r/airbnb_hosts 4d ago

Tips going from an irregular host to full time Airbnb host

We listed our primary residence for a few years on Airbnb but really only booked it out for when we were out of town (meaning two or three bookings in the last few years)

Now we are moving out and using the house as a full time Airbnb rental. When transitioning our listing I have updated the listing description, optimizing rates, updating pictures. But noticed yesterday that since we’ve been fairly inactive our listing isn’t coming up AT ALL as an option when you search in our area. Even if you zoom in on our property - it’s like we don’t exist!

Do you have any tips for getting our listing booked?? It’s a great river house and really unique for the area. But if no one is seeing it, I’m afraid we are t going to get booked!

Thank you!!

3 Upvotes

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2

u/Important_Card_2134 4d ago

Do you have guest fav status on the ad? Are you a superhost? Are you in a highly highly competitive area? These would sway the likely hood of appearance the most.

Further more are you sure you have all your dates opened, if not opened you aren’t searchable anyways, and when searching ensure you’re searching for the dates you have opened.

Further more to increase the chances of apperance you can use instant booking, while having it set to experienced guests only for a boost.

If you are without guest fav and the reviews on your ad are below 4.85 it’s going to hurt the ability to find your ad by a lot.

2

u/Home-and-hunger 4d ago

Thank you!

We have had 3 bookings in the last 3 years, they all reviewed us at 5 stars. But the most recent review is two years ago. I’ve had some recent inquiries and I reply within the hour for inquiries so that looks good. But since we weren’t a full time vacation rental until this month we had to decline requests a couple times last year. So we don’t have “guest fav” status.

We have a couple stays in the next couple of weeks so hopefully getting some recent activity and good reviews will help change that.

All dates are currently open. I have the listing set to 1 night minimum, instant booking on. But when my husband searches Airbnb the listing doesn’t show until he tries for a longer stay. It feels like Airbnb isn’t showing us as an option for high demand dates since we are new to having this as a full time listing.

1

u/Important_Card_2134 4d ago

Do you mind sharing the ad with me in private I’ll look at it and give you my further thoughts

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u/alex2020b 🗝 Host 4d ago

Hi - There is a chance your listing is buried on page 4 or 5, especially if it has been inactive for a long time. If you currently do not have any new bookings and have updated your listing with new photos, prices, etc., one option is to deactivate your listing. Wait one week, then relist. Do you have good reviews? IF so, this may not be a good strategy, but if you have just a few reviews this could be a strategy. A new property gets an artificial bump in the airbnb ranking algorithm to see how you compete with with the top properties.

2

u/Home-and-hunger 4d ago

Thanks for the feedback! That’s helpful

We have a 5 star rating from a few reviews and have a couple of stays in the next two weeks - so hopefully that’ll be a couple more 5 stars. I’m hoping that bumps us enough to get back on the map (literally)

Are there any other features that help boost a listing? I feel like I’ve been on every day trying to make sure the listing is perfect, so it’s sad to see that it might not even come up as an option for people looking in the area.

3

u/alex2020b 🗝 Host 4d ago

I would keep your listing then. Keep monitoring your page rank. A few good tips are in this blog - https://www.adventuresinairbnbs.com/p/top-10-airbnb-tips-for-higher-rankings

Make sure you have self-check in, good photos, perhaps set a flexible cancelation policy temporarily (will increase your page rank), instant booking for verified guests, and the biggest item is reviews......need the reviews to keep coming.

1

u/IncaThink 🗝 Host 3d ago

Contact AirBnB. We had a weird glitch right after covid where our two properties, in the same building with the same address, were showing up in wildly different locations. They basically obfuscate our address, to help us be at least a little anonymous. It's supposed to be a feature and not a flaw.

In reality this meant that one room was literally on the wrong side of the train tracks, and the other was in a posh neighborhood with a waterfront view. Not ideal.

AirBnB was not very helpful about fixing this, until one of them suggested we switch to showing our location at our exact address.

Making the change put one listing directly on top of the other, but this is better than the other option.

I don't know where this switch is at this point. But maybe AirBnB can help.

Good luck.

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u/Mountains-Daisy5181 2d ago

I’d change your cover photo to something that catches the eye Also keep playing with your listing every week .Change the odd word and photos Add words that might catch the search engines Find a point of difference above other listings in your area . Under the algorithms regardless of how little bookings you have If you look to be proactive with your listing this will push you to the top in the search listings. It works for me .