyway, in AUD) bargain. 

"Damages towards any furniture results in fines."
oh, I wouldn't stay with you because i'd be worried that even some wear n tear might result in a fine.
and you won't be able to easily enforce that anyway, a guest can say "no i didn't do that" and you won't be able to "fine" them. 

"a big backyard for extra curricular activity."
sounds like a prison yard, lol. if you aren't good at writing welcoming prose, perhaps switch to simple bullet points. 

Your photos are not great, poor lighting and most of them have perspective issues, but your place looks really nice, great furniture and very clean. I don't think your photos are the issue, but the good news is that you've got quite a few things you can improve! (it would be worse to have a killer listing and no bookings). 

Some captions under your pics would be helpful. Do you have 2 dining areas?  all the text in your listing is part of what the algo robots study. 

do you have a hot tub?  I'm not sure what the definitions are but to me a hot tub is outside. if you do have one, as per your listing, you need a photo of it! 

[Richard531]

@Gold-Legend0   Listen to the great advice you've gotten here so far.  That's a fine place to start. 

I'm not going to even look at your listing.  But I will tell you this, and it's not going to be good news:  If you didn't knock it out of the park when you had the initial SEO boost from being a new listing when you went live a couple months ago, it might be too late. 

I call it the "Allied Invasion of Normandy" method when opening a new listing.  You have to bring EVERYTHING you have.  KEEP COMING.  The listing has to be PERFECT.  Perfect pictures, perfect copy, perfect flow, perfect EVERYTHING.  You should be on the Airbnb app several hours a day, througout the day.  You're engaged always.  1 minute responses to inquires/bookings.  Your customer service has to be PERFECT.  5-star across the board.  All revies.  Every single day that month must be booked.  CHEAP.  Go! Go! Go!  Then and only then can you start to establish your listing and then and ONLY then can you hope to "make sure my house is able to pay for itself."

YOU have to make that happen.  It's a lot of friggen work.  

[Stephanie1933]

@Richard531 @Gold-Legend0 

Love the advice from Richard above. 

You have to be competitive in the first 6 months or so. In my experience - I had the house at around $150-$180 per night or even cheaper for the first wee while. Once I got bookings and 5 star reviews we increased the price and now get up to $400 per night. It is all about strategy. 

Photos, photos, photos! You must have really good lighting, perfect tidy house which looks inviting. We had a student photographer take pics for us. Totally worth it! 

It IS a competitive time and you need to see how your listing stands out. Have a look at the thumb nail pic during a search of your property. Compare it to the ones nearby - what is drawing you to the listing. Think colours, lighting, image. 

Play around with your calendar - do a couple of promotions. 

Be the best host you can be. I ensure I have messages set up - that means the first message will be quick once guests book. That gives a great impression. 

I could go on for hours - pm me if you want more hints. Take a look at my house - see the pics and the story they tell. 

All the best! 

[Amanda660]

You’ve got some good reviews to get you started but your pics need some work.

Your photos look harsh and are a mixture of landscape and portrait. 

Put your toilet seat down and open the shower curtain

Remove the roll of paper towel and the plastic bucket from your dining table

Take the plastic stickers off your bin and remove the bin entirely from your dining area (no one needs to see a bin in a pic)

Pick up some nice duvet covers for the beds and get pillowcases that match

Change your listing name and add a photo - folks like to book with a person not a logo and it instills confidence. 

The furniture in the lounge looks squashed against the one wall - if you add a low console table or unit under the TV on the opposite wall it will balance it out. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gold-Legend0 There are many people who think they can make a fortune from short term rental. Sadly many give up after a few months/a year when the realise the market is close to saturation and only low prices can save their business. With the cost of living crisis and imminent recessions I fear many hosts will be forced to give up renting.

[Louise0]

Do not shoot the messenger.  You asked for advice. You're getting it. Be grateful.

There are several things that would deter a guest from booking your place.

1. The name on your profile is odd.   Change it to whatever name you use when communicating with guests. I doubt your spouse and friends refer to you as 'Gold Legend'. (Or perhaps they do, which would be odder still.)

2. The place looks well-appointed, functional and clean but also bleak, cheerless and far from welcoming.  As it stands, you'll only get bookings from guests using their heads.  To get solid bookings you need to appeal to emotions, not intellect, and that's where use of colour and interesting images plays a massive role.  Colour will not kill you, neither will adding more (and better) art, more (comfortable) furniture and a lot more lamps.   Find someone in your family or friend group with good taste and a flair for design and ask for their help, or just browse through the Airbnb listings and/or Instagram for some design inspo.   And that plastic tablecloth ... shame on you.

