How did you attract your first booking?

Answered!
Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

How did you attract your first booking?

Attract your first booking.jpg

 

Hello everyone,

 

Thinking back to when you first joined Airbnb, before you got your first booking.

 

What did you do to make your listing attractive, to entice your first guest to book your home?

 

Did it take you long to welcome your first guest?

 

Thanks,

Lizzie


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

1 Best Answer
Andrew395
Level 3
Bali, Indonesia

Well for me, Airbnb was an unexpected event which literally saved my A**

 

Whilst  staying in Singapore for a few nights while waiting for my saxophone to be repaired I was listening to the radio in my hotel room and a short news item sounded talking about Airbnb. I had never heard about Airbnb and it was something which was on my mind on how to rent out my villa in Bali.

 

 It was funny as I had to scramble around to find a pen as the wording Airbnb so new to me, I was worried I may forget, as it happened, I lost the paper and did remember the word Airbnb and the rest is history.

 

 I had no real plan or experience in letting out property to strangers, therefore many mistakes were made and a great rush of ideas ran through my mind during the first year which caused  lots of anxiety as I knew what had to be done to improve matters. I was extremely lucky with the first guest as they wrote a good review but after that the reviews were mediocre but I was thankful to the guests who privately told me where I could improve.

 

 From that day onwards it became an addiction or rather a hobby to make everything wonderful and to make the guests feel happy. In the beginning I papered over the cracks with my personality and friendly approach which made up any shortcomings that were still lingering.

 

 I had a lot of contact with the guests who came to the Villa as I lived next door and it was easy for me to assist them and for me to learn more about what they really want from an Airbnb. I was also lucky  because my wife could make scrumptious food and in the beginning we offered this as an extra service and complimentary breakfast on their first day.

 

After a few years of hosting we finally became a super host which was the goal  as I could see the many benefits of being a super host on the Airbnb platform. Now in my fifth year I have encountered many types of people and rarely do I feel anxious when the new guest arrives. 

 

I now have everything perfect for hosting but still tweak, for example moving furniture around matching different colours and improving the interior to produce a calm relaxing environment. This is something I enjoy and did not realise  I have a little inner talent within this department. I know it can be expensive to update your property but it’s well worth it if you’re in for the long haul. 

 

 I also learnt a few wise things on the way in relation to mixing and socialising with this guests. In the early days I was always happy when the guests would invite me in for a drink as why not this is life and people are fun.  However some guests like to drink far too much which does not mix with my character but on one occasion because the guest was a music fanatic and a professional drummer in his younger days we stayed up late till 3 am swimming naked together in the pool and making music while his wife and daughter trying to sleep. 

 

 It was only when his wife stood outside the bedroom and shouting to the husband that it’s now nearly 4 am and she has not slept all night and would you stop making that noise and come to bed. Well looking back how embarrassing that was for me, I’m not too sure about the husband but for me it was the final time in getting really close to the guests as you need to distance yourself and to act professionally as you never know when it all might go wrong.

View Best Answer in original post

131 Replies 131
Nick707
Level 2
Carmel, IN

I ended up providing a discounted rate for the first people that booked my place. Also, I would recommend having a form of clickbait in your title of the listing. My title for my listing is "Close to IU - The Hoosier 325". My listing is near the college of Indiana University so I created a title kinda related to it. You could also say something like "Close to Downtown" or some other location that is popular near your listing. 

 

Here's a video of how I prepare my Airbnb listing for guests. 

 

https://youtu.be/4qspmHN62K8

I agree on the title! 

 

With my listings, I only revert to the non sexy version, when my listings are busy.

Steven532
Level 6
Longford, Australia

Good and full description, great pics and start with discount!

 

Simple really

Hi, its been a while now that i joined and i have not yet booked any guests. so am wondering what i need to do next any surggestions.

@Kagoro0 hi! I checked your listings and was a bit confused as to what you are actually offering. Is the first listing for the house or just one room? The second listing looks like just a room with a lot of bathrooms.

if you are renting individual rooms, then create a separate listing for each room. Give each room a unique name, maybe be the predominant color or feature In The room. Describe each bedroom and show lots of pictures of bedrooms, bathrooms, and shared spaces. Good luck!

Hi Kagoro

 

Hoping by now you already have a few guests booked.

Depending on where you live you need to be aware of what other folk are charging for a similar offering to yours. Get the price matched and then offer extra services to encourage your potential guests. Breakfast, Laundry and fast internet, free water. Think of these extra services as your marketing strategies which you pay for yourself by offering free services.

