It’s spring 2022 and we’re coming off a tear of 2 strong years in hosting. The pandemic saw a boom in local travel business which meant great bookings for many Airbnb hosts as potential guests sought out longer vacation stays within driving distance. However, we now find ourselves in a period of inflation and the early stages of societal belt-tightening when it comes to vacation travel. But, do not let this worry you. With increased competition comes greater opportunities for you to grow your business and better serve your clientele in the process.
It’s important to remember that the tools we use as hosts are a technology. Airbnb is first and foremost a tech company which means that we have to understand the algorithms that drive bookings just as much as we need to create inviting experiences for our guests. In understanding that, some of these suggestions are meant to nudge the software in sending potential guests to your listing, while some are simply meant to improve your listing for your future guest, just call it brushing up your listing's curb appeal. It’s Showing your future guests that you’re attentive to the details and their needs.
So let's dig into 5 ways you can improve your Airbnb listing to increase bookings no matter the season or shape of the economy.
1. Complete Airbnb’s recommended listing updates:
This one’s simple: But completing the platform's recommended updates is a great first step in optimizing your listing. Often we get so busy with the operations of our hosting that we forget about the simplest updates to our listing. We put time into building a listing and launching our property, but then 6 months Airbnb updates the platform and they have recommendations for us based on those updates. What we’re doing is taking the platform’s recommendations to make updates, and in doing so the software will see us as a worthwhile host.
To do this - just go to your listing page and hit the update button next to your listing. It’ll walk you through a series of questions that you may have left unanswered or recent updates to the platform in your hosting region that they believe your guests might find helpful.
2. Edit your Title:
Again, this one is straightforward but often overlooked...
Now’s the time to adjust your listing title with seasonally specific elements. If you own a ski condo and the ski season’s over, start highlighting things that are unique to your area for the spring/summer season. Things like hiking, boating, wine tasting, breweries, and golf - featuring these things in your title and description helps with your search rankings as well as give your guests quick takeaways without having to look further into your listing.
Super simple but very powerful.
3. Optimize your Photo Selection:
When we talk about curb appeal, this is what we’re referring to. If you have a library of photos for your home, cycle through some new photos, and change them up depending on the season.
....Pro tip: A good habit to get into in these downtimes is A/B testing your photos. Your cover photo is the main photo your guests see when they search properties so pick the top 2 or 3 photos that best communicate your home and test them against each other over the course of a few weeks. You'll find that one photo connects with guests more than others.
And if you don’t have a complete library of photos for your home, now would be a great time to take some new pictures that highlight recent upgrades, seasonal changes, and maybe even factors your guests have told you they enjoy most in your home through comments, reviews, and messages.
4. Adjust your pricing:
With this, I’m not saying give your house away for free. I know Pricing is one of the regular pain points when it comes to hosting your home. So how much do you charge..? You always want to remain competitive but should never devalue your own home and the experience you uniquely offer.
A helpful practice: Lower your smart pricing settings and manually adjust the specific days and time frames for your desired price range. What this does is create affordability around your home while also not devaluing it.
To do this - You just go into your pricing and availability settings, click “edit” under nightly price, and use the “tip” price suggested by Airbnb for the lower and upper price limits. From there you can go into your calendar and manually adjust the price for specific days at a rate you’d prefer to book for - increasing your rates for busier times such as weekends, holidays, and seasonal stays.
And, last but certainly not least...
5. Fine-tune your Calendar Dates:
This is similar to the method used to adjust your pricing, you’ll lower your length of stay requirement and then manually adjust the windows of times that you’d prefer to have longer bookings.
To do this - Under the pricing and availability tab go into Trip Length. Set your minimum stay to a reasonable stay duration that you think works best for your home, say it’s 2 Nights. Then, below that click on Edit for the “Custom Trip Lengths”. In there click “add another requirement”. Under the duration tab, drop down to “specific dates”. From there you can create the custom trip lengths for the window of time that you set. This allows you to have the Airbnb platform feature your shortened window of stay as a potential benefit for guests, while also giving you your preferred duration when guests book. So if you’d like to book 5 or 7-night stays but don’t want to lose broad exposure to bookings, you can do that here.
This is meant to drive people to your listing giving them the chance to see what you offer them while still retaining more control over your preferred booking settings, like pricing and trip length.
So there you have it, your 5 ways to improve your Airbnb listing and increase bookings through downtime, no matter the season or shape of the economy.
If you are new to hosting and looking to start renting your home then USE THIS LINK below to get a discount for signing up as a new Airbnb host.
And, of course, send us a message. We'd be happy to help.