Coaching Blog S1 Episode 31 - Improving Pamela's Airbnb Listings: Tips from a Pro Coach

 

  

 

 

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get free online support coaching watch videos and much much more at www.b support.com that's www. BNB hosts support.com hi there Pamela Mark Smith sorry to take so long getting back to you uh I've actually had Co it's um Saturday just before uh Christmas uh let's have a look at your uh listing and look if anyone else in our community uh has um other properties that they want us uh they would like to have um critiqued I actually do this I'm an ambassador uh and I've got a web page called bbhost support.com um and I do this uh for clients um well basically for new ones so I help people set up so uh I've done a lot of this uh as an ambassador um and your friend Felicity uh Pam your friend Felicity I'm not sure she does exactly this uh but she's an ambassador as well so uh let's have a look at your listing I'm G to have a look at two uh but I'll have a look I think you said you might have had a number uh and you were finding things quiet so let's let's go through these one by one and I'll just I won't go through in any particular order I'll just go through it until the first things that come into my head as I see them so uh let's I'll shrink that uh and the first thing I I think of is the order of your photos um and and your name so you said things were quiet um um so the well the photos I have actually seen your listing before um and I just going to give you every tip I can think of and I think you do all of these little you pull all these little strings and uh twist all these knobs and you'll probably get a slightly different result now immediately what I see with this is there is this thing called a photo tour it's it's a brand new feature and I can tell you're not using it uh so this came in in the November updates uh it was called a photo tour uh may have been December but uh there is um if you go into your listings you have access to these new features so I'll send you a link to that or I'll put it in our community page um I I'm you know you have a nice backyard but I would um I think I would uh adjust these photos uh that personally I like that one a bit better now you have got you have actually got captions here so that's that's good uh let's but okay gorgeous fully fenced yard now I know what you're getting at you can you're family friendly and there's somewhere for the dog to run around in um so okay you are using caption so that's good now this is a nice kitchen I I would just airbnb's algorithm um will give you a boost depending if you just do little things um and if you add captions and if you add a photo tour so definitely definitely you want to add a photo tour because can see you don't have a photo tour at the moment and so what that will what a photo tour will do will it will label all the it will group all the backyard photos and all the ones of the kitchen uh and all the ones of the dining room all together um and so guests can then go through a more logical Tour all the bedrooms see how they're all just here and there that's not a criticism uh it's just the algorithm will work better if you if you work with it so that's that's the first tip do a photo tour um and if you don't know what it is go to um a .c I'll just get I'll just actually get the I will get the uh URL address I think it's .com. listings um or might be listing um and so that's the first thing I noticed is your photos definitely rearrange them um that one's been there for too long um and um now your first four are absolutely critical and you should be looking at this on a um you should be looking at how does this look on an iPhone uh because or on a smartphone because some of these photos um now you'll see what I mean this is what's called landscape but everyone holds their phone in portrait okay so another little tip um your all all of your photos every single one of them is landscaped yet your photo yet your smartphone is showing them in portrait so um so these are some things that are working against you now you um six guests I'd be interested how you actually price your property and do you price it for um uh you've got three bedrooms yeah how do you price it so we're gonna have a look at that in a minute uh you have a excellent rating um and

uh yeah so there's absolutely um there's nothing wrong and you would be under one of these guest favorites so you're going to get all sorts of ranking boosts um you've got a key safe p is a super host um great check-in experience um why don't you why don't you um re reward this just it will um it will force it will force um put this into something called chat GPT uh and if you don't know what that is it's chat. open.com and ask it to reword it you know and um to suit a certain type of guest or um so it's just probably time to to update this uh moving the photos around will help now let's have a look at it actually says you're booked out this says you actually booked out until the 25th of January um and I'm just wondering why that is because um uh I I thought you said you were having troubles um uh with with bookings so this tells me that um this tells me that uh you shouldn't be having too many troubles uh 450 a night so that's good the cleaning Fe seems very modest uh but you can do you could one of the things you could do is build that cleaning fee into your nightly rate and instead of charging uh yeah why don't you charge um $4.99 a night and nothing for cleaning um and uh you may you know all these little adjustments can help now um your cancellation policy so that's interesting uh free cancellation for 48 hours well um if you're having uh if you're having trouble um you're a great host you're a super host but if you weren't uh and you've got lots and lots of reviews but if you weren't why don't you um change to a flexible policy you you'll get get more you will absolutely get more bookings um so I think this is pretty much a strict um this is pretty much a strict payment um thing uh you do allow animals so that's good interesting let's see how many pets uh you don't actually charge for pets see I some people charge for pets um and you or you can add extra cleaning on or yeah have a have a pet fee um when you um when you go to uh let's say I've got three dogs um but so it's an expense it really is an expense if you go away that um if you're taking three dogs for just just one night you'd be paying three dogs for probably two days um uh so you know if you drop them off this morning and pick them up tomorrow night you'd be paying uh You' be probably paying $200 um for uh if not more uh for boarding so this is another way that you could um uh or yeah you could maybe lower your nightly fee but add a pet fee if you get what I'm saying so you're actually you know you're actually quite good value um these are just some things that come to mind uh now you've got 86 reviews so that's that's actually very very good um I would make your check in 3M ah after yeah I'd make it after 3M check out at 10 a.m. maximum six kfts now you don't have a carbon monoxide detector so uh I can give you a link to a carbon monoxide a free carbon monoxide um detector and that gives you a boost um you would also be under you would be under guest favorites or you know super hosts so you're going to get boosts um now I'm not sure if you've got your Wi-Fi speed in here so I can't see that um you you really should have you really should

