Please help me get more bookings

Binisha0
Level 2
Seattle, WA

Please help me get more bookings

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New to the hosting gig! Its been both exciting and nerve racking. Could you please critique my place and let me know if you would book at the listed price. We launched last week and have one booking for 16 days. 

 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/628558917925576312?check_in=2022-06-28&check_out=2022-07-01&guests=1&ad...

 

thank you all! 

13 Replies 13
Annie1372
Level 10
Montreal, Canada

@Binisha0 

 

Your booking looks nice. I think you have started your AirBNB host journey on a bad timings.

 

many of us also have much fewer booking than before, since this latest update from AirBNB done in may 2022

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Airbnb-2022-Summer-Release-What-you-need-to-know/...

 

Good luck

.
Annie

Thank you @Annie1372 

@Binisha0   Your home is beautiful - a place I'd love to stay in. I like the subtle color schemes, tasteful furniture, thoughtfully stocked kitchen, very thorough descriptions. The feature that will be your biggest selling point and earn the most raves in the reviews is undoubtedly the deck with the killer view. But your listing photos sell it a bit short; I'd suggest getting a wide photo that shows the whole deck, with deep enough focus to also show the view, and making that your lead photo. The one that's currently in the first position doesn't really belong there, as it shows nothing special about your house, so that one can go to the back of the queue.

 

Some notes:  that title has to go. It's a garbled, unreadable word soup that kills the beauty of the photos beneath it. I suggest cutting that down to just a few words that you can comfortably say out loud, like the title of a book or movie. Let the pictures do the rest of the describing; instead of using the word "sunrise" twice in the title, why not just lead with a great photo of sunrise on the deck?

 

Also:  it's OK to have House Rules in the body of your description, but they should also be in the House Rules tab since that's where guests actually have to click a box to agree to them. And since Airbnb doesn't offer a way to configure your occupancy limit to distinguish adults from children, you unfortunately need to set it as the max number of adults. Counterintuitively, lowering the maximum group size can help attract more bookings, as it positions you better in searches for groups of 4, 5, or 6, which are all more common than searches for 8.

 

I'd like to say that these small improvements will help you get more bookings, but as @Annie1372 pointed out, hosts are at the mercy of a really crappy new search formula that directs guests away from their choice destination and pushes them to click on "categories" that are designated by a deeply flawed algorithm rather than host input. I think you have all the right stuff to succeed, but you might ultimately have to list on other platforms to meet your occupancy targets. 

Thank you @Anonymous already applied most of your suggestions. Love that we get to rely on a community like this for support 🙂

Renee291
Level 7
Cincinnati, OH

 Your place looks great. I went into the airbnb app and searched for your place and you have quite a bit of competition. You may want to look at other listings in that area for keywords that might get caught in search filters. You are also on the high end of pricing for listings in that area, and I'm not saying that your place is overpriced,  I'm saying that naturally you will have a smaller market to pull from. When I was a new host, I offered a fairly significant discount to the 1st few bookings, and you could determine what type of discount you could bear, but that seemed to help me get a few listings and reviews. I really think positive guest reviews help. The review you do have is wonderful, comprehensive and Extremely positive. Congratulations on that!  Good luck!

 Thank you @Renee291  for taking the time to give your feedback. We are lowering our price. 

Kia272
Level 10
Takoma Park, MD

@Binisha0 Really lovely place. I'm sure it will be very successful as an STR. 

There are a number of typos and misspellings in your listing and photo captions  that you may want to correct. You are catering to a high-end crowd, and presentation is everything. 

"Mountains" is misspelled in the title. Dinning should be dining. 

"Sunrises" is an awkward word. Maybe try to rewrite the sentences so that you can use sunrise singularly, as in "Enjoy the sunrise over Puget Sound."

The word "Pap" starts your written description?? 

I'm not trying to come across as a know-it-all, just thinking that this improves the overall presentation of your gorgeous property. The Mountains thing is crucial though, as it won't pick up as a key word when it's misspelled (I think).

Also, your cleaning fee seems really high. However much it costs you to have the place cleaned, you don't have to charge your guests the exact dollar amount. I think it's best to have a more moderate cleaning fee and to work the remainder of the cleaning cost into your nightly rate. Just my humble opinion. But at the price, I wouldn't ask a thing of guests when checking out, other than to leave the place as they found it. Some hosts ask guests to do a multitude of things when checking out, including taking out the trash and sometimes even starting loads of laundry. I'm not a fan of that at all. I'm just saying that a guest in your place might find that annoying, given that they've paid such a large cleaning fee. 

Best of luck with your hosting. Kia

 

@Kia272 

 

Great advice 👍🏻

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Annie

Thanks @Annie1372 !

 @Kia272 Thank you so much! I truly value your feedback. No excuses for all the typos. Fixed all the ones I could see. Also updated house rules. I am contemplating lowering cleaning fee. Will make changes soon. 

Again, thank you! 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Also don't just rely on Airbnb you can list on multiple platforms and take direct bookings as long as you link your listings together to avoid double bookings @Binisha0 

Gillian166
Level 10
Hay Valley, Australia

@Binisha0 
your place looks wonderful, and impeccably styled!

your photos are really letting you down. Get a professional in (I'm sorry i'm not the area!).  

I imagine your house rules will grow once you have a few more bookings/experiences. 

Your booking looks nice. your place looks wonderful, and impeccably styled!