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571. How to become a booked out Airbnb in 4 simple steps · Thanks For Visiting

• 1:05
  Sarah Karakaian: Hello, welcome back to another great episode.
• 1:07
  Sarah Karakaian: My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 1:08
  Annette Grant: I'm Annette Grant, and together we are...
• 1:11
  Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
• 1:12
  Sarah Karakaian: When a host isn't booked out, the first thing they blame is either their price or that the market is oversaturated.
• 1:20
  Annette Grant: But the real reason you're not booked out, it's usually in four other places, and here's the good news.
• 1:25
  Annette Grant: They are completely in your control.
• 1:27
  Annette Grant: It's your listing, your data, your calendar, and your past guests.
• 1:32
  Annette Grant: And today we're breaking all four down one at a time, and number three will surprise you.
• 1:39
  Annette Grant: We've been hosting for over a decade, built a multi-million dollar portfolio, and we work with hundreds of hosts who collectively generate over $2 million in monthly bookings through our private coaching program, Strategic Host.
• 1:51
  Annette Grant: One of our members, Audrey, used exactly what we're about to show you and moved her listing to booking conversion from .64% to 2.17% in just 10 days.
• 2:04
  Sarah Karakaian: So by the end, you're gonna know exactly which one of these four things is costing you bookings right now.
• 2:14
  Sarah Karakaian: All right, number one is your listing itself.
• 2:17
  Sarah Karakaian: Every single guest decides whether to book you off of your title, your hero image, your photos, and/or your listing description.
• 2:27
  Annette Grant: And we still see hosts uploading an iPhone photo they think looks fine next to five professional shots.
• 2:35
  Annette Grant: Guests can tell.
• 2:37
  Annette Grant: Every photo in that gallery is either pulling its weight or it is costing you the click.
• 2:44
  Sarah Karakaian: There is a balance most hosts miss on photo count, okay?
• 2:48
  Sarah Karakaian: You can't have so few that guests can't picture the space, but you also cannot have so many that these potential guests get lost in the sauce of scrolling through 10 photos of your living room at, like, a slightly
• 3:03
  Sarah Karakaian: different angle each time.
• 3:04
  Sarah Karakaian: It's just way too much.
• 3:06
  Sarah Karakaian: We have found in the, I think, thousands of listing audits at this point, that around 40 photos is ideal.
• 3:14
  Sarah Karakaian: Unless you're in a really competitive market or you have a giant home, somewhere around 40 photos is ideal.
• 3:20
  Annette Grant: Yeah.
• 3:21
  Annette Grant: And with your title and your hero image, that's the one photo that's standing next to every other listing in your market, competing for the exact same click, that same guest.
• 3:32
  Annette Grant: And here's where hosts get it wrong.
• 3:35
  Annette Grant: They pick the hero image based on what they personally love.
• 3:39
  Annette Grant: Your favorite angle of the living room means nothing if it's not the photo that steals the click from your competition.
• 3:48
  Sarah Karakaian: Continuing on your listing, your description has one job, okay?
• 3:52
  Sarah Karakaian: It's to answer every question before the guest has to ask it.
• 3:57
  Sarah Karakaian: How many en suites do you have?
• 3:59
  Sarah Karakaian: What floor is bedroom one on, bedroom two on, bedroom three on?
• 4:03
  Sarah Karakaian: Whether the pool is heated.
• 4:05
  Sarah Karakaian: Is campus a two-minute walk or is it a, an Uber ride?
• 4:09
  Sarah Karakaian: Make them guess once and you've lost the booking to whoever answered the questions that your potential guest has floating in their mind first.
• 4:19
  Annette Grant: And then, ooh, there's the ever important reviews.
• 4:22
  Annette Grant: And this is where the hosts do the most damage to themselves.
• 4:27
  Sarah Karakaian: Oh, yeah.
• 4:27
  Annette Grant: When a negative review comes in, we see hosts respond defensively.
• 4:34
  Annette Grant: Quite honestly, they sound unhinged.
• 4:36
  Annette Grant: They sound unreasonable, like they're almost arguing with that guest.
• 4:41
  Annette Grant: We want you to take a pause, take a breath before you respond.
• 4:47
  Annette Grant: And remember, the goal of your response, you are not responding to that guest that already stayed.