have see no you don't have your Wi-Fi speed okay so this is another this another thing um I would also be wondering um you talk about family but uh do you have kid um kitty yeah high chairs and that sort of thing um I would I would be fixing that up cot yes okay cot pack and play so you're child friendly but you don't tell us what your internet speeds are so kids very often bring the iPad and um so you want to add your Wi-Fi speed I'll I'll just take you over um in a moment and I'll show you um well you can if you've got if you've got fast Wi-Fi speeds you should you really should have it there um you've got a two minimum so that's interesting I reckon like for the long weekend at the end of January I would be making that three nights you can do that by making a custom stay um but let's have a look at any other weekend so you take two nights so it's seems to be two night minimum so again you could be doing yourself quite a disservice the average um I have sent out stats the average length of stay in the r area is three nights so um that's another thing you can do maybe offer offer a discount for a three night stay so make your two nights um make your two nights uh at a high rate but if you stay the third you know it works out at a better nightly rate and these are all little ways that you can get extra money um so I'm going to I'm probably going to leave your I think you really should I think you really should be uh updating all of these

um yeah you let's have a look at you so your profile panel's listing okay so it actually H you do have guide books so that's great um so I knew you had more than I knew you had a few listings so let's have a look at at this next listing now your Cube cabin so that's probably all I was going to say about um sorry Pam under your under your uh profile uh I wasn't um showing this under your profile it does show all your listings and it shows this is the one we've just done we'll go and have a look at these two and we'll see how busy they are and what we can what we can do to improve it so we'll go to C cabin in the heart of orange first and we'll share this tab and so here we are Pamela we're now looking at the entire Cottage and um this was you you had mentioned that you you weren't getting lots and lots of bookings so let's have a look and see what we can do to improve this um you have got bookings um you have got bookings for some days but uh but not for all of them so um I I think I would fix this two night minimum um I think you should be going particularly over New Year you probably should be looking at a you know uh minimum number of stay nights there $163 is not an expensive um uh property to stay at especially when you consider say at the mcure you're probably looking at 2000 to 250 um and uh this probably has many many other features that place like the mure does not now again you need to put in your Wi-Fi speed and where you do that you go into the app go to listings um um and then amenities and uh do a w Wi-Fi speed test when when you find Wi-Fi under amenities do a Wi-Fi speed test and it will put there if you've got 20 megabits a second well that's one thing but if you're getting 100 megabits per second uh then your you know these work from home people are looking for these ones with fast internet again you don't have a carbon monoxide detector so uh if you did you'd be getting a boost um and you're just not getting it um you're charging $15 for cleaning uh which I'm not sure how anyone can clean anything for that price but um I would be fiddling even if you just fiddle slightly it will tweak the algorithm it'll say oh okay this is now getting attention um now again uh rotate your photos um maybe this this does look very small again yeah you've got um you've got captions so that's great um let's see captions are very important uh that's yeah that's probably um I would do a photo tour again you've got to do the photo tour um so this will help um this will help a lot lots of yard photos uh but very few very few of um the actual uh property so so I'm guessing that's that's the cabin and this is another house uh I'm not sure if that's where you live or that's another air but um uh oh okay here we go uh cabin shared okay so that that you're sharing the cabin with our family so like not every guest would love that but uh uh that's how it is again you've got great reviews 460 reviews so um that is uh that is really good I would rewrite this

again yeah I think I would rewrite this um it's very long and it probably hasn't had an update and just simply updating it will um will cause uh the algorithm to jump gear now yeah you've got okay you've got this one night so you got so you can't actually see how you even if you wanted to book a one night stay there um this this night here is uh buggering up your whole calendar so taking a one night booking you know you could be costing

