Help Needed Getting NEW Bookings

[Priscilla150]

I opened in March and was booked almost every night until recently when it appears as if I am only getting a trickling of bookings.

Can someone offer me some good advice as to how to build my bookings back up again?

And is there someway to have my booking closer to the top of the page?

Here is my listing:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/32887885

Thank you in advance.

Priscilla

[Priscilla150]

Great suggestions.  Thank you very much.

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

As a guest, when searching for a place to stay, I pay keen attention to the photos.  It's good you captioned them.  Photos must be well lit and show a place that is clean, tidy, comfortable, and has nice furnishings.   After looking at the photos,  I glance through the description, then I read the reviews, if still interested, I then carefully and fully re-read the description. 

The reviews from previous guests and how the host responds to them makes a difference..  With your listing there is a review that mentions other renters in the same house, but nothing in your listing description points to that. Your response to that review is lengthy and defensive, which doesn't reflect well on you.   Also, I'd advise against showing your disappointment publicly about receiving a 4-star review.  As a potential guest, that would turn me off. 

The room is quite lovely.  I'd mention something in your description about what makes this room unique.  I'd also be interested to know how many people are expected to share the same bathroom.  In some private room listings a shared bathroom is shared with only  the hosts and in some places it's shared with other guests.  This makes a difference. Hosts tend to keep shared bathrooms clean and tidy. On the other hand, sharing a bathroom with other guests is a gamble.

Do you have multiple rooms in your home that you rent to renters and only one that you offer on Airbnb?  From the reviews it seems as if that is the case.  As a host, how do prefer to interact with your guests?  From the reviews, it sounds like you are quite personable. You can describe in your listing how you interact with guests, which is quite helpful for guests to know in advance. Clear house rules on the listing and in your orientation book are fine, but posting signs in a private dwelling doesn't reflect well.  Guest impressions and expectations are formed from their interpretation of what we hosts present in our listings. It's critical to get this part right. Good luck!

[Priscilla150]

Great input.  Thank you very much.  I will be taking or having better pictures taken and work on my description.  I appreciate your time to respond.

Priscilla

[Matt682]

@Priscilla150 I had a look at your listing and then did a search for other similar properties in Salem. Your peers are setting the bar very high to be sure!

I would echo the points already raised...

10-15 bright, good quality, captioned photographs are key. I’d love a photo that showed more detail of the comforter - I’m a Brit, but it looks like it would really represent the true American Settler -types... the men and women that had such a big role in your history. Show me a picture of that great BBQ I can use to cook out on.

Lose any laminated signs.

The policy around sleeping arrangements would put me off even as a solo traveller, I think a good number of my guests would be excluded (or not want to stay) if I carried this policy, it gives an impression that the home may be uncomfortable for those people, and it might well fall foul of the non-discrimination rules. I know this is tricky because it’s your home, and your values are obviously important to you. This single rule however may well be having the biggest impact on your bookings.

Still some typos in there I think.

I would add...

Ammend your description to focus more on all the great things about your lovely home, the location, the history of the area, accessibility to key Interstates or to landmarks, that sort of thing. Maybe bullet point some specifics: 5 mins to that hospital, 10 minutes to Junction X on the Interstate and so on.

No need to lead with the fact it’s a small room, it looks perfectly fine to me 🙂

Put the dryer and washing machine back in, include the detergent, and charge a fee. My guests are happy to pay for it, and I would assume that you would lose long-stay guests by not offering it.

Hope that all helps! 🙂 Good luck with everything, and I hope your bookings pick up soon!

[Priscilla150]

Thank you very much.  I really appreciate your time to give me your input of which I value.

Priscilla

[Ann489]

@Priscilla150   did you decide to take your listing down?

[Priscilla150]

No I did not.  It was taken down due to someone reporting my statement regarding unmarried couples being accomodated, but in separate beds.  Coincidentally this happened right after my posting a discussion here.  

[Ann489]

@Priscilla150   I'm not too surprised to be honest....whenever you post anything in this forum, it is seen by hundreds of people in a very short period of time.    😕                   

[Priscilla150]

Apparently that is true about this forum.  It can help or hurt you, depending on what is going on with your listing.    I have changed my listing to be 1 bedroom, 1 person.  This is all so new to me.  I started doing this to supplement my limited income.   I am still trying to grasp the concept that what use to be wrong is now right and what was right is now wrong.   Then I chuckle, because if this is a hard concept for me, imagine how hard it is for those that are in their 90's + and grew up in an entirely different era.

[Sarah977]

@Priscilla150  Well, although I disagreed here with dictating that couples have to sleep separately if they aren't married, I can assure you that I certainly didn't report you. I think everyone has a right to express their opinion here and we often disagree or have different points of view.

The only posts I ever report on this forum are blatant advertising from those whose profiles make it evident that they are neither hosts nor guests and just joined to post free advertising for their personal business.

BTW, I only host one guest at a time myself, and I actually really like that. Even if my guest room could accomodate 2, I think I'd stick with one. My experience is that solo travelers tend to be friendly, independent, and adaptable.

[Alexandra316]

@Priscilla150 Just a note regarding your change to only allow one person to book: you still mention in your listing that the person can add other people, but there's no way for the guest to do that. If the guest is looking for an accomodation for 2, your place won't come up in search results either.

[Lois52]

Why I would say low quality is that the person did not respect house rules.

[Lois52]

@Priscilla150 Just deleted the additional charge, thank you for pointing that out.