Make More From Your Airbnb with These 11 Tips
Last Updated: 04/09/2022
Contents:
- Airbnb isn’t just about selling time in beautiful homes; it’s also about selling a unique experience.
- Do Your Research & Know What Your Local Airbnb Competitors Are Doing
- Renovate and Improve
- Make Sure You Have Good Reviews On Your Airbnb Listing
- List Your BNB On All Major Booking Sites
- Adding a Car Rental Service Can Make your Airbnb Income Skyrocket
- Add a Luxury Element to your Airbnb Listing
- Improve Your Location to Increase Appeal
- Add More Amenities to Your Property
- Require a Longer Minimum Length of Stay
- Learn how to market your BNB outside of Airbnb
At some point, every host that has had a taste of success starts to wonder how they can do more.
This effect is compounded in the off-season when bookings are slow and you have more time to analyse your progress.
The good news is that you have options. Of course, some are more challenging, but for the most part, they’re super easy!
Guests are choosing between your property and hundreds of others, so you need to make sure you minimise any barriers to booking.
You want your property to be perceived as a fantastic option that will provide an experience that’s worth paying for.
Read on as we share 11 of the best ways to improve your Airbnb income in 2022.
1. Airbnb isn’t just about selling time in beautiful homes; it’s also about selling a unique experience.
The bottom line is: you’re not selling an empty room; you’re selling an experience.
Instead of just listing your home and calling it done, you need to offer something unique or special that sets your property apart from your competition.
You have a variety of unique experiences and attractions to offer your guests, and they’re not just staying in your home; they’re also staying in your hometown.
That means offering a few unique perks, like a welcome kit or a book of local recommendations. It also means there is an opportunity to provide your guests with meaningful interactions, like hosting a game night or a wine tasting.
Airbnb isn’t just a room-sharing platform; it’s a way of life. You’re not just renting out a room — you’re renting out a space to strangers, which allows you to invite them into your world.
You need to think about your Airbnb as a mini-resort, not just a room. Set the scene. Create something unique that helps them make memories.
Delighted guests are happy guests, who’ll want to stay at your property again, and will recommend you to their friends.
2. Do Your Research & Know What Your Local Airbnb Competitors Are Doing
You need to know what your local Airbnb competitors are doing to understand your local market.
There are several ways to research what your local competitors are doing. One of the best options is using a service like Airdna to look at the Airbnb data for your city.
Airdna allows you to understand the match between occupancy and nightly rate. It will show you the number of nights each host booked, the average nightly rate per night, and the occupancy rate.
This will give you a good idea of how your competitors are performing. You’ll be able to see if they’re achieving higher occupancy or higher nightly rates.
You can then compare the number of nights your competitors are booked against your bookings. This will allow you to understand how your property stacks up against what is available locally. You should take this opportunity to review your nightly rate against your competitors.
It can be hard to know whether or not a particular nightly rate will allow you to be profitable when you’re starting out.
Wheelhouse and Pricelabsare both valuable tools that let you analyse pricing data across thousands of Airbnb listings.
Wheelhouse even allows you to set a base price that you require. Then their dynamic pricing adjustments do the rest, so you get an optimal nightly rate based on demand, season, and availability, amongst other data points.
You can then compare the match between occupancy and nightly rate, which you can then compare to your costs, so you can understand whether or not you’re making a profit on a per-night basis.
3. Renovate and Improve
Ask yourself – why do potential guests want to book your house?
If you can’t think of any good reasons, now is the time to create some!
But this doesn’t mean over-decorating; it simply means setting the scene.
Paint the walls, add a few accent pieces, and change the sheets on the bed. You’re not just trying to make your Airbnb look nice; you’re trying to make it stand out as a special place to stay.
You have more control over the Airbnb experience when you’re the host, which means that you can decorate to suit your brand.
You want your Airbnb to be like a home away from home, not a hotel room.
This means investing in quality furniture, artwork, and décor. Remember, you’re not just trying to make your home look nice; you’re trying to make it look like a place they HAVE to stay.
