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Coaching Blog S1 Episode 30 - Unleashing the Power of an Airbnb Digital Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide - kylie's masterclass

Written by Mark Smith | Dec 28, 2023 1:34:47 AM
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In the video, Mark Smith provides feedback and advice to Kylie about her listing on a hosting website. He suggests several improvements to increase her chances of getting bookings. These include adjusting the pricing to a per-person basis, considering smaller groups, and rearranging the first four photos of the listing to showcase the interior. He also recommends adding captions to the photos, setting up custom stays, and being pet-friendly. He advises Kylie to provide more information about herself in her profile to build rapport with potential guests. He also suggests Kylie to include house rules about bed usage and linen usage. Lastly, he recommends Kylie to use the complete guide to hosting for further assistance.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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hi Kylie Mark Smith here how are you well we'll have a good look at your listing and um your feedback about can we get some bookings this side of Christmas so um well I guess get the bookings and then whether it's this side of Christmas or not is another thing but I'll um I'll give you uh I'll give you some feedback and then we'll work out what we're going to do um and whether it's this side of Christmas or not um okay well the first thing that strikes me and I'm just going to give you the feedback in in no particular order and sorry I'm in a work mode I'm actually out uh looking after my yard I've been away um working on uh on airb work so uh 12 guests so uh today's date is the uh 17th of December and hoping to find something for 12 guests uh a few days from now um uh could be a challenge um so uh if you're prepared to take smaller groups um and what so what I would be thinking about doing is adjusting your pricing so that um yes you're a property that can take 12 but what if there was a group of six uh would you consider six um so considering like um P yeah per person pricing is maybe the way to go um now will people uh fudge that look probably not um is the short answer but if they did you could look at the numbers of beds used as a as a guide um so you look at your house rules and you can set it up so that um uh again you'd have to say in your house rules one person um well one bed to be used per person uh so so in other words the same person couldn't go and sleep in all eight beds again you know that's that's a bit of fairness um now you first of all okay so I'll just that's the first thing the first four photos are critically important and um I mean I think this is a good one I actually do know where the AR wonger is um and but there's no inside photos in the first four so uh always judge a book by the cover um uh this is what you see so um that's one of those sayings never judge a book by the cover well everyone always judges a book by the cover so um okay the next thing you've done is you've done a photo tour so that's very very good um and you do actually have some uh beautiful Interiors so um these first four photos are really really really important so this first this one here is called japana uh and um think about try viewing this on your iPhone and um looking at it for uh because a huge number of people um view these on mobile devices not just iPhones but mobile devices so okay so you set up the photo to us it's very very good A lot of people haven't uh done that yet um but this is one of those new features so you've set this up so that's excellent but you do want to arrange those first four so that um now I love that I think think that that is very very Arty um this one here I I think that that's probably uh although it's got a fire in it so i' I'd actually retake this if it's not too late with the fire running um just for the purpose of of the photo if you if you had them professionally taken and they look fairly professional looking um sorry the other thing that I will note is this that means uh your category is new so you're actually going to get bumped up into the anyone that's looking in Yaro Wonga will see you um now that doesn't that does not mean that everyone will be looking in yo Wonga but um uh you do get bumped into a category called new and new is uh will will automatically be at the top or very close to the top so you are getting a boost um but again uh people that are looking for groups of 12 may not um may not so we'll have a look at this pricing and we'll just see whether that's something that you can improve upon so I'll go back to these photos sorry I'm jumping around this is also gorgeous you're clearly a art deco period house even consider running um the fans in some some of these uh in some of these photos uh this looks uh a little on the empty side um now another way to put it is minimalist Min minimalist but um uh I would if you've got knife blocks again if you took if you had them taken professionally fair enough if you haven't if you took these yourself put a knife loock there and um uh Kettle toaster that sort of thing um although coffee machine excellent coffee machine is exactly the sort of thing that I'm mean um knife block there you go okay all right and Kettle okay so there's a good reason why and that has to do with the Airbnb algorithm although I would have put that on the other one um but it's there anyway so probably don't uh retake that um I'm guessing this is not a working fireplace I will get to how do we get bookings um I mean these doors are they are they just beautiful uh so air conditioning air BB's algorithm intelligently looks at these photos and says Ah you've got air conditioning ah you've got ceiling fans um it doesn't know Art Deco probably is my guess uh but this is this is actually very nice um you can take this with the lamps on and that adds to the mood um and I would I would I mean the styling's very very nice yes this is that's lovely um I think I would have this somewhere in one of your first four photos so the lighting's very good the only you could do is have the lamps on um not that it needs it for light uh but for mood um so again I think your styling is very nice yes you've got lots of beds so uh this is obviously a four person room um so my guess is if You' got two singles uh sorry two queens there must be a fourth bedroom um so in these in these photos you need to put captions again you might think what how's this got to do with getting bookings the air beam the um I'll send you a link um on why you need to have those but you do need to have them um you provide towels by the way um so I don't see that in any of the