• 4:55
  Annette Grant: You are talking to the next guest that will be reading it, deciding whether to book you or not.
• 5:02
  Annette Grant: And answer the question their review raised calmly, collectively, and keep that future guest in mind.
• 5:11
  Sarah Karakaian: All right, number two, and this is the one that I want you to, like, run and fix, do, get into place.
• 5:18
  Sarah Karakaian: I want to turn on Airbnb's professional hosting tools if you haven't yet because they tell you in black or white whether your hero image, your title, or your description are turning lookers into bookers.
• 5:30
  Annette Grant: And listen, we talk to hosts who have been doing this for years, and they have never opened or even looked at their professional hosting tools.
• 5:40
  Annette Grant: There is no shame in this, but understanding the easy-to-read data on this page is the fastest fix in this entire list.
• 5:49
  Sarah Karakaian: Here's what the professional hosting tools page shows you.
• 5:53
  Sarah Karakaian: It shows you if you're showing up in search at all, if you're being clicked at all, if you're being booked once someone does click your listing.
• 6:03
  Sarah Karakaian: And if they're not, that means that you can see the exact moment where you're losing your potential customer so that you can fix that specific moment instead of guessing at your whole listing.
• 6:15
  Annette Grant: Reacting to this data is baseline because we're not letting our instincts decide if your hero image is the best one you have.
• 6:23
  Annette Grant: We are confirming it with the data.
• 6:25
  Sarah Karakaian: And I want to ask something here.
• 6:27
  Sarah Karakaian: You all know how design-forward Airbnb leads.
• 6:31
  Sarah Karakaian: Like they make it really easy for us to upload our listing, and they make it really easy for guests to book a place to stay.
• 6:36
  Sarah Karakaian: Like that's Airbnb's whole shtick, if you will.
• 6:40
  Sarah Karakaian: I, they make data really easy to read.
• 6:42
  Sarah Karakaian: Mm-hmm.
• 6:42
  Sarah Karakaian: Don't you agree?
• 6:43
  Annette Grant: Absolutely.
• 6:43
  Sarah Karakaian: Like do not be intimidated by this page.
• 6:47
  Sarah Karakaian: And go look at it.
• 6:48
  Sarah Karakaian: It is so easy to read.
• 6:49
  Sarah Karakaian: The graph is simple.
• 6:51
  Sarah Karakaian: It is basic, but it tells you exactly what you need.
• 6:55
  Sarah Karakaian: All right.
• 6:55
  Sarah Karakaian: Audrey, who is one of our strategic host clients, we spoke about her earlier, is, is proof in this.
• 7:00
  Sarah Karakaian: Okay?
• 7:01
  Sarah Karakaian: Her search to listing conversion was holding steady at twenty-four point two one percent, which is really healthy for her listing in her market.
• 7:10
  Sarah Karakaian: This meant that potential guests were finding her and they were clicking on her listing.
• 7:16
  Sarah Karakaian: This is good.
• 7:17
  Sarah Karakaian: So getting the attention of a potential guest wasn't her problem.
• 7:21
  Sarah Karakaian: The drop was happening lower in her booking funnel.
• 7:23
  Sarah Karakaian: So we start at the top of a funnel, and we want that guest to go through the booking funnel, and it gets smaller as it goes down.
• 7:29
  Sarah Karakaian: And this, she was losing them towards the bottom of her funnel between the guest thinking, "Ooh, this looks interesting, and I'm gonna book it."
• 7:38
  Sarah Karakaian: And at first she thought it was probably because she was overpriced.
• 7:42
  Sarah Karakaian: But once we coached her on how to read her data, we encouraged her to first fix her photos.
• 7:50
  Sarah Karakaian: And once we did that, her listing to booking conversion went up from point six four percent to two point one seven percent within ten days.
• 8:00
  Sarah Karakaian: She found exactly where her funnel was breaking instead of assuming the fix was dropping her price
• 8:07
  Annette Grant: And if you've never looked at your listing data on Airbnb, or if you've looked at it and you have no clue what any of it meant, that is exactly what we teach when you learn with us live.
• 8:18
  Annette Grant: The link is in the description to save your seat.
• 8:22
  Annette Grant: Number three is your calendar, and you are completely in control of this, and this is where you would never know you're losing bookings.
