Coaching Blog S1 Episode 37 - Mark's Expert Tips: Enhancing Your Airbnb Listing - Amy's masterclass

 

  

 

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hello Amy Mark Smith here it is uh Saturday the 3rd of February 2024 hey going um okay so I'm just going to go through your listing U you've asked for a little bit of feedback um so I'm guessing uh perhaps what's going on for you is that you haven't had any bookings um that's um that's why you've come through uh as an ambassador client looking for some tips so I'll just move that somewhere out of the way um and we can have a good look at your uh property and uh see what might be going on for you so um well you can start with the name so can we be any more um creative uh than that uh photos uh the first four photos are absolutely critical and you should have a look at this on a uh on a mobile device as well because you see most people use their mobile device in this direction whereas many many times the photos are in um so we look in portrait but the photos are often in landscape so um and photos do make a huge huge difference um and so um but okay let's let's start with the name so we we'll start at the absolute top and

um so I mean the first thing that strikes me is that um these aren't particularly high resolution photos the house looks nice there's no doubt about that but the um so to to rank very very highly on Airbnb um you do actually have to have high resolution photos uh you don't have to but um uh it it prioritizes um ones that are probably not necessarily professionally taken but it it can tell so um it's all about the attention to detail really isn't it so

um uh so look I'm I'm not trying to be critical I'm just trying to be constructive and um I would um be looking at putting you know a little you got a beautiful house okay um just have to give it those finishing touches to uh you know really have it looking at its best so um you've done something called a photo tour which is good uh by placing all the rooms in the sorry all the photos of the rooms in uh the actual rooms themselves so you can do a photo to it and statistically uh place with a photo tool will um will uh um be more booked will receive more bookings so I mean there's nothing wrong with the photos they look look nice uh but they're clearly not professionally taken so I'm going to send you a a link to some um I'll send you a link to uh some resource that will give you some tips not everyone can afford to do that but maybe making the most of the photos that you can have produced I'll give you some examples uh light for instance um so you could say that this is Moody um and that would be fair enough uh or you know you maybe you could take photos in this room in the morning you know when there's a better better sunlight so um now you are using captions so that's that is excellent um um but I'm guessing there is a reason that you've asked for some some tips on what to do so again if you're not getting bookings um you would I would conclude there'd be some reason for that okay um such as uh you know the photos that are here aren't necessarily appealing so the tips that I'll I'll send you uh they're in something called the complete guide to hosting um in fact why don't we go there now a be complete guide to hosting and

um

yeah we we'll see if we can find it through here Resource Center um photos so say this is a this search box um selecting the photos and editing your photos lots and lots of tips professional photography for your listings uh manage your profile so making you help your listing stand out so there's lots and lots and lots of um resources here there's probably 80 resources there's more resources there than you can um then you could uh select now again you can just tell that the uh the light is much better here but the resolution is see how it's all grainy um so if you have these photos uh of this quality and another property that has professionally taken photos uh you will rank lower uh you know so um properties that have higher resolution photos will be shown before yours uh that's just how it is so um so that's that might seem like a little thing but uh you're going to solve most of your problems there and the reason I know I I'm guessing that you aren't having many bookings is that uh you're still listed here as one month hosting um and there's no reviews so no reviews yet so I'm guessing that um that's the reason you you've contacted uh me for for some assistance um I grew up in Newcastle as as I mentioned so that's that's the first thing so the next thing um you're in this category called new so you are actually getting a boost already uh for um let's let's have a look you are getting a boost already uh being in the new category and um so you appear higher than uh um properties that Rothbury so you do appear higher uh than um other properties because you're new uh so Airbnb helps you oh there you go so there you go so your property is the absolute first that pops up um over a thousand places in Rothbury uh so uh you're so there's nothing wrong with how they're promoting it it's just uh how do you compete with someone who's got 153 uh reviews so that's why they bump you to new and you can see uh you can see how it would look now this will also give you um some pricing uh so uh around rothy here uh you can see well yours is at that price and here's the here's all the others so how I got to that um I typed in uh I'll just I'll just show you how we got to that again so we type in Rothbury New South Wales we make the dates flexible so it's maybe not necessarily showing the exact properties on the exact days but it will give you a um it will give you a uh a range of properties that are available for flexible dates say in February or March um we'll go March and for a week or we can just have a look at weekends if you like uh we could put um ones that are dog friendly um so we've got let's put in four ad do yeah we'll say yes say six uh plus um let's go so let's yeah let's let's have this um selection and we'll see to maximize the um the range of people that could come to your property uh we'll just we'll just run with these selections and we'll see what is around now again okay so yours probably doesn't uh doesn't allow pets so these are other reasons why uh your properties not getting booked uh some of these um some of these aren't well like none of these are new the reason I can see is because you know they got uh reviews so you can see on a map where is where um and Roth Bri just not oh here we go so we can zoom into an area um um and again we could try and find things around you so that's why you're not um why you're not appearing in all searches and then the ones that you are appearing in um you either don't um suit people with pets or um there's other reasons maybe you've got no facilities for children so let's take out the pet and let's research now there you go so air bambay is doing it part it's boosting you uh you're the very very first one but clearly okay I can see that you don't have pets so that does um rule out plenty of guests um let's go back to your listing so um oh well we'll have a look at pricing as well okay so