photos so look your your bathrooms and everything look very very very nice um [Music] uh I wonder if this is like an old church type um house it's got a very ni style to it um It just strikes me that maybe it was used as a as a car park it's there's not a great deal of um yeah that's my guess I'm curious to know whether uh it was um You probably don't have natural

guess you know maybe it's next to a church so Pipers rest okay so I I don't honestly love this as your main photo but um it the house is what it is so again you've got laundry now I'm not sure if that's a washer and a dryer but you doing by simply writing the words washer and dryer uh or washing machine and dryer in the captions again you're helping the algorithm you're doing the job um and you're helping the guests so there you go so it was next to a church um or some sort of building so that's yes okay it's it's a beautiful style

um um very Arty photo but again I'll probably wouldn't have it in your first four uh that's nice um

Arty uh but no captions so you do need to put captions in now again I'll explain how that helps the algorithm

um um let's have a look at the let's have a look at five night minimum all right now I would be looking so that's interesting um five night minimum but I can't book for tomorrow night so is that because um is that because it's blocked or have you set it up so that you've got to have bookings two nights in advance so um I would normally set it up so that you don't take bookings for today but that you will take them for tomorrow um and have a cut off period so I think that's called your cuto off period so

um I'm just going to expand this um this is your cut off period so um I think your C off period is too small if that's the case now I would think people would so again play around with this in your minimum stays I would think that people would book from um just before Christmas so the 21st 22nd something like that I would I would look at a 4 night minimum uh so you can you can have a 5 night minimum but you can also set what's called a custom stay so again um you need to know what you're looking for what your Googling uh in the um I'll send you a list link to What's called the complete guide to hosting and you can the steps to set this up are all outlined there so uh the complete guide to hosting so you can have a 5 night minimum I think if you were hoping to get a booking Before Christmas you should be looking at the 26th as a checkout date maybe the 27th I think the 27th you can have it so that you can book in and out uh on that date I think you want to aim for people arriving either on the 26th or the 27th um again for another booking so um so let me see if it'll let me it seems like it would take now again one guest so let's see how the price changes if you've got um so the price does not change based on the number of guests so you can have a custom price just for uh this one booking over um let's say from the 202 that's what I would I would be aiming for if I was you so I'm just going to clear these dates um I would be looking at per person pricing okay um and or you can you can set it so that it's per person minimum of say six uh and then charge all the way through to um 3,800 if there is 12 so um what does that work out per night I mean do you really want people booking out on Christmas Day I'm going to say no um so again you need to set up these custom stays at least for this period over Christmas and New Year you want to set up for a customs day so that the guest can't check out on Christmas Day because they won't no one else will check in on Christmas Day ah so that's that's interesting so that's a different price for these five days uh as opposed to any other five days so that's interesting so let's let's we just did 4,200 that's what people will pay so what did we do before then until the 20 okay oh oh okay so we've got non-refundable and refundable so again new host you've never had any guests and uh you asking people to uh booking nonrefundable um stay so there's no reviews um and so I would not do that um although you've got here 630 per night so that's kind of curious um the nights that you uh 6:30 700 okay um personally I'm just telling you if you if you don't if you want to get bookings that's this is what I would do sorry about my dog someone's probably walking past or something exciting like that okay Central in central Haven year so lots of

words okay again are you really going to get a family of 12 this side of Christmas um maybe

not

what why must the guest be over 28 years of age I'm guessing that's got something to do with parties or um no parties in camping there you go but I'm not sure I understand the um must be over 28 I mean uh I get people that are under 28 that have had 20 stays and they're all five stars Would we not take those um again I think you can fix the minimum of 12 with your house rules because you don't want people to use all eight beds and that cost you more money um you can also see from the um you can also see from the numbers of towels that people use so think about the tail usage in your um house rules uh you've got your Wi-Fi but uh uh you really should do um a Wi-Fi speed test so there's Wi-Fi and there's Wi-Fi and um I was just a way overseas as fact I stayed in place and the Wi-Fi was intermittent like it was um sometimes there was 50 and then sometimes it was lagging so I do a speed check um and the place to do that is in your app go to facilities uh go to listing uh then facilities and under Wi-Fi There's an opportunity for you to do a speed test so if you got fast speed um then use it uh another thing that gives you a ranking boost there the new uh but there's also this one here Caron monop alarm so I I'll send you a link to a carbon monoxide alarm uh it does give you a speed not a speed boost a a ranking search Boost so that's something security cameras on the property um I'm not sure um um I'm not sure the reason for that free washer free dryer okay good uh bed linen extra pillows and blankets

