Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Your Airbnb Title Might Be the Problem

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Your Airbnb Title Might Be the Problem · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Most Airbnb listings fail for one simple reason.
• 0:03
  Guests scroll straight past them.
• 0:06
  In this episode, we're breaking down five ways to optimize your
• 0:09
  OTA listing so more guests click on your place and actually book
• 0:14
  it. In this episode of Host Planet
• 0:16
  Bite Size, powered by Host Fully, I'm joined by Kyle Geary
• 0:20
  from Orange Rentals. Kyle works with short term
• 0:22
  rental listings every day and understands what actually makes
• 0:26
  properties stand out on OTAs like Airbnb and Book dot com.
• 0:30
  If you're a host or property manager looking to increase
• 0:33
  clicks, improve conversions, and generate more bookings, this
• 0:37
  episode is packed with practical advice.
• 0:40
  Let's get straight into it. Kyle, thank you for joining us
• 0:46
  on host Planet Bite Size. You've got 5 OTA optimization
• 0:51
  tips to share, so take it away with tip #1.
• 0:55
  Thank you James tip #1 is to improve the listing title.
• 0:58
  So Airbnb in particular has 50 character limits on the title,
• 1:03
  but on all the other OTAs as well, it's efficient to make
• 1:06
  sure that you you are popping the title as your biggest
• 1:10
  feature. All your best things go into
• 1:12
  title. So for example, you might want
• 1:14
  to put in free parking if you've got free parking, not everyone
• 1:17
  has that. Or if you've got something the
• 1:19
  property and such as more TV's, I found that a property that had
• 1:23
  five TV's did really well when it had that point in the title.
• 1:27
  And so 1. So if you sort of optimize the
• 1:30
  listing title to make sure that it shows all your best features
• 1:33
  of a property and that's within that 50 character limit, that
• 1:36
  performs really well on Airbnb and all the other OTAs as well.
• 1:40
  Great tip. So so should it be your best
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  amenity or your your best selling point?
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  Is that what should go into your title rather than nice house or
• 1:50
  so? Or something very generic and
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  banal? Exactly.
• 1:54
  So you want to avoid things like cozy or quaint or even putting 3
• 1:59
  bedroom or two-bedroom even that sort of thing you want to avoid
• 2:02
  from title because it's already elsewhere in the listing.
• 2:05
  You want to advertise all your best features and especially in
• 2:08
  the order that they are appealing.
• 2:10
  So you people read left to right generally.
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  So you put in your best feature first, move across to the next
• 2:16
  best, and then you go away to the end.
• 2:18
  In terms of getting that title right, then obviously you want
• 2:22
  to include your aminoses in there.
• 2:24
  Is it worth using a tool like maybe ChatGPT?
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  Could you like put your listing in or give them a few examples
• 2:32
  of what you like and ask it to come up with some titles which
• 2:35
  might work well on platforms like Airbnb?
• 2:38
  You certainly can do. So what I normally like to do is
• 2:41
  I do sort of a bit of brainstorm, put down all my
• 2:44
  favorite things about the property, all the things that
• 2:47
  you need to that property, things that would stand out,
• 2:49
  kind of describe it in a few words in a notepad.
• 2:52
  Pop that into Chatdbt, ask you to keep it under 50 characters
• 2:55
  and choose all the best appealing Airbnb optimized
• 2:59
  words. And then you can.
• 3:00
  It usually gives you a few different options and you can
• 3:03
  pop it in your best, your most favorite option out of those.
• 3:07
  And with the title as well, do you change them fairly often?
• 3:10
  Do you go back a few months later or or maybe if a property
• 3:13
  isn't going as well as you thought you might?
• 3:14
  OK, well let's try changing the title. 100% you'd probably want
• 3:19
  to do that maybe twice a year, or three times a year at the
• 3:22
  most. You'd probably want to do that
• 3:24
  with the title, with the photos, and with the rest of the
• 3:26
  description every now and again as well.
• 3:28
  Small changes in the description or in the title show Airbnb that
• 3:32
  you are an active host and that pushes you to the top of the
• 3:35
  search rank again. But you won't don't want to
• 3:38
  change too much too often. But if you are seeing a
• 3:40
  different occupancy, it is best to just give the title a bit of
• 3:43
  rework. Same with the photos and same
• 3:44
  with the text. Yeah, just just refresh your
• 3:47
  listing a bit, OK then, Kyle, So tip #2?
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  Tip #2 is to improve the description.
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  So initially on Airbnb, but also on other channels, there's a
• 3:59
  short description first of all. And on Airbnb in particular,
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  most of the guests you're looking to advertise to their
• 4:05
  mobile base these days, so they're not going to see your
• 4:08
  full description. They'll see about 250 or 300
• 4:11
  characters of your message. So the best thing to do with
• 4:13
  that is to optimize it and say that your most important, most
• 4:17
  sellable, most attractive parts of your listing are pointing to
• 4:20
  that description first. So you might do a brief over
• 4:23
  things such as come stay at this lovely property in city or town
• 4:29
  nearby, this sort of amenity or feature.
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  And then you can put the rest in and you want, you kind of want
• 4:34
  to do a shortening of your description.
