While the Airbnb platform makes it easier to list your rental and get it in front of potential guests, it doesn’t automatically make your vacation rental a hit. There’s still a lot of work to be done as an aspiring Airbnb host to get repeat bookings and bolster your rental business. But how do you begin?
Here are some insightful tips on how to increase Airbnb occupancy rates moving forward that you can leverage to boost your rental’s popularity.
Optimizing Your Airbnb Listing
The first and most important step when you’re trying to get more people to book your Airbnb rental is to optimize your listing. After all, your listing is what guests see when they are looking for short-term rentals in your area. Here are some easy ways you can make your listing more appealing and increase the likelihood of Airbnb bookings.
- Improve Your Title: A title that is too long or doesn’t describe your property well enough could be driving away guests. Highlight the experience your Airbnb property has to offer in just a few words. For example, you could say, “Sprawling two-bedroom apartment overlooking the LA skyline”. The title is the hook, so it has to stand out!
- Leverage Airbnb SEO: Airbnb is indeed a marketplace and not a search engine, but that doesn’t mean that Airbnb SEO isn’t a thing. Using the right keyword, filling out every area in your listing, and researching why certain properties are so popular can make it easier to get your listing to the top.
- Come Up With a Succinct and Appealing Listing Description: Your description should cover all of the major highlights of your property, including where it’s located, what amenities it offers, and what’s nearby that guests can enjoy while they’re staying at your property. Keep it short and sweet. Guests don’t want to have to scan a wall of text to learn what they’re getting when they rent your property.
- Be Transparent About Other Features: How many beds and baths are there? Is there an on-site laundry? What about pets? Use the other areas in your listing to tell guests more about the features of your property that won’t go into your description.
- Use High-Quality Photos: The best way to attract more bookings with your listing is to use high-quality photos. Photos can tell guests so much about your property, and they’re one of the most compelling pieces of evidence that guests will use to gauge whether they want to rent your Airbnb.
Targeting the Right Audience
Navigating the short-term rental market and getting more bookings can be difficult if you’re not sure who you’re trying to cater to. It’s easy to believe that anyone would want to book your vacation rental property, but more often than not, people are looking for what you have to offer because it aligns with their needs.
Say, for example, that your Airbnb business consists primarily of properties located in the city. In this scenario, you’re most likely to receive inquiries from guests who are looking to attend events, go on an exciting vacation, and see what city life has to offer. If, on the other hand, you have a more rural property, you’re probably going to get guests who send a direct booking request because they want to get away from the noise and enjoy a nice quiet getaway where they can rest and relax.
When you’re looking to boost your Airbnb occupancy, ask yourself, who am I targeting? The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to market your property to them and see greater results.
Enhancing Your Listing’s Visibility
There are ways to increase your Airbnb platform visibility that go beyond Airbnb SEO and some of the listing optimization tips and tricks listed above. To significantly increase your visibility, you need to understand Airbnb’s algorithm and how to hack the Airbnb algorithm to rise to the top. There are four areas to focus on when you’re looking to increase your Airbnb bookings.
- Response Times: The faster you respond, the higher your property will rank. If you take over 24 hours to respond, it can lower your ranking in search results.
- Accurate Calendar and Pricing Settings: Staying on top of your calendar to make sure that you have availability and regularly updating pricing settings will help you ensure that you’re staying competitive and preventing any misunderstandings that could result in cancellations. This will ultimately help you increase bookings and maintain a high occupancy rate.
- Booking Rate: To increase occupancy, you need to increase occupancy. It sounds illogical, but it makes sense. Properties that get more bookings are naturally going to float to the top of search results.
- Guest Reviews: Reviews can make a world of difference in how well your Airbnb performs. It’s important to make sure that you’re getting as many positive reviews as possible and doing anything you can to remedy a problem before a negative review appears.
Pricing Strategies for Higher Bookings
Having a stunning Airbnb isn’t enough to boost your Airbnb bookings. If you want to increase your occupancy rate on Airbnb, you have to make sure that you’re offering competitive pricing. Otherwise, Airbnb guests will look for the same experience elsewhere and at a much more affordable rate. With that in mind, nailing pricing for your vacation rental business isn’t always straightforward when you first start. Here are some of the major factors that will play a role in your pricing strategy.
- Location: Properties that are located in more in-demand locations are naturally going to cost more. Consider where you’re located and how that affects pricing.
- Supply and Demand: Supply and demand constantly shift throughout the year. If you’re not changing pricing to reflect this, it can end up reducing your bookings on Airbnb.
- Type of Property: Large, sprawling properties cost more to rent than smaller ones. Figure out what properties like yours tend to go for to price it properly.
- Seasonal Events and Travel Changes: Some seasons see an influx in bookings, especially when people travel to attend various events. Take notice of these trends to make sure you’re pricing your Airbnb correctly.
- Competition’s Pricing: Finally, and most importantly, you have to remain competitive. If you’re pricing far above what your competitors are charging, you probably won’t see the level of activity you desire.
Keep the dynamic pricing factors above in mind while you’re figuring out the nightly rates for your Airbnb. You can also use Airbnb’s dynamic pricing tools to adjust your pricing with ease.
Providing Exceptional Guest Experiences
When you do get bookings, you want to make sure that guests leave feeling impressed by their stay. This is important in several regards, helping you not only potentially generate repeat business but also allowing you to add to your roster of positive reviews that can sway potential guests in the future. Make sure guests have all the amenities they’re accustomed to when they use Airbnb, help them find a wide range of activities in their area that can truly define their experience, and always be there to support them if they need it. Minor things like this can make all the difference in how many bookings you receive.
Leveraging Social Media for Promotion
Airbnb helps you get your property in front of guests, but any successful Airbnb host knows that you still have to leverage social media to get your properties out there and boost bookings. Social media marketing is an extensive process, but one that yields stellar results if you want to make sure that as many people as possible can find your Airbnb both on the platform and off of it. Create profiles on all major platforms, regularly post, and interact with your followers. There’s a reason why social media marketing is one of the top strategies to boost your Airbnb bookings!
Utilizing Online Booking Platforms
Online booking platforms (or, more broadly, property management software solutions) make it easier to manage bookings without having to go back and forth between each listing, which can be painstaking. Instead, they help you manage your various properties on one centralized dashboard, which is crucial if you’re an Airbnb superhost trying to list across multiple platforms and you’re not looking to miss out on booking requests. A great online booking platform will be feature-rich, integrate with Airbnb, and help you see important analytics at a glance.
Implementing Effective Communication Techniques
Communication is key in any relationship, including with guests! When you’re communicative, you increase your bookings by making yourself available for any questions and by addressing any concerns or issues guests have when they are staying at your property. While you obviously can’t be online 24/7, you should aim to offer prompt communication so that guests can access you when they need you. Additionally, you’ll want to aim to communicate, speak in such a way that is friendly and warm, and avoid getting frustrated with guests unnecessarily. People will complain when they come across a bad host, which can be detrimental to bookings.
Increasing Your Bookings Begins With Implementing These Strategies
The world of Airbnb hosting can be vast and complex. Learning how to increase Airbnb occupancy is one such element that can be especially confusing for new hosts. With the tips above, you can learn how to use all the tricks in the book to generate a steady flow of bookings that will help you make the most of your vacant short-term rental property.
