Slow Season Is Here- Best Practices & SEO Boost Hacks

[Sean433]

For those of us who host in colder climates, the slow season has started. What are your tricks or tips to boost how many views you get and stay full during this time?

I have started to regularly check my metrics to see how many views I am getting. I noticed some of my listings do better then others and then I analyze the differences between them to understand why. I haven't really noticed anything but I will start to make slight changes in each listing to see if I can pin point what makes the biggest difference.

I have found the following tips to help boost visibility and bookings during the slow season:

1. Instead of keeping the base price high, lower it below what the airbnb tip suggests and offset this by adding an additional guest fee of $15-$20 after 1 or 2 guests. Those who are just looking for a place as 1 or 2 guests will see your listing at an attractive price. Those who are looking for 4 guests will also see your listing but with the adjusted price of the additional guests. So you don't really end up charging less but your base price appears lower attracting more views. 

2. Update your calendar pricing daily to show activity.

3. Edit your listing description often to show activity.

4. Keep your response time to inquiries less then 1 hour

5. Have at least 20 pictures of good quality.

6. Fully utilize each character they give you in your title. They give you 50 characters.

7. Keep the closest date which is available at a low price and the dates after at normal prices. People will see the lowest price day first causing them to click on your listing. Then when they fill out the dates they want, they will see an adjusted price of the average price for all the days. This will at least give you the opportunity to showcase your property whereas otherwise they may not have even clicked on your listing.

8. Keep instant book on. Not sure if turning off smart pricing has any affect on SEO Boost???

Any other tricks you experienced hosts know of to boost visibility and survive or better yet thrive during the slow season?

[Yadira22]

@Sean433also updating booking settings, I found have a major effect in Listing visibility! 15 mins every other day works wonders.... good luck everyone! 🙂

[Sean433]

@Yadira22 

How is that? do you just change some settings and then change them back?

[Yadira22]

@Sean433 

Yes. But leave 5 mins in between. Yet, I somehow think it will be more effective if you leaves days in between especially between turning off and back on IB. Even something like spending time proof reading your rules pushes the listing! 🙂

[Lindsay240]

@Yadira22 

I’m new to this, so I just want to confirm your suggestion. So if I change things temporarily on my booking setting, this will help my listing get noticed more?

[Yadira22]

@Lindsay240 

Turning IB off and on again- has this general boost.

However,  the most effective to increase visibility has been updating other booking settings- in my experience time spent on house rules, even just spending time to proof read these have helped. 

Hope that makes sense! 

I think Airbnb has a very time- greedy coding attached to it (similar to Etsy) meaning the more physical time you spend on it, the more your listing is Pushed.

i would also suggest considering google ads, Facebook ads, Twitter etc- this has helped other hosts. There are several posts on this particularly and the « how to ».

good luck to you all! 

Yadira 🙂

[Lindsay240]

@Sean433 

Hi, this is my first time hosting during the winter season. I live in a busy tourist town in Colorado and everyone keeps saying I will be booked up during the cold season due to the local winter attractions. I’ve noticed my bookings and views have slowed down, so I’m going to try your suggestion on lowering the price and adding a second guest fee. My one concern is that I have multiple guest that have booked in the past and say there is only one guest arriving but then they show up with two. I don’t charge for the second person so it hasn’t been a big deal, but what do I do if they don’t pay through Airbnb and show up with a second person?

[Sean433]

@Lindsay240 

Some places such as ski resort areas are actually busy in the winter when the rest of us are slow. Tropical warm places like Miami are as well but for everyone else, I think its pretty much slow season for the rest.

The slow down on bookings may not be because of the season in your particular case. If people are coming to ski, it should not be slow but then again, this is a weird in between time when its not too warm and not too cold enough to snow so not sure. It all depends

I always write in our house rules that guests must declare the amount of guests they bring and that unregistered guests are not allowed on our premises due to our insurance policy. Also, in the pre booking message, I write please accurately include the amount of guests in your reservation. Most people are honest and don't want problems.

[Lindsay240]

@Sean433 

Thank you!

Maybe I’m jumping the gun and need to see how the winter season goes. If I have a hard time booking guest, then I will be prepared to make changes next season. I appreciate your feedback! 

[Kira32]

@Sean433 thanks!

[Helen3]

Managing your listing and making changes to it has absolutely no impact on SEO @Sean433 . What it can do in some cases is help with your listing positioning.

I am not sure there is any evidence that making regular changes to your listing helps, but if you feel it works for you then absolutely go ahead.

I have never kept my response time to an hour. Impossible anyway unless you never sleep:) all you have to do to meet the Airbnb critieria is respond within 24 hours.

And why 20 photos why does that make more of a difference then say having 18 or 19?

Is this check list from one of those Airbnb bloggers ?

If you look at Airbnb Help Centre it has a Q&A around what you can do to optimise your listing. 

[Sean433]

@Helen910 

SEO was the wrong word. Optimization was the word I should have used and countless articles I read and from other mega superhosts with several listings on youtube have suggested these tips. Many of them logically make sense such as pricing. The rest are hidden in airbnb's algorithm which nobody knows exactly what is in there but trial and error can help people figure out what tricks they can use to optimize their listing.

