Buying an investment property, particularly buying Airbnb property, and managing it makes a fun and lucrative investment, if planned correctly. Not only will you be earning a high return on your investment, but you will also be providing an enjoyable experience to tenants.
To earn high returns from your Airbnb investment, you want to ensure that your Airbnb property is rented most of the year. You want to have the highest Airbnb occupancy rate on your investment so as to earn the highest rental income from your property.
Today we will present you with 13 tips that we have collected from the most successful real estate investors out there. Follow the tips below, and we assure you that your Airbnb investment will attract the most tenants.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #1: Become a Superhost
Airbnb has recently created a Superhost status where a Superhost badge is posted on your profile upon having met certain criteria. To qualify as a Superhost, you ought to have achieved the following: hosted at least 10 trips a year, maintained at least a 90% response rate, achieved a 5-star rating on 80% of the reviews, and did not cancel any reservations.
Becoming a Superhost will comfort tenants to pursue your Airbnb investment and aid in maximizing your Airbnb occupancy rate.
Related: Best Cities for Airbnb Occupancy Rates
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #2: Take Professional Photos of Your Property
Pictures make a great incentive for tenants to book your Airbnb property. Potential tenants are often tourists that live farther away, and, therefore, are unable to physically assess the property. Hence, they rely heavily on photos in selecting their accommodation. In fact, photos are the most crucial factor in obtaining bookings.
Definitely invest in professional photos to sell your product! Luckily for you, Airbnb offers free access to professional photography, depending on your location. Make use of this service.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #3: Reviews Make It or Break It!
Reviews are also an important factor in bookings. When tenants screen for Airbnb properties, one of the first elements they look into are reviews. Make sure to attend to your tenants fully to receive positive reviews. The more positive reviews you have, the more bookings you can expect. Do not forget that 5-star reviews will also qualify you to become a Superhost!
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #4: Offer an Enjoyable Experience
Tourists resort to Airbnb as opposed to other short-term rentals because Airbnb is exquisite in the experience that it offers. You want to offer an enjoyable experience to your tenants. You can do so by welcoming guests with a welcome gift basket and providing refreshments and continental foods.
Additionally, you can also provide brochures of restaurants and amenities nearby. Consider the tiniest details as they can improve your Airbnb occupancy rate.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #5: Maintain Cleanliness
Tenants want a clean house to stay in, especially since they are already staying in someone else’s home. Make sure your house is clean before tenants move in, and be wary of the small details. Cleanliness might be tedious, but you can hire a cleaning company to do the cleaning for you.
Consider Pillow, Guesty for Hosts, and Handy for cleaning services, if you opt out of cleaning yourself. Often times, these services offer coupons and great deals. Check out their websites to learn more.
Related: 4 Don’ts for Airbnb Occupancy Rates
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #6: Select the Right Location
The location of an Airbnb property is an important factor in achieving a high Airbnb occupancy rate. When buying an investment property, make sure to retrieve Airbnb occupancy rate data and choose a location with the highest occupancy rates.
For best cities for Airbnb investment, visit Mashvisor. You can, furthermore, use Mashvisor’s rental property finder to find properties with high occupancy rate by city.
To start looking for and analyzing the best investment properties in your city and neighborhood of choice, click here.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #7: Study Legal Issues
Recently, new regulations have been enforced restricting the use of short-term rentals. To avoid downtime in renting out your Airbnb investment, you must look into your local city’s regulations and laws. Some states have completely banned renting out for less than 30 days, while others have enforced more paperwork to be done to short let your property.
Make sure to stay updated with the laws governing Airbnb rentals as this may greatly impact your Airbnb occupancy rate.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #8: Make Your Property More Affordable
To increase your Airbnb occupancy rate, you want to stand out among other Airbnb properties within your area. To do so, you could offer more affordable rates than other similar Airbnb rentals. When you offer lower prices, guests save money; therefore, the chance of getting good reviews becomes higher.
Remember, the more positive reviews, the more likely tenants would want to rent your property and for longer. But do not lower the price too much. Lower your prices, yet earn a considerable profit margin.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #9: Use Instant Book
You should enable Instant Book for your listings. Instant booking does not require approval from the host before tenants can book. Instead, tenants just choose their travel dates and discuss check-in protocols with the host. This feature will certainly increase your occupancy rate as it facilitates bookings.
What’s also great about Instant Book is that potential renters will not be charged an additional fee for confirming a reservation with Instant Book.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #10: Consider Seasonal Makeover
Maintaining a property in the best condition possible will attract tenants to your Airbnb property. You do not have to spend a lot of money to make some changes; in fact, the littlest changes make the most impact.
For example, you can grow summer flowers during the summer, and/or add some touch-ups to the décor such as summer lights. Make sure to document these changes by taking photos and continuously updating them.
Related: Airbnb Reviews: Top Influencers Affecting Your Occupancy Rate
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #11: Make Offers
When it’s low season for Airbnb rental property, you can increase your Airbnb occupancy rate by making offers. Offer a discount on your rate for a short period of time. Do not offer discounts in high season, because you will already have plenty of tenants that would want accommodation.
Assess occupancy rate data in the area to learn of the seasons where Airbnb occupancy rate is the lowest. Moreover, you could still offer the same rate but include a bonus for staying for x amount of days in your property. Not only will you incentivize tenants to stay longer in your Airbnb rental property, but you will also have fewer fees associated with tenant turnover.
Use Mashvisor’s rental property finder tool to start looking for properties. The rental property finder tool allows real estate investors to easily navigate through properties according to specific search criteria that investors set. The tool will search for investment properties in the city of your choice with the highest potential for profit based on their cap rate, cash on cash return, and occupancy rate.
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #12: Consider Long-Term Rentals
If you are in an area that is not vibrant in the number of tourists, you should consider long-term rentals. Target a certain niche, maybe businessmen that come for longer training workshops, or even exchange students.
Assess the market carefully and tailor your rental accordingly. Consider speaking to a local real estate agent to learn of the trends in your neighborhood.
Related: Real Estate Investors, Have You Heard About Airbnb Long Term Rentals?
Maximize Airbnb Occupancy Rate Tip #13: Finally, Hire Professional Airbnb Property Management Services
Often times, real estate investors do not dedicate their utmost attention to managing their property and thus fail to please tenants. This could result in unhappy tenants, bad reviews, and thus lower occupancy rates. If you fall into this category, we then recommend hiring an Airbnb property management company.
An Airbnb property manager does a lot of tasks like screening tenants, checking tenants in, attending to tenant requests and problems, and even collecting rent.
As you take into account the aforementioned tips, we are certain that you will have a high Airbnb occupancy rate. Tenants would even want to stay longer in your property, therefore, lowering your running costs. Remember to study trends within your area and identify your target market.
We hope you have benefited from the tips explained in this piece. For more information about Airbnb rental properties, visit Mashvisor.