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  So do the bedroom counts or do what it's nearby to and all the
• 4:41
  best things that you can think of at that property.
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  Just in that first session there 1st 250 or 300 characters so
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  that the mobile users especially get to see it without having to
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  click show more. Would you use bullet points for
• 4:54
  that section or you know just is it really short sentences?
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  It is it's it's sort of short sentences, maybe one big opening
• 5:01
  sentence, but then you want to use the majority of your
• 5:03
  characters for there is additional bullet points.
• 5:06
  You can use bullet points. I use bullet point, sorry.
• 5:11
  You can use bullet points or you can use emojis, which is what I
• 5:13
  use the most of. It doesn't flag as an issue on
• 5:17
  Airbnb what emojis you use most of the time, but you'll see an
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  issue. Popular has an issue with it.
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  But yeah, most emojis can be used and they stand out.
• 5:27
  And interesting what you say there about mentioning kind of
• 5:31
  the tourist hotspots that are nearby.
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  If you're near like, I don't know, a football stadium or a
• 5:37
  theme park or something that people might be searching for
• 5:41
  because they're visiting that place.
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  It's worth having those things in your description, right?
• 5:46
  It certainly is. Exactly.
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  If it's a really big thing, such as Anfield stadium, that where
• 5:51
  I'm from in Liverpool, Anfield stadium is a really big place,
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  People are always searching for it.
• 5:56
  I'll put that in the title sometimes.
• 5:58
  But if you have it in your short description 100% that makes it
• 6:01
  much more converting. All right then, quick pause.
• 6:03
  This episode is powered by Host Philly, which helps professional
• 6:07
  hosts and property managers run more efficient short term rental
• 6:10
  businesses with powerful PMS tools and industry leading
• 6:14
  digital guidebooks. If you want to streamline your
• 6:16
  operations and deliver a better guest experience, simply scan
• 6:20
  the QR code on screen if you're watching on YouTube or click the
• 6:24
  link in the show notes to book a demo with a big friend of our
• 6:26
  show, Frank Bosey. And don't forget, Host Planet
• 6:29
  listeners get an exclusive discount, $500 of onboarding for
• 6:33
  the property management software, and 30% of digital
• 6:36
  guidebooks for life. All right, back to it, Kyle,
• 6:40
  What's tip #3? OK, tip #3 is the deal with the
• 6:43
  photos themselves on Airbnb, but also most other OTAs.
• 6:48
  The first five are the most important photos you've got, so
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  you'll you'll put them in as the most eye-catching photos you can
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  think of for that property. Signing off with the most
• 6:58
  attractive part of your property.
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  The most attractive space could be a bedroom or could be a
• 7:02
  living room or anywhere else. You put that this number one,
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  and then you go on as kind of the next best until you hit
• 7:08
  about 5 because that's what you can see on Airbnb and on most
• 7:11
  channels. And you want to make sure that
• 7:15
  you do this because most guests move on very quickly.
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  They've got a lot of options on these channels to choose where
• 7:21
  they want to stay. And if you, if they can see that
• 7:24
  is a nice property and you've got all the photos there and
• 7:27
  they're all captioned with what's in each room and so on,
• 7:31
  then they can see what they need to see straight away.
• 7:33
  Because Airbnb have said before that people will move on very
• 7:37
  quickly from your listing if they don't immediately see what
• 7:39
  they expect to see. If they can't see a washing
• 7:41
  machine in the property or something in the description
• 7:44
  saying there's got one, they will move on.
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  So the first five photos are very well important across all
• 7:49
  of your listed Ocas. And how important is it that
• 7:52
  those photos are bright and appealing and ideally taken by a
• 7:56
  professional photographer? Yeah, exactly. 100%.
• 7:59
  Photos taken from a professional photographer work the best
• 8:02
  because they know what they do, especially if they work with
• 8:04
  Airbnbs before or other short term rentals.
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  They know how to how to frame the room, how to make the
• 8:10
  inviting work for the best of the property.
• 8:12
  And in particular with Airbnb, more so than anywhere else, they
• 8:15
  have got an inclination for these professional photos.
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  If they see that it's a photo taken from your phone or it's a
• 8:23
  vertical shot and not a landscape shot, for example, it
• 8:26
  will not do well on the search ranking compared to those with
• 8:28
  professional photos. Definitely make them high
• 8:31
  resolution, bright and appealing as possible and think about what
• 8:34
  time you're taking them as well. Don't take them at night.
• 8:37
  Take them when there's a bit of a bit of natural light.
• 8:40
  All right then, Kyle. So tip #4.
• 8:43
  OK, tip #4 I would say is a call to action.
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  You always need to prompt these guests or future potential
• 8:50
  guests to book your property. And there's a couple of ways to
• 8:53
  do this. But the best way to do it I've
• 8:55
  found is in the sections below of your AB listing below the
• 8:59
  description where you have other things to note or things like
• 9:02
  that. You can pop in that add us to
• 9:05
  your wish list. Hit that little hard button in
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  the corner and then you'll be able to see when the prices drop
• 9:10
  or when availability comes up and so on.