Times of slow bookings can also be a great time to renovate your home and make some upgrades to the property that might be difficult to schedule when you’re busy.
4. Make Sure You Have Good Reviews on Your Airbnb Listing
Getting good reviews can be difficult.
It takes time for people to realise that you’re a good host and to start leaving good reviews. But if you want to be successful on Airbnb, you need to get good reviews as soon as possible.
One of the first things people look at when deciding whether or not to book an Airbnb is the reviews.
They look at the number of reviews a listing has, the overall rating, and the comments.
Then, they usually read the reviews to get an idea of what their experience will be like, and gauge whether they would enjoy it.
Needless to say, if there are a lot of positive reviews, they’re more likely to book the listing.
The bottom line is that good reviews give people confidence when they’re trying to decide whether or not to book your listing.
The more good reviews you have, the higher your rating will be, and the more likely people will book your listing. You can then use this to your advantage when trying to get more bookings.
Here’s how you can get good reviews on your Airbnb listing:
- First, you need to ensure that your Airbnb is decorated and presented well, is clean, and provides a good experience.
- You can ask them to write a little something about their experience so that you can use it as a guest testimonial on your listing. It never hurts to let them know that you both appreciate and use their feedback to improve.
- You need to make sure that you respond to your guests’ questions and provide excellent service, which will help to build a reputation for excellence.
- Finally, you need to make sure that you’re leaving good reviews. Let guests know that it was a pleasure having them (if it was, of course).
One of the best things you can do to increase the number of reviews on your Airbnb is to be friendly and approachable. Show people that you’re a nice person and infect them with positive, humble energy.
Even if you don’t have anything nice to say, you can still be polite and say thank you in your reviews and replies.
This will demonstrate that you’re a respectful and thankful person, which helps to increase the number of reviews you get.
After all, you always catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
5. List Your Airbnb On All Major Booking Sites
Listing your short-term rental property on all of the available booking sites increases your chances of getting bookings and making money.
The reason is simple; you can reach a much larger audience of potential guests.
The more places your listings are available, the more opportunities you have to find new guests.
Here are a few of the best places to post your BNB.
The most common booking sites for STR hosts are VRBO and FlipKey.
You can also list your property on TravelTriangle and Hotels.com.
Lucky.Day is also a great new option for promoting to people shopping for discounts and travel deals. You can pay a small monthly fee to list your property on their website, which also gives you the ability to link your own website.
Another good option is to list your property on booking.com and get exposure to millions of visitors every month.
All you have to do is sign up for an account, add your property to your listing, and you’re ready to go.
You can also add a carefully written description, price, and availability so that people know exactly what they’re getting when they book your listing.
6. Adding a car rental service can make your Airbnb income skyrocket.
You may have heard of the popular car rental startup called Turo. Turo is a peer-to-peer car rental marketplace that lets travelers rent out their extra car space to earn some extra money.
With Turo, you can rent your car to other travelers and earn a portion of the rental fee, which is referred to as the “Turo income.” You can use this Turo income to fund your travels, reduce your monthly expenses, or pay for your car repairs.
7. Add a Luxury Element to Your Airbnb Listing
Airbnb is a great way to make extra money as a luxury host. The Airbnb Luxe market is the most lucrative market on the Airbnb platform.
If you have a high-end car, high-end accommodation, and a high-end listing, you have the potential to make some serious coin as an Airbnb Luxe host. All you have to do is find a suitable property close to major tourist destinations and then rent it out on Airbnb.
Airbnb can also be used to offer a luxury experience to your guests, even if your house isn’t considered luxurious.
For example, you can offer a luxury organic breakfast served in your bedroom, a custom message, or a driver service.
You can provide a level of personalized service that is usually only available through traditional hospitality venues, which will set you apart from other Airbnb hosts and potentially increase your revenue. For example, adding a personal concierge is a great way to achieve this.
8. Improve Your Location to Increase Appeal
If you have a property that’s not in a popular tourist destination or is located in a quiet suburb, you may be missing out on revenue.
Many travelers prefer to stay close to major tourist attractions, which means that they’ll look for Airbnb listings near or right in a tourist destination.
