Coaching Blog S1 Episode 41 - Mark's Expert Tips: Enhancing Your Airbnb Listing - Dane's masterclass

 

  

 

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danne hi Mark Smith here um you ask a very general question uh very open-ended question for any tips so thanks for telling me a little bit about um your situation um so I'll just go through your listing and I'll just tell you what I see and um uh if you want any more specific tips I'm very happy to have a zoom call with you um and if I can offer any suggestions of of um uh as we go um things that you might be able to do then do let me know um happy very very happy now this looks great um this looks great um the first four photos I'll just talk as as words come into my head um the first four pictures are really really important and have a look at your um listing on a phone and just see how it looks in um uh in portrait mode so this is in landscape mode that's a very nice picture to start with I think I think I think that's so it's called your hero photo so um your first your first four photos are really really important um these are obviously very nicely taken not I don't know how you've taken these or if you've used professionals um so I mean it looks very inviting um I think your kitchen and wow look at those floorboards I mean that looks fabulous um if you've got something where it opens up onto the uh exterior uh not so much of a big deal in winter but um um you f just really think about your first four photos and have a look at what's available in your local area um do a map-based search and um and see what others uh have in your area and see how the pricing um looks um first four yeah I mean that that looks terrific do you have a balcony uh sorry sorry a barbecue um so this front this front one I mean it looks very cozy from the street are you in a unit or uh is it a semi or I I'm not 100% sure so um your category at the moment is new so you you get a boost from Airbnb uh as a new listing and um um that means you there's more Chan that you are going to get bookings um let's just have a look at your profile um i' I'd probably t uh I'd be tempted to put in a little bit more information about you uh if you can uh people will um one of I've been hosting for uh five or six years I've had about 180 um visits and I've got a just under a five star uh rating and people um do talk about me and how they feel welcome and and all that sort of things so I think tell your story is uh one of the big tips um I love that you've got a carbon monoxide uh alarm because that gets you a boost um um check in after I'd think about um maybe making it three I'm not sure who does your um cleaning but if that doesn't give you enough time three would be okay

um um cancellation policy um I normally set this at at flexible very few people cancel some do cancel but they're more inclined to book if they're able to cancel whereas if you have a strict policy um they can be uh cautious about cancelling especially when you don't have 150 reviews so I mean your place does look very very nice um things you should know uh no pets well um i' I'd seriously think about pets um um no smoking I understand that i' I'd think about pets um if you've got uh dogs yourself people will will happily pay you um you know I charge an extra $150 um for a Stay doesn't matter if they're staying for a week a month or you know overnight 150 bucks and um that's extra um that you can get um carbon monoxide as I said is very good A lot of people don't have that um you've got a wide openen calendar now I would absolutely absolutely set this up for uh Easter let's see how many nights um well that's good we're still setting up our calendar so I can't quite see anything here um service animals uh for guide dogs you must take those that's you get um that's just law so um let's just have a look for a t night um like you really got to set these dates now um for um these key dates so that long weekend I would set it up and uh you can go into your calendar and um click on the dates and then um you've got this option of a custom um a custom length of stay now if you want any more information about this let me know uh there's something you can Google called um I I'll send you the link called um uh complete guide to hosting and it's an Airbnb document and um it it has an index of everything so uh you could just go into the complete guide and type in custom stay um you absolutely like I would um set this up so that you get a minimum two nights um but for Easter uh insist on a minimum three nights and do it uh get it so that the check-in must be on a Thursday or Friday because that's good Friday well it's up to you but that's what I would do uh you will get you will get three nights days and so that's means more money um I can't see your I can see the nightly well it won't show me the total trip just at the moment so um I don't know what your cleaning fee is uh but um like I usually do charge a cleaning fee uh wifi now um I have um there is a thing on the app on the Airbnb app where you can go into amenities and you can do a speed test on the Airbnb app and then you get rated people do look at these things and they they will stay at a place uh at your place that's got uh 200 megabits per second versus my place that's 50 so they will look at that if everything else is uh equal so make sure you do the speed test using the airbn but yeah I mean are these good tips so far I hope so um

um let me just see hair dryer hair dryer is good uh I like that you've included amenities um tows the essentials B bad linen um TV um do you have an Apple TV or a smart TV of some kind um Heating and Cooling that's good dedicated workspace now put in a photo um and I'd also be tempted to put in a floor plan if you've got one um dedicated workspace is um one of the the huge drivers that um get you really long uh stay booking so if you want to um if you want to take long stays longer than a weekend so yes you can have a minimum stay but you can also set that a maximum stay so uh I can't see calendar settings just yet um also have a think about child friendly facilities so I said dedicated workspaces are big but also and Wi-Fi is is huge pets are huge but um and it's okay if you don't want to take any of these up these are just my tips do whatever you want with them um what was I going to say uh child friendly now um I don't know if you've got a garage um you might want to consider putting in a travel cot um you can often get a lot of these secondhand um uh child Cutlery and Crockery um high chairs uh Airbnb are really pushing for um yes it's the cashed up you know uh people our age but um there's also uh the families and they're pushing really for um um young families and ladies you know in their um late 20s so it's a very big

demographic um so You' be missing some customers if you don't have those facilities uh even change mats uh and things like that have a think about that uh great that you've got some um pots and pans and whatever photos get some photos you can add more photos but Pro I mean think about um high res if you if you have taken those photos yourself I think they're very good um um I'm not sure that they're professional but I think they're very good I think they're very very good um but think about you want to get um knives uh a knife block in a photo of your kitchen so Airbnb has this um computer at an algorithm and it can see the knife block and says oh okay chef kitchen and you'll get more they will push um they will push your listing to people that are more foodie oriented you put a high chair in there it will be pushed using these algorith ithms they know who you are they know oh uh Dane likes to go away on weekends and travel and whatever so he likes going to beach places or going to the mountains or whatever it knows what you you're interested in it knows if you've got children and will push um places towards the front of the list that have child friendly facilities um hot water kettle espresso uh do you include um see again I'd like to see a photo of the espresso machine do you include the capsules um wine glasses yeah fully fenced backyard again that that could suit um uh the pet friendly places EVS um do you have a PowerPoint where I can charge my EV I don't know um so these aren't criticisms they're just some some observations um dedicated work space see again it mentions uh there it knows these people are looking for this I would definitely do the speed test on the Wi-Fi um mate I think it looks good um there's a couple little tweaks uh I'm more than happy to do a zoom call with you um uh and I hope that's been helpful thanks very much I I'd actually love a review too I I'll send you a link um maybe not straight away but we're I'm putting together a new website called B&B hosts support.com uh and I might ask you for a review if you wouldn't mind thanks very much Dane bye