um I can't quite see exactly which one of these is yours but

um that's maybe yours is it yeah um so you can see on a map here um how that that would compare I'll just minimize me a little bit further you can see how you know what what the customer has to choose from uh between yours and other places so if they're wanting to bring their animal um I'm not saying you should take them but every single one of my properties we take pets um just a moment please all right sorry I had to duck out so um this is a a selection of what is available in competition to you uh close by on the map if someone needed to be around here if they don't need to be close by then you're um competing with you know a much bigger area and other properties um and properties as well that appear on other searches such as those with dogs um or bigger places or um smaller places um and so um there is plenty of competition uh let's just go back to your listing and see what what we can do um so again your pro your place is not available the entire time so it's my guess is I've been doing this for a while as coaching you obviously use the house uh through the week uh and you rent it on the weekends so um and so it's not available for one week bookings so that's when it when I showed you does it appear on those midweek bookings or those week long booking uh ones these flexible ones um it's not going to really appear because you've got many many dates that are blocked out so again your property really does appear on lots of searches but again like this is what you're competing against you're at 2,700 and there's others here at $742 for the same um well not the same dates um not the same dates so that uh I forget when Easter is but this might be Easter um so again well yes they're not the same dates but um this is just the search results so uh again you're not really available for um the entire time are you um so uh fair enough um so photos um who you're willing to host the dates these are some things uh straight away the next thing we're going to look at is um cancellation polic policy so will you do actually have a two night minimum I would consider so what would so you know what I'd be looking at is custom pricing so here this particular weekend do you really want a two night booking or would you like to um would you like to get four nights um you'll get a long weekend so uh you've got a two night minimum let's let's see what happens when so you've got $579 a night let's let's just change that to three nights and see whether You' do a slightly better price um three or four nights um so you won't it won't give me the option to add a pet so I can see you don't you don't take pets it's your property fair enough but um so it's basically uh very similar price there's no uh price breakes if you um if you um stay longer uh whereas many places if you you want to get those longer stays and you want to get more longer occupancy uh if it just sits there vacant well you you receive nothing so um uh I would think about going to your calendar and uh having well we where you know that you've got um four nights that that weekend you got four nights most weekends but five on some other ones then um put in some special pricing because um you it says that you want uh two night minimum but do you really want like a a two night stay and then have that one empty so um I would um was 600 for um for two nights okay um I'm not sure if you follow what I'm saying about some price breaks but give I would personally if it was me I would be looking at um having some custom pricing saying okay two nights 600 the third night uh you maybe get um you know so You' get 1,200 if it sits there empty and and what you want to do is get some bookings so you can have some reviews and you know sure you've got a beautiful place but no one else knows that H and so when you've got five reviews or I've got 200 reviews then uh people then have confidence and that's what I was saying uh you're up you're competing you're a brand new property and you're competing with something for exactly the same price that has high chairs and Cribs um or you got playr but it's got 77 reviews and yours doesn't so let's uh have a look at that and um okay different style but it's hosted by Alicia super host two years hosting and you can see well let's let's just see what um what Alicia has um okay she's got some bookings but let's have a so she's taken a a one night here or it's got a few bits that aren't available you can you can yeah she's got a couple of nights so let's see what she does two night minimum okay but let's see what she does when you're staying for um okay she she's not oh she is giving you a special offer so

um she is given a special offer and but you're giving you're giving a special offer too so maybe one of yours is like an introductory price uh available for the first three bookings yes so that's what I was thinking whereas um this one here special offer uh offer valid for those PE particular period this is what people do they manage the calendar and they don't want to end up with spare nights and so for those particular nights uh they'll give make a special offer so that's one special offer and then um other for another period this particular stay crosses over that those periods uh they know when they're busy and when they're not busy um and let's just see no that you can't take pets there either so you can actually charge for pets if you if you put a pet in there you can charge for it so um let's have let's just keep looking at yours so free cancellation within 48 Hours um so people are actually have to really know what they're doing whereas um Alicia's place

here um cancellation policy so you can cancel with Alicia right up until uh the day of arrival or very very close and get uh and get full C you know you're not locked in so if you're really just a tiny bit unsure um You probably go with one with the better cancellation policy yours has got an unfriendly uh cancellation policy so there's a number of things working against you uh if I could say that Amy um we'll have let's have a quick look at these photographs um uh and let's see if we think that they're professionally taken yeah you can you can actually tell

um well not unbelievably sharp

but that that looks quite sharp um yeah look my guess is that um yeah these are well taken this yeah the captions are important um okay so back to yours so the cancellation polic is not working in your favor um you you don't have a carbon monoxide alarm so I'll send you a link to a free one you can get um you should have your Wi-Fi speed um people like me when we travel uh we like Fast WiFi um and uh it doesn't tell me what your Wi-Fi speed is

um okay no reviews as I said well here you can see uh they've got an average of five stars so 77 people have come they got an average of five star and everyone says it's fantastic I can tell so uh this is a direct competitor very very close uh where close by where you are and um very similar price and they've got reviews they've got a more friendly policy on cancellation uh and so these are all reasons probably why you're you're not getting uh booked um check in I would make it uh not everyone can make it by 6 p.m. I'd be looking at after three um and uh check out uh check out at uh 10 is fine um you need to fix that um I would consider having a less strict cancel ation policy um because

um because uh people well they many people just don't book so or or we'll book something else so look these are some tips that I would um look at if I was you uh you can add you know some more detail that's probably not a bad idea um but I I I would start with the the photographs the pricing the cancellation policy um maybe the the headline uh and getting yourself some reviews the pricing um The Longest Day discounts uh so they're called if you go into the resource center um under this complete guide to hosting I'm going to send you a link to they're called custom stays so you should be looking at filling up your your calendar and having uh a custom stay so that

um so the place doesn't sit there empty all right Amy if you've got any more questions don't hesitate to give me a call anytime uh through the ebnb app uh send me a message and um I wish you all the best with your hosting let me know your thoughts uh if you've got any feedback on these ideas um I hope that's been of great assistance thank you very much byebye