um on the external perimeter of the house I'd be tempted to turn that off um to be perfectly honest um I would put in um unless there a really good reason why um maybe you can message me about that cooking Basics friezer yeah an espresso coffee machine wine glasses excellent rice maker so it does look like you're are you pet friendly did I see that um if you are pet friendly uh I would is the family of 12 not going to take the pet um this carbon monoxide detector that's that is actually really a must does it now let's let's see whether it says pet friendly um I've got a feeling you're not pet friendly um let's have another look uh pets no okay so um you can charge extra for a pet um uh some people might it might be as simple as this um some people uh W to go away without the pets so they're staying somewhere else um since yours isn't um yours isn't now you can do things I mean you haven't got loads of grass uh their feet aren't necessarily going to get wet you've got uh Timber floors um yes you do have lovely linen uh but you can you know you can insist that um pet owners bring boo think it's a throw rug um for the pet um pets do sleep on on beds uh that's for sure um I would 100% be um being pet friendly uh okay we know where um we know where yonger is so that's good um okay so let's see about you okay this is all we've got on Kylie I'm sure you're a really lovely person I don't know where Hurst bridge is and we don't know anything else about you so I'll just we'll just go to

my I'll just go over to my

um I'll go over to my profile and I'll show you what profiles can look like

um so this is how a profile can look uh 28 reviews compared to zero your ranking how many years you've been doing it um your identity uh email address phone number all ticked off so there's no risk so anyone that stays with me is um uh they know who they're staying with there's 200 people stayed there and then there's a lot of information about me um where I live uh my education so it's about building Rapport um it's it's not just a transaction I'm not a hotell you and you're not staying the nice the night U I'm a real person and you can look at the um you can look at my last reviews now those reviews will come um I'm also a community leader love animals again there's nothing at all about you there so uh and a guide book uh I would recommend you put in a guide book um for your guests so that they um so that they know where they're staying so here you've got identity email and phone number but you can add a lot more about you so that people feel a connection with you oh uh you went to XYZ girls school oh well I know someone that went there or you know whatever um uh I went to Sydney uni or wherever you you know I your occupation is you don't have to tell you full life story but it builds a connection so uh let's go back to let's go back to your your listing uh actually I have a feeling I I wasn't actually sharing your uh your listing as I was coming commenting on it um so I meant to uh go through your listing Kylie um so uh last things um 12 guests maximum but uh I think you need to have a minimum um oh no pets no parties well that's actually fair enough uh no smoking is I think fair enough uh I would hope guests would treat poers rest as they treat their own home well people generally do they they really do uh it's precious to me so I ask for guests to look after it um okay well that's all reasonable but um K Ed tows turn things off return Keys yeah please close all curtains uh short dishes um barbecue yeah okay all right well look uh I would put in something about in the house rules about uh uh the numbers of beds that people use and at least for your stays over Christmas if you want to be sure that you're full um adjust the pricing on a per person basis it's uh the most expensive room is the one that you don't fill and um so uh I think you're better to be full than uh than not uh I have I'll just say about pets uh personally I'm not a cat person uh I don't think I've ever had cats stay in any of my properties but uh dogs uh do um you can even turn that off so that you're sort of Silent About Pets and then people can request to stay but uh when you haven't got any reviews it's it's actually um uh it's It's Tricky so look I I suspect there are people inquiring um I think the numbers of guests is uh is a huge thing and the lead time to Christmas is also a very huge thing I would absolutely definitely I would replace that photo um I would replace this photo that so that you're not looking out the side of the church um I didn't actually realize that that was a church so there's a little little bit not enough green and a little bit too much U building in some of these and no none of the soft stuff like um uh your beautiful bedroom linen and so on so you need to get these first four right and I hope that and the guest numbers and the uh per person pricing and I think you'll find that I'd be amazed if people lied um you can yes you can set it up so that uh you will know how many people have stayed based on the bed usage and the linen usage if you set your house rules up and you can set it up so that each person that comes has to be not sure if you can do it so that each person has to be identified but they must give you each person's name um and there's a very good reason for that namely insurance and public yeah public liability um and Airbnb is very very good at getting that information and uh you don't they're not passed on to you the people's ID but uh you will about it so look I've given you 28 minutes of uh advice I hope that that is very very helpful I really hope that you follow the advice and I really hope that you see some bookings uh I'll send you a a link to What's called the complete guide to hosting uh and there's a search box up in the top left uh of that page where you can type in custom stay and um and again you want to set up the if I if it was me rather than have the place empty I would have say a pricing flat price based on six people and um um at least over that Christmas period and then you can have custom Customs stays um so I just mentioned the word Christmas um and balloons I saw balloons go up okay thanks very much good luck let me know how you go I look forward to good success thanks bye
 
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