By The Hospitable Team
Listing a vacation rental property on Airbnb and similar websites is essential for every host and property manager. Although some hosts create their direct booking sites, today, top OTA platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com account for 90% of bookings.
The vacation rental industry is becoming more competitive each day, and it’s not easy to convince guests to stay with you. So, how do you make your Airbnb stand out among the sea of options available to travelers? Check out our tips if you want to list your property on Airbnb for the first time or optimize your current listings to make more money.
Essential Things to Make Your Airbnb Stand Out
Before you post your listing on Airbnb and start inviting strangers to your property, preparing your rental space for guests is crucial to ensure an enjoyable stay and make your Airbnb feel like home.
Upgrade Your Property with Popular Amenities
Most travelers consider amenities a top priority for a great trip and expect hosts to provide them. So you should stock your house with bare essentials, including quality bedding in bedrooms, the best toiletries in bathrooms, and kitchen necessities.
Your guests will surely appreciate it if you add a good coffee maker and turn an empty kitchen corner into a coffee bar. Complete it with jars of beans, mugs, and a decorative sugar bowl. This way, you can show your guests you care about their comfort. Or you may create a Coffee & Tea Center like in this romantic cabin listed on Airbnb to keep travelers energized on their trip.
Modern travelers also expect amenities such as Wi-Fi, TV, air conditioning, washer and dryer, iron, and hair dryer, and they may filter their searchers on Airbnb according to the amenities they like. So you should offer as many of the most popular amenities as possible.
But if you want to impress your guests and make your listing stand out from your competitors, you should offer something more on top of the basic Airbnb supplies, for example, a hot tub or an indoor fireplace. Delight your guests with a welcome basket. Then, you’ll be able to attract more travelers and increase your chances to win excellent reviews that will help you get more bookings and build a thriving business.
If you opt for vacation rental software like Hospitable, we’ll help you to get more 5-star reviews with personalized review templates and automatic review requests.
Create a Homely Atmosphere with Tasteful Decor
Decorate your rental space for your target customers and make it feel like home to ensure a pleasant guest experience. Your guests will spend much time in your vacation rental, so make sure it feels comfortable and inviting. Here are some cost-effective ideas to improve your home décor.
Style your rental with greenery. Adding live plants and fresh flowers makes bringing life to your Airbnb space easy and makes any design feel complete and photo-ready. It’s also a great way to give your short-term rental a more homey vibe.
Look at this stunning Airbnb with impressive modern decor and urban jungle vibes. Practically every room in this house is filled with plants, and none is fake. The ivy crawls on the living room walls, bringing pops of color, and many potted plants hang over the beds as well. Live plants bring the joy of nature inside and give the rental space a welcome, calming feel.
Add something local to make your Airbnb unique and offer your guests a localized experience. Search for posters from nearby hotspots, vintage postcards, local maps, artwork, or authentic decor unique to your area. Think about hand-made items like pottery or hand-woven rugs. By incorporating regional décor, you’ll give your guests a story and memory and help them feel connected to your place.
Accent with bold colors. Although neural colors are classic, relying on them throughout your vacation rental will leave it feeling bland. So you can break the monotony and make your space full of life, including bold colors in décor accents. You can incorporate bold accents using pillows, throw blankets, pieces of furniture, block color curtains, and small colorful accessories. Bold accents will inject personality into your space and help your Airbnb listing get more views.
How to Make Your Airbnb Stand Out: Going Beyond Design
Create an Accurate Description
It’s important to make your title and description attractive, informative, and detailed. Create an eye-catching and descriptive Airbnb title highlighting your unique selling points, such as free parking or an ocean view.
Your description should provide a brief overview of your place that travelers can read before they get into the details of the listing. Write about things that make your space special and describe its unique style and inviting atmosphere. Focus on the advantages of your property, but remain transparent about its downsides.
And don’t make your listing sound more luxurious than it is. Setting unrealistic expectations and giving false promises is a bad idea that could lead to eventual refunds and negative guest reviews.
If you need inspiration to write your description, take a look at this amazing Airbnb listing. The hosts have chosen the right words to paint a vivid picture, grab the imagination of travelers, and make them want to book this Airbnb. They use fairy-tale language that perfectly matches the stunning photos.