yourself you could actually be costing yourself quite a lot of money by taking by having that one blocked out so that's that's interesting um so I reckon I think if I was you I would be looking at different numbers of nights for you know weekends and mid weeks um you got great reviews um check in after two check in yeah okay that's good not suitable for children so that's uh that's limiting your Market um there no carbon monoxide detector no pets well that's funny because you've got uh the other one is pet friendly but U maybe this is where you live um smoke alarm no no carbon monoxide okay you really would get a you really would get a speed boost so let's go and have a look at the other listing that you've got and that's cadal if I pronounced it

correctly share this tab instead so this is um this is your third listing and again your ratings are fantastic uh I would absolutely rotate these photos um i' probably take new photos um and or or have them professionally taken um again you got captions so that's good uh this is nice um but these photos uh if you don't update your photos um yeah these things can become a little stale the light in here could be a little better um I understand why you've got these uh images um I can understand why it's a Picture Tells a thousand words

um your C is pet and family friendly um with the other one uh we just had a look at the other Cottage um it said it wasn't pet friendly yeah look I think you can um you've probably done changes here you might have new artwork or something like that I'd probably just move things around retake these photos um maybe youve got a different bed spread today um nothing wrong with uh what you've got but uh I think it could do with a tiny bit of a freshen up um what a beautiful Street yeah lovely tree Street uh walk to where so um none of your properties seem to have floor plans as well so um uh I where I can uh always include a floor plan [Music]

um I I would relook I would relook at your first four photos um yeah your first four photos you know I should be your best four again all of these every single one not this one uh but all the others are all landscape uh whereas iPhone and mobile phones around about half the people uh that are looking on the Airbnb app are not looking in landscape they're looking in portrait and so where your photos are not optimized they they get shrunk down and um they get shrunk down or optimized to fit the size of the window and um the window being someone's iPhone okay and so things are going to look inferior when the photos are taken for that way but they the person's holding their camera way the photos will look inferior so again it's hard to work out what what some of these what the linkage between these photos the cherries and this meat pie and this bread roll are with with this particular property that you're um that you're showing I would have

um walk to a nearby cook Park okay um enjoy wine tasting one of about 40 doors let's that's pardon me that is all very interesting but um uh I I I think I maybe get rid of um some of these photos I I don't see how they're relevant um if you're not getting the uh bookings that you want so again um two night minimum so really like checking in on Christmas Day and checking out on the 27th um to me okay checking out on the 27th let's let's go let's go and let's make this even more ridiculous let's have them check out on the 26th and um so 26 holiday if you had to pay cleaners to go there $150 is not going to do it okay so this is three bedrooms the linen uh and cleaning on a public holiday so that your next guest could check in on the 26th um it's you need to look at these custom stays and having custom pricing for custom stays um uh the nightly rate to me doesn't look um overly expensive um but but um it doesn't look overly expensive but um the Airbnb fee is going on top so it's um by the time you stay okay but this is so this is what you're saying by the time someone stays in your property with three bedrooms for two nights they're paying uh $480 a night compared to say the mure which they can stay for okay ad midle Le one bedroom it's going to be a hotel room uh but they can stay in that for say 250 maximum 300 a night um this is what you're up against and uh the mcure will have you know sharp photos they've got restaurant at the door um got parking uh they tell you what they you know it's mcure um so you got to give yourself every possible Advantage

um so look I've just oh carbon monoxide alarm you do have one here it it does it does rank these higher so um you know for the sake of 20 bucks I would I think I would have a carbon monoxide detector look I'm going to leave it at that pamel I I hope that that's um been able to give you a few things to think about um uh you have superb reviews you know just superb in fact you have far more reviews than I have um you've been hosting for over 10 years so you know what you're doing um it's possible that sometimes uh you know over the course of 10 years I don't know if you've had this property for 10 years but over the course of 10 years some of these photos can need a bit of a a refresher and a fresh set of eyes and I would be looking at your property as if you're the guest if if you're the guest what do they see you know and what um so I would strongly encourage um I would strongly strongly encourage you to um would strongly encourage you to look at the look at what's available as as a guest and see whether um your property is competitive with what else is available for the same price $950 for a couple of nights um please let us you know have a good look at it as if you were the guest thanks very much by hope that helps bye-bye get free online support coaching watch videos and much much more at www.b andb Host support.com that's www.bb.com

 

get free online support coaching watch videos and much much more at www.bnbhostsupport.com that's www.bnbhostsupport.com