There are lots of ways to improve your Airbnb listing to get higher occupancy rates. Making money with Airbnb listings is not very difficult.
In fact, a huge part of the business is simply proper advertising of your investment property. Mashvisor provides you with the following easy tips to improve your Airbnb listing.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Learn from Your Competition
If you want to get more bookings on Airbnb and a consistently high Airbnb occupancy rate, look at your competition. Take a look at the top short term rentals in your area and see what type of amenities they offer.
Such amenities will include things like Wi-Fi, Netflix, locks on bedroom doors, and snacks. These little, non-expensive things can actually boost your Airbnb occupancy rate dramatically if used correctly.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Give Details in the Profile
One thing any Airbnb guest hates is going on a profile and not finding enough information. You could have the best property on Airbnb with the best price, but without people knowing about it, it will all go to waste. Most guests are probably just going to skip over your property if they feel the profile is not informative enough.
This is a super easy and doable step to get more bookings on Airbnb. For example, describe exactly where your property is, such as how far it is from public transportation and restaurants. Also, make sure your Airbnb listing description includes all the amenities the guest will get, even the very small things.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Ask Guests for Reviews
Not all guests will leave you Airbnb reviews. This is not necessarily because they did not like your rental property. They could simply not remember to review. The best thing you can do to get good references from your Airbnb guests is to ask them for it.
Most people will be glad to give you a review if you have been decent with them. Airbnb reviews essentially make or break your business. It is standard that Airbnb reviews are so important because people don’t want to stay in a place that has a bad reputation.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Competitive Pricing
Other than looking for a good reputation, Airbnb guests will look for a good deal. Vacation rental property tenants want fun Airbnb experiences along with a deal. If your Airbnb listing is similar to another property near you, but your price is slightly better, the guest will likely choose your property.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Minimum Stay
Yes, it is always better for an Airbnb property investor when guests book for several nights. However, when you raise the number of nights to a minimum stay above one night, you will be missing out on a lot of guests.
If you are looking at how to get more bookings on Airbnb as a beginner, removing minimum stay requirements will be very beneficial. Later on, when you have a high number of Airbnb bookings, you can add a minimum stay limit.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Good Photographs!
When guests are looking for a vacation rental property online, they want as much detail as possible. While an Airbnb listing description is great, it might not be enough. Pictures are what really grab a viewer’s attention. Have a lot of high-quality pictures.
Good lighting, complementary colors, and good angles are very important here. The angle you use to take a picture of your bathroom can make or break future Airbnb bookings. Thankfully, you don’t need to be a photographer to be successful with short term rentals. Airbnb now provides a professional photography service which you can use to upgrade your profile.
Improve Airbnb Listing: The Property Needs to Be Available!
One mistake that some vacation rental investment property owners make is not letting their property be available enough for guests. There are a few reasons behind this. The first could be that the owner uses the property him/herself. The other is simply bad Airbnb management.
Just like single family property management, Airbnb management is a full-time job. This type of property management includes having cleanings done on time as well as simply updating the calendar on the app. You will lose a lot of business if a guest attempts to book a date and doesn’t find it available.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Be Responsive
When people use Airbnb, they want it to be efficient and easy. Odds are that a guest will skip your property if you don’t reply to their inquiry within a couple of hours. Being an Airbnb investment property owner means always being active on the app. This is a really great way to ensure good reviews and constant bookings.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Get Verified
This is a super easy step to follow to improve your Airbnb listing. Simply verify your account on the app. Verifying your account will make short term tenants feel a lot safer when booking your Airbnb listing.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Keep Up With Local Airbnb Regulations
If you want to get a good occupancy rate for your Airbnb listing, you need to make sure you can rent your property the way you advertise it. Make sure your profile and the way you rent abides with Airbnb regulations and laws of the city you are in. There is no point of accepting a guest’s booking then having to cancel it due to certain regulations.
Improve Airbnb Listing: Don’t Cancel a Confirmed Booking
One of the best ways to get bad reviews and ruin your occupancy rate is to cancel a confirmed booking. This is super frustrating for guests and will often lead to distrust. This will surely ruin your occupancy rate and can be very difficult to bounce back from, so avoid it at all costs. Be a trustworthy real estate investor because this will keep your business going strong for longer.
Be sure to always increase your knowledge and learn as much as you can about updating your Airbnb profile. Use proper tools to scope out the competition in your area such as the rental property calculator offered by Mashvisor.
To learn more about how Mashvisor will help you make faster and smarter real estate investment decisions, click here.