Pretend you are lost in a magical forest as you perch on a log or curl up in the swinging chair. Soak in the tub, then fall asleep in a heavenly bedroom with cloud-painted walls and twinkling lights. And when you wake up, the espresso machine awaits.
Set Competitive Pricing
It’s better to research and compare similar properties in your area when setting proper pricing for your short-term rental. To make the most out of your property, you should set your pricing, considering factors such as seasonality, market price fluctuations, or events in your area. This will help you optimize your strategy for maximum revenue.
The good idea is to offer a discount to your first guests to encourage initial bookings and get positive reviews to improve your reputation. You may also develop weekly and monthly discounts to encourage longer stays and increase your occupancy rate.
If you list your property on multiple rental listing sites, keeping your calendars in sync is vital to avoid double bookings. You can easily do it with Hospitable.
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Use Quality Photos
Photos are the first thing travelers pay attention to as they scroll through endless options on their phones. If those pictures don’t grab travelers’ eyes, they’re unlikely to choose your property. That’s why you should invest in beautiful images that best showcase your home or apartment to boost the number of your bookings.
Wondering what things you should focus on to make your Airbnb stand out? Including basic images of your rental property is not enough to convince travelers to book. Add photos that show off smart or fun details, and they will set your Airbnb listing apart from your competitors. Highlight details that show off your property’s overall aesthetic, dishes and kitchen glassware, comfy bedding, complimentary toiletries, and additional amenities.
Staple images in most Airbnb listings, especially those in popular vacation spots, are stunning views. But it’s essential to include details from the property, such as if the guest is there, looking out the window, or sitting on the balcony. You need not just show travelers the view but the experience of the view from your property like in this Airbnb listing that offers a “secluded, wooded, mountainous” experience and a true immersion in nature.
Before taking photos, you should ensure your space is clean and decorate your property to enhance your guest experience. Add small touches like a couple of decorative pillows, artwork, and flowers to create the desired vibe and highlight the elegance and coziness of your rental.
Hire a professional photographer to capture some great shots of your property in a consistent style that can help paint a picture of what staying in your home will feel like. The photos should best show your listing’s layout and highlight key features.
Remember to add a photo of each room and some pictures of nearby landmarks. The more photos, the better. This way, you’ll help your potential guests visualize their stay. Don’t forget to add captions to provide context to your photos.
Create a Great Airbnb Host Profile
Your Airbnb account is a great way for travelers to learn more about you before booking your space. So you should polish your profile. Filling in all the sections of your Airbnb bio and adding a professional photo of yourself is critical.
To help guests learn about you as a host, take some time to write a comprehensive description of yourself. You aim to show your unique personality and stand out from other hosts. Describe your hosting style and add personal details, such as your hobbies and interests, countries you’ve been to, favorite music, etc.
You also need to verify your identity to add credibility to your profile. You can do it by adding a photo of your ID, your legal first and last name, and specifying your legal address. Remember that your robust profile helps other people feel more confident that you’re reliable and authentic.
Improve Your Response Time to Boost Visibility
Airbnb appreciates responsible hosts who pay due attention to their communication with guests. Airbnb measures your response rate and time to evaluate how you communicate with guests.
You should keep your response rate higher than 90% and be as fast as possible to respond if you want to maintain a high position in search results for your listing. Besides, the quicker you respond, the more positive guests will feel about your listing and be satisfied with their visit.
That will encourage guests to give you 5-star reviews. They will serve as a signal to Airbnb that you are a great host who provides a perfect guest experience. Airbnb rewards such hosts and moves their listings to the top of search results.
You can easily improve your response time and ensure personalized communication using Hospitable to help you with messaging. Our software will take 90% of your hosting routine off your shoulders.
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Final Thought
We hope our tips on making your Airbnb stand out will help you create an Airbnb listing that looks most appealing and will allow you to be ahead of the competition. You must have a great Airbnb listing to boost your chances of success.
Remember to create a complete listing with nice-looking photos and comprehensive information about you as a host. It’s essential to attracting more bookings. You should also follow the best practices to enhance your ranking on the platform and go the extra mile to provide an excellent guest experience to make guests happy.
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Want some actionable tips on boosting your Airbnb rankings? Look no further!
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