As an Airbnb host, it can be difficult to make your property stand out from the crowd in a short-term rental property market that is ever-increasing in popularity.
Follow these tips in order to increase the views of your listing, market your property to the right customers, and climb your way up the Airbnb search rankings.
How Do I Increase My Views on Airbnb?
To increase your views on Airbnb, you need to develop a strong marketing approach by creating a brand, engaging with customers on social media, developing relationships with local businesses, and telling the story of your property. Commission high-quality promotional photos and videos, write an eye-catching title, and come up with a competitive pricing structure in order to increase the views of your Airbnb listing and gather five-star guest reviews.
Airbnb Marketing Ideas
Some of the most effective ways to market your vacation rental property on Airbnb include creating a brand and telling a story, engaging on social media and developing digital marketing techniques, and working with local businesses.
Creating a Brand
The first step to marketing your short-term rental property successfully on Airbnb is to establish your brand. This doesn’t mean pouring thousands into creating custom branding and materials, but rather designing a consistent scheme with which to market your property or properties.
Coming up with a business name that you can use consistently across all of your social media platforms, the Airbnb site itself and within the property develop trust amongst customers and brand loyalty. A simple logo and website can help create a consistent message, but they aren’t compulsory.
To begin thinking about your brand, ask yourself the following questions:
- What emotions do you want your guests to feel when they stay in your property?
- How do you want your guests to describe their stay to their friends and family?
- What features have influenced the design of the property?
Social Media
The next step is to begin sharing your property on social media accounts. This means posting photos, videos, and informative written content related to your vacation rental business.
If you have an Instagram account, this could include sharing high-quality photographs of the property itself, local amenities, activities in the surrounding areas, and the setting of the property. You could also share short videos, and reels, showcasing the best activities to take part in in the local area or some unique features of your property.
If you have a Facebook account, this could include sharing customer testimonials, links to local bars, restaurants, and activities, and showcasing the design of your property.
Engaging with potential customers outside of the Airbnb platform is one of the best ways to draw the attention of new guests and retain existing ones, year after year.
Influencer Marketing
You might want to take social media marketing one step further with the help of social media influencers. Depending on your location and your budget, you can employ popular content creators on social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok to visit your property, create content, and share their thoughts on their social media accounts.
Digital Marketing
Running an email marketing campaign, amongst other digital marketing strategies such as search engine optimization for your website, can be incredibly effective at retaining existing customers and engaging new ones. You could send out an email newsletter monthly letting your mailing list know of upgrades you’ve made to your property, local events taking place that month, or changes in your pricing. Websites like Mailerlite and MailChimp are great options for Airbnb businesses.
Collaboration with Local Businesses
One of the most effective ways of marketing your Airbnb profile and rental property to customers is via collaboration with local businesses. Perhaps this could be a local restaurant, a boutique store on the high street, or an activity center that is popular with tourists. Look around your local area, identifying potential partnerships. By sharing each other’s services online and with your customers, you can develop effective referral strategies, often motivated by discounts for one or both of the services using a discount code.
Story-Telling
Finally, many Airbnb hosts find that communicating the story of their property with customers is an incredibly beneficial tool in drawing more visitors to their listing. In your description, why not answer the following questions?
- How and when did you come to own the property?
- Why did you decide to let it to guests on Airbnb?
- What experience are you trying to create for your guests?
- What makes your property unique?
Learn more about how to make your listing stand out.
How Do I Drive Traffic to My Airbnb Listing?
If you’re looking to drive more traffic to your Airbnb profile, ask yourself the following questions: are your photos and videos high-quality? Is your title eye-catching? Is your pricing competitive, and do you have great guest reviews?
High-Quality Photography
The photographs and videos of your property on the Airbnb platform are incredibly important. They can be the difference between a potential guest mindlessly scrolling past, and standing out from all of the competitors on the page.
Investing in a great set of photographs is well worth doing, and you’ll be able to use the photos for many years to come. Consider the most important features of the property and display these photos first in your advertisement.
Read more about how to write great photo captions for your Airbnb listing.
An Eye-Catching Title
Grab the attention of potential customers with an eye-catching title. Use emotive language, capitalize on the unique selling points of your property, and provide all the information that your potential guests need to know. Airbnb has a 50-character limit on their titles, so using abbreviations and only mentioning key features is a great way to make use of this.
For example:
- Secluded Private Villa w/ 2 Doubles and 2 Bathrooms
- Cosy Wood Cabin Overlooking Large Lake
- Modern Townhouse Perfect for Family Getaway
In addition to an eye-catching title, great Airbnb listings also include space for a descriptive summary and highlights section to bring attention to the unique features of the property. This is a great opportunity to describe to your guests what it would be like to stay at the property, using visual imagery to highlight key aspects of the stay.
Read more examples of catchy Airbnb titles.
A Competitive Pricing Structure
Once you have the attention-grabbing title and great photographs, it’s time to think about the pricing aspect of your listing. It’s generally advisable to begin listing your property at a lower price than competitors with properties of a similar size and with similar amenities, and then to gradually increase your prices over time.
Keeping your prices low initially means that you have a higher chance of attracting more customers and therefore getting great reviews. It’s always better to set lower expectations and exceed them, than set high expectations that you cannot meet.
Generating Great Guest Reviews
On short-term rental property sites like Airbnb, great reviews are everything. During the first couple of months of letting your property especially, your attention should be on providing the greatest possible guest experience. Guests who are wowed by the attention to detail, customer service, and cleanliness of your property will be far more likely to leave those all-important five-star reviews.
Read more about how to attract more guests, and how to respond to negative reviews.
Why is My Airbnb Listing Not on Page One When I Search for It?
If you’re struggling to see your Airbnb listing when you search for it, it is most likely because it is not performing well in the search algorithm. Implement these top tips in order to boost your listing in the search rankings:
- Assess your pricing. Low prices tend to appear higher up than high prices, and listings with large cleaning fees, big deposits required and additional guest fees tend to be lower down.
- Reach Superhost status. Those with a Superhost status tend to find themselves much higher up in the rankings. Download my Airbnb Superhost Checklist.
- Avoid cancellations. Canceling bookings frequently can really harm your appearance in search results.
- Get great guest reviews. Provide a brilliant service and collect great reviews to find yourself higher up in the search results.
- Check your availability. Applying restrictions such as limited availability and minimum stays affects your occupancy rate and can mean that your rental property listing isn’t as high in the search results as you would like.
Want to know more about optimizing your listing for the Airbnb search algorithm? Take a look at my Airbnb SEO Bible.
Conclusion
If you want to increase the visibility of your Airbnb listing, develop a great marketing strategy and make sure you succeed in converting views into bookings, follow these top tips:
- Create a brand
- Engage with customers on social media
- Develop a digital marketing strategy
- Create relationships with local businesses
- Tell the story of your property
- Write an engaging title and description
- Show your property in its best light with high-quality photos and videos
- Ensure your pricing is competitive
Struggling to write an attention-grabbing title and informative Airbnb listing description? Get in touch to find out more about my Airbnb copywriting services.