If your listing is in an area that doesn’t get many tourists and doesn’t provide them with a good reason to visit, then you should consider rethinking your listing.
You should try to find a property that is still close to major attractions so that you’re able to attract a higher volume of guests.
Maybe selling that property and buying another that is likely to be booked more often would be the smarter option.
Try to understand your target market and analyse why they want to visit an area. If you need some help with this, just ask!
9. Add Amenities to Your Property
One of the easiest ways to increase your nightly revenue is to add extra amenities to your property.
You can choose a sauna, a steam room, a hot tub, or a swimming pool.
Guests are often willing to pay more for the experience and the chance to relax.
Just be sure to factor the cleaning, electricity, and maintenance costs into your nightly rate.
Another good idea is board games or video games. These are great family pass-times and don’t cost a lot.
10. Require a Longer Minimum Length of Stay
One of the most important things you can do to improve your Airbnb income is to decrease your vacancy rate.
This is because the higher your vacancy rate, the more your property is empty, and when it’s not booked, you’re not making money.
One of the best ways to decrease your vacancy rate is to require a minimum length of stay.
Longer minimum stays help to ensure that you get the most out of your listing, as it will ensure that you get a higher occupancy.
You should set your minimum length of stay at a number that’s as high as your target market will accept.
An excellent place to start is two nights, which gives travelers enough time to relax and enjoy the sights, tastes, and activities that are available in your area.
If you want to increase your revenue, even more, you can set your minimum length of stay at three nights or even four nights. The more time your guests have to relax and enjoy the area they’re visiting, the better.
You may find that some guests only want to stay one night and will ask if you’re able to accommodate their request. But having a larger volume of shorter stays usually leads to more wear and tear on your property, as well as more cleaning and maintenance.
Requiring a 30-day minimum stay for your Airbnb is a great way to boost your occupancy rate to the moon. It can capture people who are relocating to the area, or people who visiting the area and work as digital nomads.
An extended minimum stay can also be used to get around zoning and licensing issues that otherwise can interfere with your Airbnb operation.
If your property is located in a municipality that requires you to have a permit or development application approval to operate an Airbnb, then listen up!
Usually, most local councils will provide definitions of a short-term rental. Often, it’s anything under 30 days but can be as much as 90 days. So, if you don’t want to obtain a permit, you can choose a minimum length of stay that technically stops your property from being considered a short-term rental accommodation.
Generally, if you’re able to increase your minimum stay length, you’ll create the opportunity to make more money.
11. Learn How to Market Outside of Airbnb
One of the best ways to increase your revenue is to build a direct booking site for your Airbnb.
Having a direct booking website allows you to generate more repeat customers, as you can offer them incentives such as discounts for return bookings. You and your guests will also save on platform service fees.
The first step you need to take to build a direct booking site is to find a web developer or marketing agency that has experience building websites in this niche.
This can be done through a service like Wix, WordPress, or even automatically with a channel manager like Uplisting, which will allow you to design your website.
One important tip for accepting direct bookings is to make sure your insurance policy offers complete protection.
Slow times don’t last, and there will probably be a post-COVID travel boom.
We’re predicting that, when the world finally has the coronavirus somewhat under control, there will be a massive increase in travel.
This will be great for Airbnb businesses, let alone the entire travel industry. There will continue to be a massive demand for the unique experiences only Airbnb can offer.
So, how are you going to be ready for the opportunity that these times present?
When times are quiet, you have to make the most of it.
To take your Airbnb to the next level, you’re going to need a plan.
So the first thing that you need to do is make a list of everything you would like to accomplish.
From there, you can start to prioritize the things that will have the most significant impact in terms of revenue.
But it doesn’t mean that you should take on a massive project. Instead, treat it as an opportunity to focus on growing your business in a way that will have an impact.
Do some analysis and dig deep into the core opportunties and competencies of your property. If you need some help with this – just ask us!
We’re firm believers in the power of preparedness. If you invest in your potential you’ll be positoned to achieve your goals when the time is right.
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