[J-Renato0]

If a host alter its listing because it has bettered it, so it will certainly affects the search results. Meaning, changes that will ease the booking process and will attract more guests.

However, IMHO, honestly and rationally speaking I do not believe that making silly changes (editing the listing just to trick the algo) affects the search results.
Why altering things just to show activity would affect a listing? The ones who write the algorithm are not imbeciles!
The most important metric in the internet business is convertion. If the rate between views and booking are high, the algo will automatically bost your views.
If you have tons of views and few convertions, the algo will not prioratize your listing. To trick the algo is kind of "shot in the foot" practice.
Of course I do not have acccess to the Airbnb algo! However, it is very clear that convertion is the most important thing in the internet business.

I do not care for the number of views. I care for bookings.

[Yadira22]

@J-Renato0 

Yes and no.

algorithms by definition alone is a set of instructions.

Realistically  time spent on listing is a measurable metric equivalent for “improving listing”- even something simple like correcting grammar can impact this- this is pretty standard across marketplaces. 

The coding on Airbnb is intelligent, yes but it’s still very much restricted to fact that it’s no where near the level of being able to “think for itself” and is limited to those very core instructions only written within its Coding. Meaning if I say turn right but you should turn left and the i know it should turn left- the system would still turn right. 

 Therefore it relies heavily on quantifiable variables as to influence listing visibility by positioning- this is why reviews are so important and why Airbnb puts so much emphasis on the 5*, otherwise how would the system which does not think for itself be able to objectively know which listings to favor or not. It always comes down to numbers. 

Meaning 

-time spent on listing 

-reviews 

-pricing 

and any other quantifiable metrics (alongside convenience of booking, ie IB which I imagine they applied a quantifiable value on) influences this. 

Regarding conversión, this can be more important than views (visibility) but if your listing has been viewed once and that has translated into a sale then the conversion rate of 100%, though being mathematically correct, it’s not an accurate representation on reality and maybe not as financially agreeable as potentially 10 sales across 200 viewings ( 5% Conversion rate) but this is obviously dependent on the value of the sale(s) in question. Both are just as important, as are the product or service being provided. All three are harmoniously influenced by each other and therefore should be equally respected. 

Airbnb has a brand which identifies itself with the imagery of “live like a local” and any terms which coincide with this as well as “home”, “comfort” etc these boosts your listing position- this is when SEO comes into place as it relies on terms used which compliment their core brand Identity and I bet these too have an individual quantifiable value attached to it. 

As business owner the monetary value of my sale revenue and net profit is very important but understanding what influences this is more so- and this is why companies spent tons on money on market research, marketing etc. To think the sale is the only important thing is not plausible even for Airbnb. Without operations and logistics (cleaning, check ins, admin etc) the sale itself would not take place Or at least completely. Without it you would be requested to refund amounts from the reservation fee, affecting sales revenue and profits. Similarly conversion and listing position work and the truth of the matter is Increasing traffic towards your listing, generally increased the Likeliness to have a successful Reservation (conversion).

This is why I said I have had more success in sales conversion when doing this. The other week I spent 8 hours updating my listing, booking settings, photos etc (am trying to automate it) and not only did my viewings go from

900-> 2100 views over 30 days 

35-> 55 bookings over 30 days 

this is a quantifiable result I am sharing and this why I suggested this. I spread this along and booking setting had the quickest impact. I shared this as it was something I hoped will help others. Anyway- good luck to you and every one! ❤️

[J-Renato0]

@Yadira22 

Deeply sorry but I can not agree. You say >>> time spent on listing is a measurable metric equivalent for “improving listing”

I think that It is not the time taken that produces results. It is what you have done. Time consumed certainly does not matter. When you improve your listing or change some settings, the algo will test the listing again and may improve temporarialy your rank depends on the settings. If it gets more bookings (conversion), certainly the listing will be shown more than it it used to be before.

I stick to the idea that CONVERSION is the most important metric and variable. (views and enquires converted into bookings).

It is no use to show a beautiful listing that belongs to a host that changes it each 2 days, spend lots of time on it and have low booking conversion rate.

It is much better to display an ugly listing that belongs to a host that are moderate regarding changes and have a high conversion in terms of bookings.

Lets compare with a salesperson case! Lets suppose you are the owner of some company and have 2 salesperson working for your company.
In practice they sell the same product with the same price.
1- The first one is ugly, wears always a shabby black suit and has a bad stutter. However he returns in the end of the day with good results. He attends only 10 clients a day. Everybody likes him and give good feed back to the company. This first one sells 3 times more than the second one.
2- The second one wears always a glitter fashionable suit, speaks a cut-glass RP accent, and changes his wig every day, some days he wears a long heavy metal dark hair, another day wear a blond curly hair and some days shows a shaved head. He does it to impact the buyers and attract their attention. Every body looks to him and he attends 30 clients a day. However he barely bring good results in the end of the day. He claims that he spend lots of time in front of the mirror to change and update his apperance, so he deserve to be the best salesperson on earth . However, it is not everybody that give him positive comments.

Having known that, let me know, please!
What is the one you will fire if you have to keep employed only one of them! The first one or the second one?

I have to say that it is just my humble opinion!
I have to say as well that I like your comments and opinions! 🙂