Getting your rental business up and running takes a lot of effort. You ensure the rental property is furnished and decorated nicely, your listings are set up on various online travel agencies (OTAs), and you just wait patiently for the first bookings to come in. And while you are excited for what's to come, getting a healthy volume of guest bookings takes time. You’ll need to find the right pricing, presentation, and placement balance. Here are ways you can get more bookings via Airbnb optimization:
Review Your Pricing Strategy
Pricing your short-term rental can be tricky. You want to ensure you cover your costs, stay competitive, and make a profit. Some experts recommend pricing the property 25 percent below its actual valuation to be attractive, especially if it’s a new listing. Slowly increase the price by around 5 percent once the good reviews come in.
Promote on All Channels and Listings
The best way to market your short-term rental is to list it on an online marketplace like Airbnb, VRBO, or Booking.com. These will give you the widest reach and the best chance of attracting guests worldwide.
While it is necessary to use online travel agencies (OTAs) when first starting in the short-term rental market, you shouldn't become too reliant on any one platform or channel. There are many different OTAs to choose from, each with its advantages—so it's important to explore all the options available for the best Airbnb optimization.
This means you should try out a few different channels (such as online booking platforms or travel agencies) and then analyze the data to see which ones bring in the most customers. At the end of each season, you can drop the ones that aren't performing well and add new ones until you find the perfect mix.
Reply to Customers Promptly
We can’t stress this enough: Hosts must be more responsive to the guests' needs. The speed and rate at which you respond to potential guests who reach out to you through Airbnb are extremely important in terms of how visible your rental listing is in search results and in terms of converting inquiries into bookings. Airbnb will rank your accommodation lower in the search results if you have a low response rate or are slow to respond.
Prepare Good Photos
Your photos must look good if you want people to book your vacation rental. Take a scroll through your photos and ask yourself if you would book a stay at your rental based on the pictures you see. If the answer is no, it might be time to invest in better photography.
Here are a few tips that'll improve photo quality and boost Airbnb optimization:
Use high-quality, well-lit pictures.
Ensure your photos are clear and accurately represent your home.
Use various photos showing different angles and aspects of your home.
Use descriptive captions to give potential guests an idea of what your home is like.
Make sure your photos are up-to-date and reflect recent changes or updates to your home.
Conclusion
When securing bookings, a clean, well-located property is the tip of the iceberg. You’ve got to prioritize Airbnb optimization by pricing right, promoting on multiple platforms, responding to customers promptly, and providing high-quality photos that draw them when they click your listing.
Learn more about maximizing your Airbnb's earnings by clicking the link below. You'll become a part of our next free training event that details how we've helped hosts increase their earnings by over 389 percent. Visit our website now to join our Airbnb optimization program!