With over eight million Airbnb listings today, you have to put extra effort into making your property stand out on the platform and generate bookings. In addition to meeting all technical requirements, you need to implement strategies and tactics to optimize your listing for the Airbnb algorithm and guest preferences.
Ready to make your Airbnb stand out? We’ve compiled the best Airbnb listing tips that will help any host or property manager outshine the competition. These easy-to-implement strategies are proven to deliver results and elevate your listing to the next level.
For a true competitive edge, find accurate, intuitive Airbnb data with Summer Forecast. Our institutional-quality data and forecasting tools empower you to make smarter decisions and maximize your profits effortlessly!
What are Airbnb listing requirements?
The Airbnb platform imposes very simple, yet necessary requirements for hosts and listings in order to ensure the safety and positive experiences of guests. Airbnb does this in an attempt to solidify its position as the largest and most popular short-term rental website.
The so-called "Ground Rules for Hosts" include:
- Listing information needs to be accurate, correctly specifying the location, type and size of the space, level of privacy, available amenities, and applicable house rules.
- Listings need to meet high standards of cleanliness, be cleaned after every stay, and be free of health and safety hazards.
- Hosts need to provide timely communication with guests, including before the stay, leading up to check-in, and during the stay.
- Hosts need to commit to reservations which includes not canceling confirmed reservations without valid reasons and providing guests with readily available access at check-in.
- Listings are expected to maintain high overall ratings and avoid numerous bad reviews.
Meanwhile, listings need to meet the following requirements to be eligible for the Airbnb website:
- The space has to be used for lodging only.
- Mobile homes, sailboats, yachts, and other vessels need to be semi-permanently attached to a set location and parked in a privately owned space during reservations.
- The space must be accurately represented, located where stated, and bookable by the host.
While these Airbnb listing requirements are obligatory to be present on the website, meeting them does not guarantee good ranking on the platform. Hosts need to put extra effort into optimizing their Airbnb listing with proven tips.
How do I optimize my Airbnb listing?
According to Airbnb, its algorithm is designed to prioritize listings that appeal to guests. The key factors influencing search results include:
- Quality
- Popularity
- Price
- Location
Airbnb advises hosts to work on the following in order to optimize their listing in a way that positively affects ranking and search results:
- Availability: Offer as much availability on your calendar as possible to improve the visibility of your Airbnb listing.
- Pricing: Adjust pricing down and offer discounts to attract guests to a new listing or during unpopular travel seasons.
- Photos: Add an eye-catching cover photo and high-quality additional photos to attract guest attention and improve engagement.
- Hospitality and settings: Provide great hospitality, apply guest-friendly settings, and aim to become an Airbnb Superhost.
These are the essential factors Airbnb hosts must address to ensure their listings appear in search results.
How to make the best Airbnb listing: 12 tips
Based on the basic principles of the Airbnb algorithm listed above and the experiences of thousands of hosts, we've put together a list of proven Airbnb listing tips that will help any property get more bookings on Airbnb and generate more revenue.
We'll discuss each one in more detail, but these are the best tips and tricks to optimize your Airbnb listing:
- Take professional photos
- Write the perfect Airbnb listing
- Nail the right price
- Drive more positive reviews from customers
- Add amenities that make sense in your neighborhood
- Emphasize your listing's unique selling points
- Provide detailed guest books
- Optimize your Airbnb listing for mobile guest searches
- Upload seasonal photos to make your listing more attractive in all seasons
- Complete your Airbnb host profile
- Communicate with guests quickly and efficiently
- Turn on Instant Book
1. Take professional photos
One of the first things to do to improve the performance of your Airbnb listing is to take professional, high-resolution photos of your property. The best listings differentiate themselves with enchanting photos that highlight all the best aspects of the property as well as the surrounding area. It's crucial to include amenities, especially pools, hot tubs, game rooms, and fireplaces, in your listing photos.
Having professional photos works to the benefit of hosts on two levels. First of all, the Airbnb algorithm prioritizes listings with good photos because this signals that the host has taken extra care in providing an excellent space and listing it on the platform. Second, appealing photos are more likely to grab the attention of guests and make them choose your listing over similar options in the area. No wonder focusing on photos is one of the most popular Airbnb listing tips on Reddit and other online forums.
