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


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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.

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131 Replies 131
Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@LizzieI was lucky, because I had a cousin who was a host already, and who also works in real estate, so he is very good at property descriptions and he helped me polish my listing description. He also showed it to a consultant for their feedback. I took my pictures in natural light, where possible, and although they weren't professional, I think they were decent and represented the space accurately. I spent a lot of time prepping the wording and pictures before I opened my listing: I started working on it at least a month in advance rather than leaving it to the last minute. I also had a slightly lower price to start: if the price is lower, people will be more likely to just give it a try, I think, despite the lack of reviews.  

 

I took my first booking the day I opened the listing, and I hosted my first guest three days later: the first night that was available to book. That was Friday September 1, 2017. I've hosted about 200 times since then. 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

This is great @Alexandra316  and it is nice to have someone on hand to give you some handy tips. I'm sure many new hosts will be the same with the tips you have shared here. 

 

It's interesting to hear you spent quite some time before pushing the live button to perfect your listing, I think this is a sensible outlook and then you can really feel proud of what you are presenting. 🙂 

 

Once you published you listing, did you continue to tweak things? 


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


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.

@LizzieOh for sure... for the first 6 months I made changes all the time, especially renewing photos as I took new ones that I liked better than the old ones, or new amenities were added. Also, I tweaked the description as I found points that were causing confusion or I was getting a lot of questions about. I don't make as many changes now, as it seems to be working pretty well for me. 

 

Yes, I agonized over the listing, maybe a little too much 🙂 but on the plus side I've had positive reviews since day one and I think my guests have been happy. I really think that setting expectations is one of the most important parts of Airbnb hosting, and the listing is obviously the key to that. 

Oh and @Ben551 you reminded me that my opening day was strategic as well. Summer is insanely busy in wine country, so I waited until September when things were dying down a bit to open the listing. 

 

Then my first guest was a (Canadian) famous person, which was nerve-wracking for me as a new host. It was a bit of a case of being thrown into the deep end, but it's all gone pretty well I think!

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Alexandra316 

 

Yeah, I imagine (in terms of time of year) that you want to make sure you find a good balance between being rushed off your feet and opening in peak and opening when it is normally really quiet. 

 

Do you think that many hosting think of this when you push go on their listing? I support there are normally lots of different things that impact this decision. 


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


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.

@LizzieIf a host is hosting an investment property, I'd think that their goal would just be to open as quickly as possble, without any real strategy. The busier, the better. For those of us who are just hosting part of our homes or personal properties, that may play less of a role. My focus was on getting it right, right out of the gate: I didn't rush anything. If you start with mis-steps and you get less-than-perfect reviews, you may never recover. There was someone locally who only hosted three times: the first two reviews were good, and the third was an absolute stinker. They never got another booking. There is too much competition to be slapdash. 

 

I've observed something really interesting in my local market since I started hosting. Most hosts have turned over since I opened: only about 1/3 of the hosts who were hosting at the start are still at it. Quite a few have also started after I did and alread quit. I would be interested in the stats for host burnout/turnover. It seems to be particularly high in those who are hosting remotely. They open up shop, then end up closing and moving to long-term tenants or selling the property.

I remodeled the property I lease to rent it out as an Airbnb.  Took a few months. I have a way with words when describing what I see and how it makes me feel  I am a artist and designer and worked as an interior designer for 30 yrs so selling something of comfort and beauty comes naturally to me the minute I went live I booked a couple from Spain then withing an hour had the Month of April and the next 2 months booked. I didnt sleep that night , my phone just kept pinging. It was nuts in all the best ways. Not so much now anymore . That was 3 yrs ago. The vacation  rental business population has quadrupled in my tiny city so yah. Bookings tapered off aft er a year. And with all of the restrictions on us I'm not thrilled about not knowing who's requesting. Usually when someone is hiding something is when they would need instant book in my city. Every city is different I would imagine. What is the draw, why do people go there and if your not in. A city people travel to for obvious reasons then that's trouble too. Its ending up having had cost me so very much. Honestly I dont have any family that will ever use it I dont think I can. I have only rented to one in the past couple months and that individual ended up being 6 full grown men and as a 57 yr old woman I had to face them all at 3am to kick them out of my lift. So very Dangerous 

Hussam5
Level 2
San Andrés and Providencia, Colombia


@Alexandra316 wrote:

Oh and @Ben551 you reminded me that my opening day was strategic as well. Summer is insanely busy in wine country, so I waited until September when things were dying down a bit to open the listing. 

 

Then my first guest was a (Canadian) famous person, which was nerve-wracking for me as a new host. It was a bit of a case of being thrown into the deep end, but it's all gone pretty well I think!


Something similar happened to me, my first guest was a famous girl here in Colombia. The truth, I didnt know about her till she was gone and then I was going to tag here in our social media accounts and noticed that she is really famous. Thanks for the tips!

My first booking came quite soon after I first posted my listing. I had a professional real estate photographer take my pictures and they really helped draw people in. I’ve only been doing it for a few months but I’ve been pretty much fully booked. So far, so good. 

Nice

Pauline120
Level 2
Cheltenham, United Kingdom

Good photos are a must . I was fortunate enough to have a professional photographer that Airbnb provided .

This has definitely helped getting lots of bookings so my advice when starting is to invest in a professional photographer 

you wont regret it . 

Alexandre thanks a lot as I have a great spot near ocean . Not getting any bookings at all so will try to tweak

Wow, wish i was that lucky.  I am hosting from St. Lucia.  waited a long time before I got my first booking.

well you can refer guests to Sunset view guest house...Canaries, St. Lucia.

That's nicevto hear, at the moment am also new here and would

Love to host as well but I guess this is becoming difficult than I thot .please have a look at my kisting