7 ways to beat the hosting blues
Many hosts are reporting a slow-down in bookings right now. The consensus seems to be that there is an imbalance in supply & demand as a result of the runaway success of AirBnb's Host Acquisition program.
So what can you do about it?
Here are 7 tips to kick-start your enquiries:
1 Change your lead picture. Do it weekly to prevent viewing fatigue (guests skipping over your property because they've seen it before)
2 Change the title of your property listing - same logic as the previous point. When thinking of a new name, remember you have to sell the sizzle! Make it eye-catching, funny or relevant to a forthcoming event. For instance, "Calling All Sports Nuts: 5 minutes to MCG"
3 Add a floorplan. Many people can't visualise the layout of your property from the descriptions & pics, so draw a mud-map with dimensions. I'll be doing a how-to on this in a future post!
4 Write a "7 reasons why you will love staying here" list and feature it at the top of your description. People love a list! Keep the points brief, and prioritise them in order of appeal. For instance, 1. Free parking 2. Amazing city views.
5 Drop your base price. When people are searching for properties, they often don't include dates. Your base price will show by default. You can still customise your prices for specific days and/or weeks so you are not losing out. You could also drop your mid-week rate and bump up the weekend rate. Explore the pricing settings - there are lots of ways you can tweak these to gain advantage.
6 Give your calendar a poke every day. Most platforms recognise when you are actively managing your calendar and will give you a boost in the search rankings. We call this tactic "secret sauce"
7 Research other property prices in your area. Are you sure your rate is competitive? You need to do this often to keep ahead of the pack!