2. Write the perfect Airbnb listing
A second tip that's easy and quick to implement but can have marvelous results is to create great content for your listing. The title should be short and to the point, use popular keywords for the local market, highlight an experience rather than the property itself, and appeal to the emotions of guests. For instance, something like "Feel the Ocean Breeze in This Relaxing Beach Getaway" works much better than something like "Single Family Home on the Beach".
Meanwhile, your Airbnb listing description should be thorough and truthful without being boring and overwhelming. Include all the relevant information that guests need to know such as proximity to tourist attractions, available space, amenities, and unique experiences. Focus on words that guests tend to look for in the area. Make the description scannable by breaking it down into small paragraphs and using bullet points. Don't shy away from using a few emojis here and there.
3. Nail the right price
Your Airbnb pricing strategy is another factor that has a major impact on the performance of a listing. All in all, the Airbnb algorithm gives preference to listings that are more affordable when comparing similar properties.
To begin with, apply dynamic pricing, which means that at any moment your daily rates are adjusted based on the ratio between supply and demand in your area. Airbnb is a highly seasonal business, where demand (and somewhat also supply) changes drastically during different seasons, days of the week, and around holidays. During the low season, you should lower nightly prices to make your listing rank higher and get more bookings from guests. During the high season, you can push rates up and still have a strong Airbnb occupancy rate.
As you can imagine, doing all the data collection, analysis, and calculations that are needed to deploy a dynamic pricing strategy requires lots of time and effort. The good news is that you can make use of the best Airbnb pricing tools to do the work for you.
Summer Forecast is the top choice for both hosts and property managers who want to use institutional-quality Airbnb data and actionable insights to optimize their portfolio and stay ahead of the competition when it comes to pricing. Whether you're managing a few listings or an entire portfolio, Summer Forecast simplifies the process by putting all your essential data in one place.
Your Airbnb revenue forecast: Brighter days ahead
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4. Drive more positive reviews from customers
Community approval is a major positive signal for the Airbnb platform that your listing should be recommended to guests. The way to show this community approval is by having a high overall rating based on multiple 5-star reviews. At the same time, you should avoid negative reviews at all costs.
The first step in generating many positive reviews is to provide superior guest experiences by offering a well-maintained and thoroughly cleaned space, responding to all communication on time, and offering detailed guest books. The second step is to actually ask for reviews as many guests might simply forget to review listings once they check out.
A lot of the tasks associated with this process can be put on autopilot by using Airbnb management software, like a property management system (PMS), that supports task management, team collaboration, guest book creation, and review management.
5. Add amenities that make sense in your neighborhood
Another top Airbnb listing tip is to provide amenities that match your area, your property, and the experience that you try to offer to guests. It's important to choose the right amenities for your specific situation. For example, it doesn't make sense to install a fireplace in a beachfront property that gets rented in the summer or an unheated outdoor swimming pool in a ski cabin that's used in the winter.
To find the best Airbnb amenities for your listing, study the top-performing competition to see what amenities they offer. In addition, try to talk to your previous guests to ask what they would have enjoyed having at your property. There might be plenty of amenities that guests would like but none of your competitors thought of. In other words, your list of amenities should be a mix of the most popular options in the area plus some unique features.
6. Emphasize your listing's unique selling points
Related to the Airbnb listing tip above, make sure that the title and description highlight the unique features of your property, whether it's amenities, experiences, or anything else. With thousands of listings in each of the top short-term rental markets, you have to make sure that your property is unique–and potential guests understand this–in order to be competitive.
This entails adding all interesting and attractive amenities to the content of your listing. Use the available space to pitch everything that makes your vacation rental worth it and different from comps. Moreover, tick every relevant box on the list of amenities that applies to your listing.
7. Provide detailed guest books
The best Airbnb listing examples feature informative and helpful guest books. Airbnb guest books need to provide details about the property, information about the local market and top tourist attractions, house rules, pet policy, available amenities and extras, instruction manuals for appliances, and anything else that could spark questions from guests. Design your guest book to be as user-friendly as possible by adding images and sticking to bullet points and numbered lists rather than long texts that no one will read, especially in case of emergency.
Make sure that the guest book is available in the property listing. This will help set guest expectations and avoid issues once guests check in. In addition, leave a paper copy in your property as part of the welcome package for extra guest convenience. You don't want guests to have to go back to your Airbnb listing to check how to heat the pool.
