Booking Rate/Low booking in a place with low occupancy.

Gabriela242
Level 2
Auburn Hills, MI

Booking Rate/Low booking in a place with low occupancy.

Hello,

 I am new airbnb host, and I am having trouble aquiring bookings. I am currently renting out an entire home

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21449921?preview_for_ml. We have had 3 inquiries this month (questions about booking or questions regards to whether we allow pets, however noone seems to book. I took hundreds of photos, as well as updated my listing description use an SEO word analyzer tool to optimize keywords. I also made sure I made amenities available. Looking at my stats, I am achieving about 10 views per day for the listing, with a few view spikes during haloween. We have yet to recieve a booking but eager to get results. There is currently only 1 other entire home being listed in our area, so competition is minimal. Our base price is currently $111 per night, + $79 cleaning fee + $65 per extra guest. The occupancy rate of auburn hills via AirDNa data is 33%, so i figured we could have atleast 10 nights booked, however we yet to have a single inquiry.    

I am wondering if this low of a view account is normal, or if it is possible that AirBnb cost be impeding my books. I am also wondering if the lack of reviews could be deterring potential booking. We are currently ranked 7th or 8th on the page if you do a search in our area, I believe in terms of SEO we are doing ok.

 

Any advice or ideas on a solution to get a booking. Thanks!bookingctTPbnb.png

9 Replies 9
Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

10 views/day during low season is not bad.

It is low season.

Your reviews are good and your pictures are good.

However your first picture is not compelling. 

It is a kitchen with your stuff on the refridgerator

I want to travel and enjoy. Show me something enjoyable - an enticing bed, a comfortable living room or some lifestyle activity that draws me in.

 

thank you, i updated the cover photo, so hopefully this will help!

 

 

@Gabriela242, I don't know what other people's booking rate % is, but mine is a bit below 1%. That means it would be normal to not have a booking yet with about 119 views.

Maybe figure out a way to increase the number of views? I know 10 views per day is normal for low season, but as a host, the more views the better!

Marco676
Level 2
Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

Hello Gabriela,

Do you use social media to promote your listing? For instance, I have an Instagram account (with a link to the listing) where I regularly post pictures of my listing and interesting places or events nearby. I've noticed that since I started doing this my listing's views and bookings have increased significantly.

this sounds like a great idea! how do you find viewers or followers for your instagram that specifically want to book airbnb. In other words, how do you reach a target demographic that wants to book on airbnb, rather than just generic instagram users.

 

 

thanks!

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Gabriela242,

 

Thanks for asking about this here. I wonder if you have seen this post providing a little more information on how search works? If not, I thought this might be interesting for you to look at, as similiarly to @Paul154's suggestion on photography, this might give you some ideas on how to improve how many people are seeing your listing.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Lizzie


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Marco676
Level 2
Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

Hi @Gabriela242,
Sorry for taking so long to answer your question.
I use hashtags in every photo such as #Airbnb #travel #accomodation #trip... to reach users looking for traveling and renting a house and I also use geographic hashtags so that guests looking for places in my area can see my photos, in my case I use #Portugal (my country) #CaldasDaRainha (the city where the apartment is located) #Obidos (a nearby medieval town that is the main atraction next to the listing).

@Gabriela242

Your home is lovely! But one question kept floating around in my head...... what kind of guests are you hoping to attract??? Or, who is your target customer? - sorry, did a stint in marketing 🙂 

 

You mentioned that there is only one other entire home listing and so competition is minimal BUT I can't help but think maybe your area does not have a big influx of large groups looking for a large entire home listing? Did you take a look at your competitor's calendar for the next couple months? Do they seem busy/booked? If there is a limited demand for large homes and there are more smaller groups (3~5 people) looking for places to stay, would you be open to locking up part of the home (limiting access) and making the price more attractive for smaller groups of guests or maybe even host 2 different groups at the same time with common areas shared? (You could have 3 listings with calenders linked so that if any smaller group books, then the entire house listing is blocked and vice versa)

 

I suggest you do a bit of investigating to better understand the type of people travelling to your corner of the world - people on business trips? passing by? people coming to visit family in that area? Are there any seasonal events/festivals that attract visitors? Maybe there's a regular supply of students or faculty coming to a nearby school/university?

 

Hope this helps!!! Good luck~

 

 

I have 3 rooms that share a bath, I also live in the home..I live in auburn hills subdivision in kcmo.  I currently have all rooms book. I think whole house price is high.