Coaching Blog S1 Episode 34 - Mark's Expert Tips: Enhancing Your Airbnb Listing - Melissa's masterclass

 

  

 

uh good morning Melissa Mark Smith here Tuesday the 20th of February 2024 having a look at your Airbnb

listing so the first thing I noticed is the pool um and uh pools believe it or not even though we live in Australia pools are somewhat rare so that's actually uh really good so actually I quite like your um heading I'm not sure how you came with that um but that's good um I'm wondering if we have any other photos of the pool

um

um the first four photos like if you look at all of my videos um uh I do talk about photos uh people always judge the book by the cover so um photos are very very important uh and I'm going to check now whether you have what's called a photo tour so um well you do so that's that's actually very very good so um so the photo tour is very important uh the first four photos are um really really important I would uh I'm just going to pause this actually because someone's at my door I'll be right back um I would certainly think about putting um bedroom photos in uh as your what's called your hero photo um uh many of the people that book airbnbs are women and uh so it is um it's appealing um beautiful bedrooms like yours are are very appealing I'd certainly have your lamps running on um and you can do some more things with light so I'll send you a link to uh a series of articles that you can watch on Photo tips for Airbnb uh and if I haven't sent you already um something called the complete guide you you would find those photo tips in the complete guide um but um I think you can do a little tiny bit better with uh some of these photos so um by using the by using lighting um you've got a already I can see you've gone to a lot of trouble but I just think the lighting could be a little bit better um see I don't really understand okay now captions captions are incredibly important um what's it going to say well it's going to say bedroom but is it a king bed uh or whatever so um I mean very very stylish uh I like it a lot but um um yeah like that is very very Arty these are really nice photos I would use I would have well I'd like to see them with uh lamps um so also uh I would encourage you to go and have a look at these on a on an iPhone uh or on a on a smartphone because most people use their smartphones in this orientation called portrait and many photos are actually taken in this so when you when you flip them they they come up very small so um please have a look at at this critically with um with a phone in portrait mode um I mean these are these are lovely lovely photos um I notice you do have you know uh quite a few single beds um there's at least a couple of single beds um so it is what it is I'm guessing this is your house that you you live in as well or uh and maybe you travel um I'm not I'm not 100% sure um anyway um beautiful styling just play around with the lighting so that's that's the first tip um you're in this category called new you will also probably be entered into a category called uh pool and so people that are specifically looking for pools pools are more popular in summer than they are in winter but um yeah I would certainly think about flipping your photos during winter there there's another tip for you because pools are less popular in Winter certainly in Sydney anyway um and that's where your property is so um self checkin via keypad well I like that I like keyless entry uh let's have a look at your profile okay Spar um it doesn't tell us anything oh okay maybe it does it tells us a little bit um but uh

well maybe you could um maybe you could uh enhance that just a little bit more the the uh the profile um here we are back again uh check in check out before my recommendation is 10 um I'm not sure how you um not sure how you plan to do the cleaning uh but um check in after 3 is good check in be check out before 10: you can always give people a late checkout if you know you haven't got someone coming in uh and guests love that because it's it's seen as you know extra Hospitality um 100 million per I would uh get yourself a carbon monoxide alarm and if you I I will send you a link to get a free one um

no pets you have Gerard the French Bulldog but um it's interesting I a lot of your flaws uh you know pets can often be better behaved than some children so I would suggest that you be open to having pets or at least charging a little little extra for pets um I uh um last weekend I had to you know book my um beloved pet in somewhere I was like $200 for the weekend maybe that's an extra 200 that you can take and um chances are the the dog is not going to cause $200 worth of cleaning um so uh and for longest days um where you have people coming for a month or uh you might get people coming for two or three months um so I'm going to be very interested to look at that um

uh traveling with pets is is like a very very good idea um carbon monoxide alarm by the way uh you rank higher um if you have a carbon monoxide alarm then if you don't uh you can also get uh what's called airb Airbnb for work clients and these are um professional Bookers that you know work for um glexo Smith Klein like a pharmaceutical company maybe where you live uh I know around franchise Forest there there can be um lots of pharmaceuticals and corporates and you will get those um uh you'll miss out on those corporate booking if you do not have a uh carbon monoxide alarm so one of the criteria is you must have a carbon monoxide alarm so it means you can get higher prices so uh this is a free thing and it also keeps um your guests safer so um okay I sorry I've got belala uh mixed up with another suburb uh which is closer to frenches Forest but anyway I know where you are um you're not you're not a hell of a long way away