8. Optimize your Airbnb listing for mobile guest searches
According to most recent Airbnb statistics, the Airbnb mobile app has 100+ million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, which means that more and more guests search for rentals on mobile devices. That's why one of the best Airbnb listing tips is to optimize your listing for mobile.
The most important things to do for enhanced guest experiences on mobile devices include:
- Keep the title short and to the point
- Add vertical photos
- Compress images without sacrificing quality to enhance speed
- Add all available amenities using the readily available icons
- Organize the listing description by highlighting key features first, using bullet points, and keeping paragraphs short
With these tips, you'll be able to attract more guests using smartphones and tablets without losing those searching on a desktop.
9. Upload seasonal photos to make your listing more attractive in all seasons
As already mentioned, seasonality is a big factor in the short-term rental industry, and you should do everything possible to make it work in your favor. One creative idea to boost the performance of your Airbnb listing around the holidays is to update your listing with seasonal photos.
It costs just a few bucks to decorate your property for each season. Add a couple of plastic pumpkins and a spider net, and you're ready for Halloween. Decorate with some snowflakes and garlands, and your property is prepared to welcome guests for Christmas.
Since you're already putting effort and money into decorating the space for each holiday, it's worth taking photos a few weeks in advance and uploading them to your listing ahead of bookings for each holiday. Most importantly, update the cover photo with something seasonal to show guests that you care about their experiences and make them choose your listing over competition. As a matter of fact, you don't need to take new photos each year; you can recycle old photos from last year as long as you still keep some of the same decor.
10. Complete your Airbnb host profile
Another simple thing that hosts can do to enhance the performance of their listing is to complete all information in their host profile. Use the space that Airbnb provides you with to tell guests something about yourself, what makes you a great host, and why they should choose you over other hosts.
At the same time, don't try to look more interesting and unique than you are. Focus on experiences and traits that emphasize your trustworthiness as that's what guests care most about when it comes to selecting a host. Meanwhile, the Airbnb algorithm will rank your listing higher if your host profile is complete.
11. Communicate with guests quickly and efficiently
As part of good customer service, guests expect prompt and timely communication before, during, and after their stay. If potential guests contact you with questions before making a reservation, how fast you respond back to them and how helpful your answer is will play a major role in their decision whether to book with you.
During their stay, guests usually contact hosts with emergencies, so it's crucial to be available to handle all cases. While guests rarely contact hosts after check-out, in case they do, your response will help them decide whether to book with you again in the future.
Moreover, there is plenty of communication that needs to be initiated by you, as the host, such as the check-in and check-out times and instructions, asking if there is anything specific guests would like to request for their stay, and asking for a review after check-out. Don't forget that prompt communication is one of the factors that Airbnb itself mentions as key for boosting your listing.
You can use vacation rental management software to automate a great deal of the communication with guests, especially standard messages related to check-in and check out and other policies. Even for communication that requires your intervention, you can use customizable canned responses to speed up the process, generate more reservations, and get more 5-star reviews.
12. Turn on Instant Book
One final proven Airbnb listing optimization tip is to turn on the Instant Book option. Under the standard settings, hosts need to review and approve guest requests for a reservation before a booking is confirmed. Needless to say, this takes time, and delays are an inconvenience in the eyes of both the Airbnb algorithm and guests.
Thus, Airbnb gives hosts the option to automatically approve bookings from guests that meet certain requirements that are set by the host. This gives you the opportunity to approve guests that you are comfortable with without the need to delay their reservations. Airbnb favors listings with an activated Instant Book, and guests are also more likely to choose a place that they can book right away, especially when it comes to last-minute reservations.
Bottom line
With the best Airbnb listings tips, you'll improve the visibility of your property, the number of bookings that you get, and the amount of revenue that you generate. For optimal results, we recommend applying as many of these tricks as you can as they are mutually compatible and reinforcing rather than competing. You can upload professional photos that you update before holidays, perfect the listing title and description in a desktop- and mobile-friendly manner, and apply dynamic pricing all at once.
For optimizing the performance of your listings with intuitive data and actionable insights, check out Summer Forecast. Data-driven management decisions are just one click away.
Your Airbnb revenue forecast: Brighter days ahead
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