 

once you have guests, you can learn much more about what you are doing as most will tell you how to improve....God Bless

Qc0
Level 2
Montreal, Canada

Hi everyone, I’m new to this and recently started hosting at the beginning of June. I get my first booking a few hours after listing and it was a booking for 5 days later, which I was very happy about since that would give me time to prepare. I wasn’t ready at the time of listing and only posted 3 pictures that I took with my iphone at 10pm. But since i got 5 days to prepare so I thought no problem right? Wrong, I had instant booking on and next morning I had a same day booking at 10am and check in time was 3pm. I had 5 hours to get a 3BR apartment ready, It was stressful but everything turned out to be a positive experience. 

We got our first guests a month or so after listing. A super-nice older couple who ate breakfast with us visited with us before they had to leave and left a glowing review the next day. Felt so blessed! 

I believe they booked with us because we had competitive pricing for our town and our pictures were appealing. We also were quick to respond and we make sure our listing is accurate ( I think that probably helped with the review). 

We don't live in a super busy area but when we leave our calendar as open as possible we seem to be garnering a fair amount of bookings. Hope it keeps up!  Our next move is to get even better pictures.

 

@Lizzie 

 

I have the following question. Lately I received too many inquiries - nobody booked. But all these guests were really searching an accommodation for a date which was free on my calendar and I am almost sure they could hardly find a cheaper place. But all of them wanted to skip the service fee - they did not tell me that right away - but were asking me either that I write them my address, or give them my telephone number, were telling me that they are 2, 3 or 4 persons but made the inquiry for just one, or asked me straight away to do the payment in cash. I think that it is quite probable that some hosts might agree to such proposition and in this way they will compete in an unfair way with hosts who follow strictly airbnb rules. My question is - Can the airbnb algorythm cach such doings? i.e. the phone number may be written in words, the language might not be English, ect.        

Hello6
Level 10
Canary Islands, Spain

Airbnb offered to email a select group a one-time 5% extra discount.  We accepted this proposal as we could not go lower then 9 Euros a night on the Airbnb system for our hostel beds.  Being new, and currently exclusively listing thrugh airbnb, the advantage of going lower during slow season then 9 euros brought us our first guests.  The 5% extra off we think helped shift the balance.  The discount and who they emailed seemed to work.  Guests booked, arrived and have loved the place.  It is nice that the first few guests even asked and booked to stay longer.  Getting the great reviews from our first guests should certainly help attract more as well.  There are over 32 hostels in our city and most have a listing or more on Airbnb and other sites.  So it is a competitive market.  The 5% really helped get the first guests in the door.  🙂 .  It is very hard to compete starting with no reviews in slow season as every listing closer to the beach (with reviews) then ours is offering near the same prices.  Hopefully with the good reviews now future guests will see we are legit, our prices can be a lower as we are further away from the beach and we are a great place to stay.  We went almost a month with only inquires before about our low prices but no bookings.   Guests were maybe worried we think that we were a fake or scary listing because of the low prices and no reviews.    

Jackie410
Level 1
Cirencester, United Kingdom

Hi, this is my first time posting here. I've been listed for about 4 months now and decided to differentiate myself by appealing to families with small children (under 5s).  It's working really well. I provide pretty much everything for babies (including use of an off road buggy for walks).  If people don't have to worry about bringing their own kit, it's a big bonus.  I also provide good quality toys and books so the children are occupied.  Happy children = happy guests 🙂

But...do you provide Milk as well? Excuse my humour.

 

Jackie, I thought the same, but realised you need a mixed bag of people, as families with youngsters are just a small percentage of what Airbnb can offer you. Perhaps think of what other groups you could attract to balance your attraction.

Nancy115
Level 5
Mills River, NC

@Lizzie I reviewed listings of local hosts and super hosts in general. I had a good name for my listing and good pictures. when I started hosting the competition was limited, now it's expanded greatly. Over time I updated the description, pictures, content, rules, ... everything as I learned about hosting. I still tweak my information when I find a gap, a new feature is released or I learn something new. 

Mary1662
Level 2
Nakuru, Kenya

i am new i need pointers to attract my new 1st host please.

@Mary1662 @Hi! I checked out your listings and was confused as to what exactly you are offering. Do you have a house that you will rent out whole and another that is shared with multiple guests. Do you live there ? You might clarify exactly what you are offering. Include lots of photos of the interior spaces, including bedrooms, bathrooms, shared spaces. Good luck!