3. Every single bed must have a bedside table, a charging point and a lamp at reading height.

4. The photos of Houston are unnecessary.  There's nothing particularly photogenic about the city and including images of it neither informs nor entices guests to book.

5. What on earth do you mean by "extra curricular activities"?  The mind boggles.  Put a full stop after "garden" and leave it at that.

6.  Your text overuses the passive voice. This creates distance between you and the reader and, like your rather odd moniker, makes it less likely that a potential customer will emotionally connect with your offering.

BTW, I'm amazed that Airbnb have let you include your direct email in your listing description.  This is forbidden, so I'm interested to know how you managed it.  However, kudos to you for slipping it in.

[Robin4]

@Gold-Legend0 

You have come here asking for opinions on how you can improve the occupancy rate of your listing. You are going to get some answers that will infuriate you but, none of us are trying to be critical, we are trying to help you from our own experience.

My experience tells me that the greatest magnet in a listing for guests is .....character!

I host in 'no where land'! There is nothing special about my area, I don't have an endless swimmer in the rear yard! There is no beach just down the road, or a golf course through a gate in the back fence. The entertainment centre is 45 Kms away and it's a 15 minute walk to the centre of my town. My listing is just an old garage built in 1952 which I have converted into a studio listing. 

My area and my building have nothing to attract guests....but I am fully booked month after month and have been since April 2018!

@Gold-Legend0 If I can be a bit critical, your photos condemn you! There is nothing to attract a guest, there is nothing that a guest will look at and say...."Wow, this looks nice, lets book this"!

You need to have something that will appeal to prospective guests, something that a hotel can't offer, something they can't turn away from.

When guests walk into my listing I apologize for the musty moldy smell, but that smell comes from the books!

 

Some of those books are 2 centuries old.......

I tell guests I can get rid of the smell if I get rid of the books but every one of them say, they would rather have the books, almost all of them a literary icons.

Every guest gets a cheese plate, crackers and nuts......

They get a beer in the fridge, cereal and eggs and bacon for breakfast. They get something a hotel can not possibly offer and they virtually line up to book. 

@Gold-Legend0 you have to have a gimmick, something that will warm the guests heart, something that will make them say, 'well it might not be ideal but I want to stay there'!

Don't expect guests to come to you because you offer 3 bedrooms, 4 beds and a couple of bathrooms......so does hundreds of other listings in Houston! @Gold-Legend0 you have to make yourself stand out.......make them look at your photos and say, "this is where I want to stay"!

You have to give your listing some character, it looks bland and uninteresting. You are not expensive and have a ridiculously cheap cleaning fee but, there is nothing to tug at a prospective guests heart, there is nothing that makes you stand out from your competition!

Instead of being a property investor put yourself in the shoes of your guests! What would you like to walk into if you were spending $600 for a couple of nights?

Cheers.........Rob.

[Louise0]

It's interesting, isn't it, that so many have taken the time and effort to respond constructively to help @Gold-Legend0 yet he/she hasn't bothered to acknowledge or respond.  It tells you quite a bit about their attitude, and it's not one that fits well with being an Airbnb host.  @Gold-Legend0 , if you're lazy, treat people with contempt and/or fall to pieces at the slightest criticism, it does not bode well for your future as a STR provider.  

[Gold-Legend0]

I wrote down every single thing written to me, good or bad. I am a person with a beyond busy life. Just because I haven’t responded doesn’t mean I am “lazy” or “rude” God bless you though, take it easy. 

[Robin4]

@Gold-Legend0 

I am glad you responded in that way, it tells us that we are not wasting our time! Like you, we are all busy people and are here to simply try and help. 

6 years ago I had the wonderful help of a number of hosts here on the CC and I am sure the help that they gave made me the competent host I am today.......Louise0 being one of those!

Reading your reviews not one of your guests mentioned you by name, and I find that a bit disturbing! Airbnb is a platform that brings hosts and guests together and your listing photos and your personal profile seem to be almost nebulous..... you seem to be this mythical person!!!

Guests want to feel a rapor with the host they book with, and it is possible your anonymity is working against you.  Maybe you need to put up a profile photo that shows who you are and give the guest confidence they are actually booking with a person rather than a computer generated profile!

Cheers........Rob