Optimizing Bondi Beach Airbnb Listing: Proven Tips for More Bookings and Higher Revenue - tips for host Giles, Bondi

Another in the series of perfecting your Airbnb listing

Outline:

In the video, the speaker, Mark Smith, is giving advice on how to improve an Airbnb listing for a beachside apartment owned by Giles at Bondi. He suggests using drone photography to show the proximity of the apartment to the beach, and to use the word "ocean views" in the title if the apartment has such a view. He also advises to use the captions effectively as Airbnb's algorithm reads them. He recommends having more photos of the bedrooms as they tend to get more views. He suggests having a morning photo as it would have better light and possibly getting professional photographs. He also advises to make use of custom pricing to ensure all nights are booked and to consider increasing the price after getting some reviews. He also suggests adding amenities like a dedicated workspace, Wi-Fi speed test, and beach access. He also recommends offering more essentials like towels, linen, shampoo, soaps, and toilet rolls. He also suggests considering offering a cot and high chair for guests with infants. He advises to have different pricing for school holidays and to offer less generous discounts for longer stays. He also suggests considering adding a floor plan to the listing.

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Transcript:

Hi Giles, Mark Smith here. How are you? Sorry to take so long getting back to you on Mother's Day. I was out, and anyway, I was looking after motherly things. So, sorry to take so long getting back to you.

Your question was very open-ended. Any thoughts on the beachside bright apartment? Well, okay, the first thought that comes to my mind is, where's the beach? I like this nice, bright, morning light. I think maybe I'll send you some links. I think the first four photos are really important, and you've got two of them being of the lounge. I wouldn't do that. One of the kitchen, I think. Have a look at some of the resources I'll send you. There's another one of the lounge. Whereas bedrooms tend to get a lot more attention, so that's quite nice and arty. But I probably want to know where the beach is, yeah.

Can you get any drone photography of your unit? If you've got a friend with a drone, get them to take a photo of your building in relation to the beach. I would do that. You've only got 13 photos, and we really only see a bedroom photo on the 11th out of 13. Oh, okay, the 14th. Okay, well, this, I think, is the same one that appears. Very similar on 11. So, okay, I don't know where this building is. Now, I will tell you, Airbnb has an algorithm, and they read the captions. So, you must use the captions. Now, if you can put a picture of the ocean in, and that you can see it from your building, and write the word "ocean views," now, that's only if you have ocean views. Don't write it if you don't. Then, the algorithm looks at those sorts of things, and it ranks you. It's very, very intelligent. So, if this is your building, and if this is opposite the ocean, then I would take a picture of the ocean from the building from the ocean, and Photoshop it with big arrows and all that sort of thing. So, like, is this the view? I don't know. Is that a view from your building? If it is, then use the word "ocean views" in your title or something like that.

Yeah, you've got to make a lot more of this, and this shouldn't be the 13th photo. So, have a look at the articles that I send you on telling your story and listing photos. You probably also want to get a morning photo. Now, my guess is this is an afternoon photo. So, a morning photo will have much better light. And look, I might even see if we can get you some professional photographs. That's the first thing you asked about, any thoughts.

Yeah, that needs to be...just okay. Sorry, I hadn't actually read this. Okay, so just 50 meters from the sand. Okay, so you're gonna really be paying for this. You really need to... Yeah, we need to have a look at photography. Maybe even put the name of the building. The name of the building, "Modern Day Core." One bedroom. What size bed have you got? Is it a king? My guess is it's a queen, but I haven't got to that. And I know there's a section for that down below. Conveniently located. I'd even get this rewritten by ChatGPT. Okay, you can cut and paste this and say, "Appeal to a tourist to Australia," and ChatGPT can rewrite that, and you won't even recognize it. Queen size bed. Some of the information's not... Oh, is there photos of the bathroom? I know that there were photos of light. There we go. So there was another one with the...where, yes, you could see the light. I mean, these are good photos, but I just don't think you're using them as to the fullest. Now, for that location, two-night minimum, 345 per night. You can probably charge a little bit more than that because that includes cleaning.

Get some reviews and then look at...okay, yeah, I can see it here. Get some reviews and then I would look at, can you charge any more? Here, okay, so here I'm guessing you use the apartment some of the time, and some of the time you don't. So what happens here is if someone books for two nights, it leaves one night stranded there. So you probably want to do custom pricing. So that you fill up 100% of your nights. So in your calendar, actually, I'll send you a link to something called the Complete Guide to Hosting, and there's an index like a search function. Just type in "custom pricing" in the search box or, yeah.

What you want to do is say, okay, 349, 345, you can't... You see, you take a two-night booking, so it means that for a one-night booking, let's say if someone books for two nights, it's going to leave one night left, and you'll get zero. So you're better off trying to get the three-night booking. For that custom stay, even if you don't get 349 across the three nights, so maybe what you could do there is you put in 345, but then for the third night, rather than leaving it vacant, you offer an incentive. So maybe it's 345, but this, you know, you effectively sell it for 250 or something. Or you charge more, say, 399 for two nights and 345 for three, to try and get all of your nights booked.

Okay, you don't have reviews. When you do, that will make a big difference. Hosted by Giles, two reviews. Yep, okay. There's not a lot more. We don't have the check-in times. You do have carbon monoxide, so that's good. No pets, no parties, no commercial, no smoking. Do you have Wi-Fi? Oh, you do, okay. Then put in a speed test. Do you have a desk? That's what's called a dedicated workspace, and you can get longer stays when you have a dedicated workspace, but only if you put it in your amenities. Beach access, yes, okay, good. Air conditioning, do you have a balcony? I'm surprised about this "Essentials." That's like towels, linen, that sort of thing. You've got photos of the bed with beautiful linen, but what do people do for linen, soaps, toilet rolls? I'd be inclined to think you'll get better reviews if you include a little bit more. This business is actually really built around reviews, so I would encourage you to probably include a little bit more. But I think for the location you're at, you probably can charge a premium. But give those custom stays a look that I commented about. The photos and the light and the order, very, very important.

Okay, Giles, any more specific questions, not like "any thoughts," that's very general, but any specific ones, then by all means, message me. Thanks, Mill, bye

, good luck, bye-bye.

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