um one floor mattress another single bed okay so so two queens so it's really set up for families so that's good see how again carbon monoxide is missing now Wi-Fi you definitely want to do a speed test on the phone app do um so you go into the Airbnb app you find amenities you scroll down to Wi-Fi and there's a speed test in there and if you have let's say you've got 100 megabits per second go and sit as close as you can to the uh Wi-Fi router and do the speed test and you'll probably get a speed test of I don't know 95 um do it during the daytime uh and that's usually faster than at um 10 7 at night excuse me so um and so for people that are looking for fast uh Wi-Fi um we also want to know if you've got a uh disk so it you want to click uh you want to select that as a uh what do we call it a dedicated workspace and dedicated workspace again helps you get those longest days where uh people might be um traveling for a month but uh I'm going to be doing two hours of work per day um and again they're going to need fast well many of them will want fast internet um so uh being able to show them that is is is good now all you really need is a desk uh and a chair um and you know a lot of houses do have desks and chairs thus um if you haven't checked that you have um if you have not checked that you have a dedicated workspace then do check that um I'm not sure about these Essentials message me and let me know if

um let me know if about these Essentials I'm guessing that means linen so is it a boo linen situation um let's we'll have a look at that um okay uh we'll have a look at the um the availability and we'll also look at the cancellation policy in the moment so it seems that you're available over Easter I would change that from minimum two nights I think that's that is a mistake um sorry my dog

um okay so there's no discount um the long you stay so there's actually really no incentive there um for there being less people uh sorry a longer stay um let's change that to um oops clear dates so see um you can set this up so that people check in on the days that you want do you really want someone to check in on Easter Saturday and check well whereas you probably can get um you can probably get someone to check in on the Thursday or Friday so with something called custom stays uh or custom dates um just uh when you go into the complete guide there's a search box up in the top left and you can uh put custom custom stay I think it is you type in custom stay and it it uh in your calendar you can specify that some someone needs to check in on the Thursday my guess is that uh by doing it that way you by specifying you want them to check in on the Easter Thursday then you'll get it and someone will probably check in um Thursday afternoon no one wants to be checking in really at 3:00 on on Good Friday so set that up now and you'll find then that that these two nights are not sitting there going to waste because that that is all it is it's pure waste and you certainly wouldn't want a booking arriving on the Thursday checking out on the Saturday you then have to arrange um you would have to arrange cleaners for that day um so custom stays um Google that um let's just I'll clear these dates again because I do want to check what discounts you have if any uh weekly discounts very very good so uh for longer stays then you'll get um yes you give away a little bit um the average discount I think is towards 20% um for well certainly for monthly let's let's go back and we'll check your monthly discounts and see whether uh if we book for a month we get it any cheaper well no so I mean that's pretty hefty for a month uh obviously it's beautiful house um but uh there's many people that will um that will book these for a month and uh particularly if they're moving so uh let's say someone's moving from England and it's going to take U 50 days for their Furniture to arrive uh they might um they probably go and have a holiday for you know um see a a little bit of a stray and then come and check in with you for a month and then you know the their gear arrives so uh these longest day ones um and and that's why you need the uh dedicated workspace often um uh it's it's something that's it's something I would be recommending now I want to have a look at your cancellation policy uh and keeping in mind you've got uh no you've got no reviews at this point Point uh is this a work trip see

um just book this place for someone else this is what I was saying about those um Airbnb for work ones um trip purpose very expensing okay so your cancellation policy is on the stricter end uh it's not flexible now I'm not sure that you really want to allow people to cancel two days ahead ahead of Easter um but um the more flexible your cancellation policy is the less risk there is for someone to make a booking uh and you know at 35,000 for a month um for 35,000 for a month uh

well

that would put a lot of people off the free canc if there was a choice between your property that you couldn't cancel or you'd lose your your dough or someone else's property

um it's fairly obvious that um some people wouldn't take the risk unless they're absolutely dead set sh that this is what they want um now this probably is other property in Bala um uh that do have less um less strict cancellation policies now this is a request to book so it actually isn't an instant book so um even let's say I did want to do it and I was okay with the cancellation policy there's no certainty that if I bought um your property that uh you you even allow it so uh again people um will book uh where the cancellation policies less less strict and whether there's an instant answer um and if they know that you've got they won't even see your property if just one moment

please I'm not sure where I got to I had to pause then so um so look overall I think it's it's a very good looking listing um I think you can improve it a little bit a little bit

um you are taking bookings well in advance look I I think I would go for a longer minimum than than two nights um uh I I really do think I I would um be looking for probably a three night minimum uh over the weekend and maybe through the week yeah I I take I probably i' I'd see how you go um no reviews yet um tell us a little bit more about yourself Melissa uh get this carbon monoxide detector have a look at these in a portrait on a iPhone or smartphone

and captions use captions I know I know this is a pool they um uh airband B algorithm will even if though you well it's in this in the photo tour it's it's tagged as pool uh but you do want to um do the captions for each one and put in their pool and again this helps the algorithm to rank you for those that are looking for a particular type of property um look thanks very much uh for going through the process I hope these have been helpful I will be watching to see um as bookings roll in for you how that works um I would definitely look at the custom stays um and and specify uh a check-in day and uh if there's anything I can help you with just message me through the ebnb app good luck Melissa bye

 

 

 

 

 

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