How long does it take to get your first booking?

[Bernard1238]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious: how long does it take to get our first booking?

Thanks!

Content and title updated by OCM for relevance

[Elaine701]

I'm not sure by somebody sent me a private message asking me to contribute to this thread... 

... but honestly, I don't remember. I think we started with Airbnb in about 2009. I think it took about week to get a booking then. But we're in a popular tourist destination.

Nowadays anything in the near term that's available will be booked in about 24 hours. We have to block dates for maintenance and renovation.

We're currently taking bookings for June 2024. Inquires are coming into September 2024. 

Beware though, Airbnb customer support can be brain dead and even dangerous. Avoid whenever possible. 

And we had to stop our listing on VRBO because their calendar sync doesn't work and we were getting too many double bookings. Besides in 3 years, we've had 3 bookings from them (not including their cancelled double bookings for dysfunctional calendar sync). None of their guests were award winning. 2 were atrocious. Bye VRBO! 

[Angela1056]

When we put our house on Airbnb in late 2018, bookings came in almost immediately. But in the meantime so much changed: the platform changed (if you try a search on the map not all listings are showing up), the market changed (too over saturated), the customer changed (poor communication, more demanding), rules and laws have changed (even here in Italy!). Hosting is becoming more and more difficult…

[Aman6]

If you have set your listing right and offered a 20% new listing discount, you will have enquiries in 24 hours or less

[Felah0]

I think it depends on many factors as a new comer: First, the location of your property and second ,  the nature of the season that you start the business (for example are you starting a peak season or low season) and third factor is the your daily rate compared to your competitors.

[Cindee4]

Still haven't had one .....

[Daren33]

Hi Bernard, I got my first booking the next day after I listed it, however they're  a variety of factors that will determine how quickly a host receives his/her first booking.

- season

- price relative to similar properties 

- property listing presentation

- listing filters

- number of similar listings in your area

If you are having trouble just be patient. Put yourself in the shoes of the person that would search for your type of listing and design your listing to make that person feel like that found exactly what they were looking for. For me it's a large family looking for a beach vacation home that enjoys spending the majority of their vacation outside. Good luck.

[Shedou0]

It took me about half a month to get a booking, I would said offering the new listing discounts definitely increase my chance to reach to people's eyes. I felt like the algorithm love to recommend  new listing with the discounts to people. 

[Diane1465]

It took roughly a  week or two.  We got a guest for a one night stay

[Christopher1779]

I got bookings the first day I activated my listing.

[Dylan366]

Really depends on location and price you setup. I got first booking on the day I active the property 

[Sandra5919]

@Bernard1238 Hi Bernard, I would say to list your unit on the lower side of normal price range to start to book quickly and also to get some reviews under your belt.  This has served me well with new listings.  We booked just about a day or 2 with all units.  Then, slower start to increase prices and see where the sweet spot is.

[Daniel9177]

Hola Bernardo,

Pues bastante rápido, mas de lo que esperaba la verdad, también es verdad que puse un buen precio ya que al principio es interesante ganar buenas valoraciones y esto pensé que sería más difícil con un precio de mercado.

Un saludo!

[Siti-Rohani1]

Hi Bernard,

I  managed to get the first booking the very next day. Yes….putting the lowest price among the same property in the same location or around the vicinity, is the best strategy. You have to make sure that your property has that extra something which guest can talk

about and translate into a 5 star rating. Mine is the cleanliness.

All the best Bernard

[Christine1615]

hi Brendon , look on the listing close to you and see their rates per night, I started mine a little lower at first to help get started.. be sure to use Airbnb’s map for location,

best wishes 

Chrissy Perth WA

[Rose-and-Paul0]

Hi Bernard - I opened my doors in February about 7 years ago.  It took me to about a month for my first booking. At the time I believe my price was lower than anyone in my area and still is.   It seems like once I got my first reservation it took off -  make sure your guest leave a review, the reviews are what really sells your unit.  I have had a few negative reviews, but what's so nice is you can respond which is available for the public to read.

Make sure to list everything about your space. I have found that 95% of my guest do not read the description - for example in my space you can hear the train which I mention and so do they in their review but I can defend myself because I have it mentioned in my description. 

First and foremost make sure your space is clean, also that what they see is what they get.  If you have a special feature make something out of it.  You'll be fine just be patient.