Alright, you have a property and would like to monetize it via one of the short-term booking platforms, like Airbnb. Right at the time you are about starting a new vacation rental business as a host, you may need a clear guide on how to list a property on Airbnb and similar websites, create an attractive listing, and establish the appropriate revenue level.
The number of active listings on Airbnb approaches the 7 million mark, so it may seem extremely challenging to create a listing that would stand out and attract more guests, In this article, we are going to provide you some tips on how to beat the market noise, show off better than competitors, pick up the successful pricing strategy and receive more profit.
How the Airbnb listings are ranked: key factors to improve your position
The primary thing you need to know is that the Airbnb search algorithm is created to match the user expectations and to show the most relevant results from dozens, hundreds or even thousands of listings. The search is also personalized: so they consider the history of user’s trips, favorites, and personalization.
An important thing to know: there is no clear instruction to help you listing beat the competitors, there is no perfect recipe to create an obviously well-ranked listing, however, you can use the three factors, which impact the rating, to get closer to the perfection:
1. Make the listing description attractive and useful to your guest
Put the necessary information about the property, its location, nearby stores, restaurants, and other facilities attach informative and notable images and give it all a valuable title. If you have multiple properties, research the nearby facilities for each. The algorithm considers how many clicks your listing has, how many times users add it to the wishlist, or attempt booking, Such listings are ranked higher in Airbnb search results.
2. Pay attention to pricing
One of the key factors for a successful Airbnb ranking is the thoroughly managed pricing strategy. The system compares you offer with similar offers in your market and calculates your Brutto price (before taxes), and the final price to show to the customer. It is considered competitive, corresponding to the quality of services you offer, the listing appears higher in the search results. This is one of the most important reasons to make the pricing flexible and use special Airbnb listing management tools for its automation (https://www.hostyapp.com/airbnb-listing-management/).
3. Use instant booking option
Although this option implies risks and limitations, remember that many users will appreciate the opportunity to use Instant Booking to make quick decisions and avoid rejection. The option improves the booking rates of your calendar for both hosts and their guests, and, therefore, improves the position of the linking in the search results. However, if you feel than an instant booking tool on Airbnb is not convenient for you, keep in mind that this thing is not an absolute factor to impact your ranking on the platform.
How to list your property on Airbnb: expert tips
- Make high-quality photos of your property. Users want to see the details, the view from the windows, the overall look. Actually they don’t pay for the square meters and the roof about their heads: they pay for convenience, mood, attractiveness, and comfort. Depending on the price category, these factors may vary in their importance for their final decision, but show your property in details to skyrocket the booking rate. Photos are the factor that is highly likely to improve the click-through rate.
- Work on the description. Make it informative and SEO-optimized: use the common keywords, split the text into paragraphs, and ask yourself: is the sentence is useful after you create it.
- Ensure rapid responses. Creating a listing is not enough: make sure you answer quests’ messages within 24 hours to improve your ranking.
- Accept bookings to improve the rate: repeatedly rejected bookings can lead to lower ratings, so be careful when declining a booking query.
- Take care of your Superhost status. Making your booking informative, taking care of reviews, response rate, booking rate, and similar factors can help you reach the status of a Superhost and help your listing go higher in search results.
The Bottom Line
You can create and promote your Airbnb listings on your own, or entrust the professional Airbnb management company with the task: they make photos, research competitors, help create your pricing and marketing strategy and undertake the overall management issues: arrival, keys, cleaning, and more.