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  You can also say book now to avoid disappointment because
• 9:15
  this probably won't be available for very long.
• 9:17
  These are high demand dates and so on.
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  But yeah, giving a guest a call to action is very important
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  because not everyone thinks the same way everyone else does.
• 9:26
  So they think it's always going to be there, for example, and
• 9:29
  they'll be disappointed when they come back and it's being
• 9:30
  booked up. Yeah, great tip there.
• 9:33
  Yeah, adding it to the favourites there, like you say.
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  Then the potential guest is getting the alert if, you know,
• 9:38
  the price goes down or, or whatever.
• 9:40
  Yeah, yeah, really, really good tip like that one.
• 9:42
  OK, then tip #5. OK, typical 5 is a new listing
• 9:47
  promotion with Airbnb especially it, it works fairly well across
• 9:51
  all your other OTAs as well. But in particular with Airbnb,
• 9:54
  when you first upload a new property, it's not gonna have
• 9:58
  the reviews, it's not gonna have the traction straight away to
• 10:01
  get those bookings in quickly. But if you make it so that if
• 10:05
  you allow for people to stay at a very cheap rate and you set
• 10:09
  your maximum nights at like 5 and your minimum nights at one,
• 10:13
  then you can get a quick succession of small stays.
• 10:16
  The quick stays, good experience, cheap prices,
• 10:18
  everyone's really happy. They leave you follow up with a
• 10:21
  good review. You're asking for a review.
• 10:23
  They leave a five star and you get a few quick ones.
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  Once you hit three on Airbnb, your listing is now mature and
• 10:29
  it can decide to compete with everything else.
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  And if you hit five and if you hit 55 stars in particular,
• 10:35
  you're now on the road to guest favorite, which puts you in
• 10:37
  front of a whole new audience. So it's very important to start
• 10:41
  off strong and to build that momentum so you can then achieve
• 10:43
  better results later on. Do.
• 10:45
  You know what, I did a video about this recently and one of
• 10:49
  the things I said was that some people, they kind of like test
• 10:52
  the water with Airbnb. They don't put great photos on
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  there. They just think, oh, well, we'll
• 10:57
  put a listing together and see if anyone books.
• 10:59
  But the time to get it right is from the start because Airbnb
• 11:02
  prioritizes new listings. And if your photos are not Gray
• 11:06
  and you don't kind of get the bookings and the interest that
• 11:09
  Airbnb want you to get, then you're going to go down the
• 11:12
  algorithm. So get those photos right, get
• 11:15
  the listings right. Listen to these tips right from
• 11:17
  the start. And it's, it's going to give
• 11:19
  you, it's going to give you such a head start over the
• 11:22
  competition. All right, then Kyle, tell us a
• 11:24
  bit more about Orange Rentals and where people can find out
• 11:28
  more. And also just give us the
• 11:29
  lowdown. I know that you're a Host fully
• 11:31
  user. So just tell us about Host Fully
• 11:34
  and how it helps you to run the business.
• 11:36
  Absolutely. So Orange Rentals is a short
• 11:38
  term agency in Liverpool. That's where we're based
• 11:40
  primarily, but we are expanding across of the Northwest and all
• 11:43
  of the UK as well. We do all sorts of properties
• 11:47
  from small one beds to big 5 bedroom houses and so on.
• 11:51
  But yes, with hopefully we started off with them in
• 11:53
  February last year and it's been amazing ever since because we've
• 11:56
  been able to grow quicker, automate as much as possible and
• 12:00
  handle a much bigger guest intake.
• 12:03
  People are always messaging at all times with their Airbnb and
• 12:06
  booking.com and so on. So to be able to respond to them
• 12:09
  quickly and have all your listings pushed to all the other
• 12:12
  channels quickly so you get more demand comes to brilliant.
• 12:15
  And I've been a heavy user hopefully since the beginning,
• 12:19
  but I can't say a bad word against them.
• 12:21
  They've been absolutely phenomenal.
• 12:23
  Fantastic. Check out the details in the
• 12:25
  show notes and make sure you look at those special offers.
• 12:28
  We've got the $500 off on boarding for the property
• 12:31
  management software and 30% off digital guidebooks for life.
• 12:35
  Kyle, it's been a real pleasure. Thank you for sharing those tips
• 12:39
  and for joining us on host Planet Bite Size.
• 12:41
  No worries, thanks for having me.
• 12:43
  Now I want to ask you something. When was the last time you
• 12:45
  optimized your Airbnb listing? Drop a comment below and tell us
• 12:50
  what's the one thing you'd improve about your listing
• 12:53
  today. Is it your title, your photos,
• 12:55
  or your description? Because sometimes small changes
• 12:59
  to your listing can lead to big improvements in bookings.
• 13:03
  All right, that's it for this episode of Hostplanet Bite size.
• 13:05
  If you found this useful, hit like subscribe and share it with
• 13:08
  another host or property manager who wants more bookings.
• 13:11
  New episodes drop every single week.
• 13:14
  Packed with practical short term rental insights to help you grow
• 13:17
  your business. This is Houseplanet Bite size
• 13:20
  powered by House Fully. Until next time I'll be hosting.