5 New ways to help you increase bookings through social media (Instagram)

[Lucy362]

Hi Everyone, 

I'm coming up with new ways for airbnb hosts to increase their bookings through social media (mainly Instagram). 

If you have some ideas, please share them below, otherwise i'd love you to take a read.

1. Start an Instagram page for your place, call it what it's called on your listing ie, Blackcottage, post regular, nice pictures of your airbnb, introduce yourself on it.

2. Create a hashtag that represents your place ie, #blackcottageuk and keep using it when you post a picture'

3. Include your instagram username in your airbnb profile/ listing, this helps your potential customers find you, take a closer look and get a real feel for your place!

4. Run Instagram ads for your listing, when people click on your ad they will be taken to your airbnb listing where they can book.

5. Influencer marketing- you'd offer your place up for a few nights and a professional Influencer (with a large online following) stays at your place, captures the experience through video/ photography and then posts about it on their channels (ensuring you are 'tagged' into the posts so their viewers can click through to your page and potentially make a booking). 

If you have any questions about the above then let me know and I would be happy to help you. If you haven't tried Influencer marketing before, I would also like to know whether or not you would consider it, why/ why not and what kind of tool or service would help you get more bookings?

Thank you and feel free to ask me anything social media related 🙂 

[Dora110]

How can we get intoucin with you Lucy as the email doesn't show here 

[Lucy362]

Hi Dora, What would you like help with in particular? I can try to help you on here. Airbnb doesn’t allow emails to be posted 🙂 

[Sarah977]

@Lucy362 @Dora110   You can exchange private messages on this forum by clicking on the user's profile pic and then on the "Send message" box which will appear. If you receive a private message, it is accessed by clicking on the envelope symbol on the right side of the heading bar on these forum pages.

[Kate-Mary0]

Have you tried creating a video yet? I know you can upload a video to YouTube, but I think instagram has that feature too? In any case, maybe this article will help you: https://www.airgms.com/airbnb-video/

[Ian458]

I'm curious if anyone has tangible data to show how much these social advertising platforms has added to their listing?

[Tim-and-Suzy0]

Is it ok to add a link to a property I stayed at as a guest? I want to mention it on an instagram post.

[Helen3]

I am sure if you are saying something nice @Tim0 and Suzy they would be delighted.

[Tim-and-Suzy0]

Thanks for the response. I was just wondering if there were any rules or limitations against publishing someone's listing on social media, blogs, etc. I want to use pictures of a home on my blog and instagram

[Helen3]

I would avoid photos that would help someone identify the address.

Why not let the host know, as I said, if it's positive they are likely to say they are happy. However most people would just link to the listings instagram/twitter account or if they don't have one, their listing.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Lucy362 Thank you for your helpful post and tips. I think there is something to be said about having a social media presence in this day and age, and you've given some good advice on how to do so. However, I also agree with what @Helen3 and some of the others have said, especially the point about how much influence these young "influencers" might actually have on getting people to book--or at the very least, on actually getting the kinds of people we would want as guests to book. 

In fact, we're interested in using Instagram to do something a little different with our Airbnb listing; namely, we would like our guests to be able to upload photos from their stay to our Instagram account. This is the main reason that we want an Instagram account for our business, rather than the belief that we will actually get a lot of bookings through it (which, like many others have stated here, we have our own doubts about). We simply would like a way for guests to share their experiences publicly and enjoy those shared by others.

Anyway, I've read that there is a way to allow guests to do this, but any attempts that I've made to do it myself seem to indicate that we MUST link our Instagram account to our Facebook account--and I'd honestly rather not do that. Yes, I do understand that Facebook now owns Instagram, but  we'd just prefer to keep these two worlds separate. And as much as you would think that there'd be a way to work within one platform without automatically linking the other, if there is, we can't find it.

As a person who works in social media for a living, do you have any advice on doing this? We'd be grateful for any tips you could share. Much obliged.

[Alicia457]

Can you use your hashtag in the title?  Or just the description

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Why would people use Instagram Ads? Instagram is owned by Facebook and you can advertise there - where, when your ad is viewed it gets re-advertised on Instagram to the same people thus reinforcing your brand awareness and doubling the opportunity to make contact or a sale.

I also dislike the idea that paid for advertisements on Instagram direct to the Airbnb page where your listing is located.. Why? Why would you pay to do what Airbnb are being paid to do for you? You're advertising for them! At the bottom of every Airbnb listing theres the "These listings are also available..." Pay for advertising if you feel the need, but at least control the results you achieve directly for your own benefit by having your own web existence... even if its only a photograph and an enquiry number.

Facebook, Instagram, Web. Yes, you need to be there. Twitter too for influencing Airbnb when things go pear shaped.