• 8:31
  Annette Grant: Sara and I love to say you have cash sitting in your calendar.
• 8:36
  Sarah Karakaian: It's in there.
• 8:36
  Sarah Karakaian: It's just hiding.
• 8:37
  Annette Grant: It's hiding from you because most hosts, you have settings on in your calendar, and you have no idea.
• 8:44
  Annette Grant: You have minimum stays.
• 8:46
  Annette Grant: You have blocked dates, rules that you set once and you never went back to question.
• 8:52
  Annette Grant: It runs in the background deciding who can and who cannot book you, and you have no idea that this is happening.
• 9:00
  Sarah Karakaian: Cause you forgot.
• 9:00
  Sarah Karakaian: You forgot.
• 9:00
  Sarah Karakaian: Like you set it when you were newer, or maybe it just came with these settings.
• 9:04
  Sarah Karakaian: You didn't know what you were doing at the time.
• 9:06
  Annette Grant: Or it was during your busy season, now it's slow season.
• 9:09
  Sarah Karakaian: Mm-hmm.
• 9:09
  Annette Grant: Or vice versa.
• 9:11
  Annette Grant: And we hear this constantly.
• 9:13
  Annette Grant: And a host, you know, they got that seven-night booking over the Christmas holiday two years ago, so now they require seven nights every single Christmas holiday going forward, and they wonder why they're sitting empty.
• 9:26
  Annette Grant: One great booking turned into a baseless permanent rule in their calendar.
• 9:32
  Annette Grant: That needs to change.
• 9:35
  Sarah Karakaian: That's a good point, Annette.
• 9:37
  Sarah Karakaian: How about every date you block off to avoid a same-day turnover because the cleaner you're working with refuses to do same-day turnovers?
• 9:46
  Sarah Karakaian: Instead, build a team that can handle same-day turnovers.
• 9:51
  Sarah Karakaian: It's a date that you're choosing to sit empty instead of selling all 365 days a year and having the most flexible schedule you possibly can.
• 10:01
  Annette Grant: Or hosts just deciding no one would ever pay to stay for just one night plus their cleaning fee, so they just don't even bother offering one-night stays.
• 10:12
  Annette Grant: That is a decision based on purely assumption, and it will bury you in Airbnb's algorithm fast.
• 10:19
  Annette Grant: One of our clients, Tracy, she thought just that.
• 10:23
  Annette Grant: She thought, "Why would anyone ever stay at my place for one night?"
• 10:27
  Annette Grant: And we showed her the data in her market and convinced her to try it.
• 10:31
  Annette Grant: Since making that change alone, she, she has secured five one-night stay bookings totaling almost $2,000 in revenue.
• 10:40
  Annette Grant: These are reservations that she would have never gotten if she continued to believe that no one would ever pay to stay for just one night.
• 10:50
  Sarah Karakaian: Calendar availability is one of the biggest reasons Airbnb rewards you or punishes you.
• 10:56
  Sarah Karakaian: Being bookable gets you seen, and being closed off will get you buried, no matter how good your listing looks.
• 11:04
  Annette Grant: Number four, and this is the one that hosts skip the most because they are too busy hunting out there for their next new, their new booking, their new guest to notice.
• 11:14
  Annette Grant: It's fostering those relationships with your past guests, people that have already paid to stay with you, and this is what we call a loyalty loop.
• 11:25
  Sarah Karakaian: And this can be super simple.
• 11:28
  Sarah Karakaian: Don't overcomplicate this, okay?
• 11:31
  Sarah Karakaian: It can be as simple as wowing the guest while they're staying with you so that your place feels like their home away from home every time they think about coming back to the area.
• 11:41
  Sarah Karakaian: It can be a QR code or a line in your guidebook that gets them to give you their email address so that you can email them in the future, ask them to come back.
• 11:50
  Sarah Karakaian: It can be, um, while they're there, you notice why they told you they're coming in the first place and engaging in conversation with them about it.
• 11:58
  Sarah Karakaian: For example, I mean, I would say this is back in 2018, I have a guest, Kelly, who messaged me that the hotel she usually stays at for her time at work in Columbus, Ohio, um, is under construction.
• 12:13
  Sarah Karakaian: And, you know, do I offer.
• 12:15
  Annette Grant: You've gotta read between the lines there.
• 12:16
  Sarah Karakaian: You do.
• 12:17
  Annette Grant: For work.
• 12:18
  Sarah Karakaian: For work.
• 12:18
  Sarah Karakaian: I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is a weekday stay.
• 12:21
  Sarah Karakaian: She comes all the time."
• 12:23
  Sarah Karakaian: So she checked in.
• 12:24
  Sarah Karakaian: I said, "Hey, Kelly, I hope we're better than the hotel.
• 12:27
  Sarah Karakaian: How's your week going?"
• 12:28
  Sarah Karakaian: She said it was amazing, and then I picked up the phone and I called her and I said, "Kelly, I would love for you to stay with me instead of that hotel every time you come into town for
• 12:36
  Sarah Karakaian: work."
• 12:37
  Sarah Karakaian: And it is now, I mean, was that six years, seven years later?
• 12:40
  Sarah Karakaian: She is still.
• 12:41
  Annette Grant: That's eight years later, by the way.
• 12:43
  Sarah Karakaian: No.
• 12:43
  Annette Grant: Yes.
• 12:44
  Annette Grant: You said 2018.
• 12:46
  Annette Grant: 2018 plus eight is 2026.
• 12:46
  Annette Grant: You're not wrong.
• 12:47
  Sarah Karakaian: That is...
• 12:48
  Sarah Karakaian: that is a long time later.
• 12:52
  Sarah Karakaian: I mean, I know her husband's name, I know her dog.
• 12:54
  Sarah Karakaian: It's, she's amazing, and we have a great relationship.
• 12:56
  Annette Grant: And it really is as simple as that.
• 12:59
  Annette Grant: So the key word might be work.
• 13:01
  Annette Grant: The key word might be visiting family.
• 13:04
  Annette Grant: The key word might be a annual event that takes place in your town.
• 13:09
  Annette Grant: This is where you just have to go that one layer deeper, and you really can have that loyalty loop keep rewarding you and the guest over and over again.
• 13:20
  Sarah Karakaian: All right, so let's recap it, Annette.
• 13:22
  Sarah Karakaian: That's four different things that we have control over.
• 13:26
  Annette Grant: Simple, easy, actionable.
• 13:29
  Sarah Karakaian: Yes.
• 13:30
  Sarah Karakaian: Number
• 13:30
  Annette Grant: one- Doesn't cost you anything.
• 13:31
  Sarah Karakaian: No.
• 13:31
  Annette Grant: Just some time and focus.
• 13:33
  Sarah Karakaian: Your listing has to do the convincing why you and not your competitor.
• 13:38
  Sarah Karakaian: All right?
• 13:39
  Sarah Karakaian: The data that Airbnb gives us that is so easy to read tells you what's working and what isn't, and you have to remove your ego from it.
• 13:47
  Sarah Karakaian: If it's your hero image, if it's that title that you've had for the same title for the past three years, like change it, test it, do something different.
• 13:56
  Sarah Karakaian: Your calendar, it needs to show availability.
• 13:58
  Sarah Karakaian: If you wanna win on Airbnb, you gotta play by Airbnb's rules, and you have to be available.
• 14:03
  Sarah Karakaian: If you block it off for your family to stay once a week, you know, every month or, or every summer, what have you, and you're not available, and Airbnb buries you in the algorithm, that's the way it is.
• 14:14
  Sarah Karakaian: And you have to give your guests a reason to come back.
• 14:18
  Sarah Karakaian: They liked your place.
• 14:19
  Sarah Karakaian: They booked you before.
• 14:21
  Sarah Karakaian: Get them to come stay with you again.
• 14:23
  Sarah Karakaian: Inside of our coaching program, Strategic Host, we help hosts stop guessing and start knowing exactly why they're booked or why they're not.
• 14:31
  Annette Grant: So join us live and see if Strategic Host is right fit for you.
• 14:34
  Annette Grant: Click the link in the show notes to find out more.
• 14:38
  Sarah Karakaian: And with that, I'm Sara Karakaian.
• 14:40
  Annette Grant: I'm Annette Grant, and together we are...
• 14:42
  Annette & Sarah: Thanks for visiting.