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272. Hosting Hotline: How Airbnb Reviews Impact Your Listing · Thanks For Visiting

• 0:00
  Hello.
• 0:00
  Welcome back for another great episode.
• 0:01
  My name is Sarah Karakaian.
• 0:02
  I am Annette Grant.
• 0:03
  And together we are--
• 0:04
  Thanks forVisiting.
• 0:05
  And this is the--
• 0:06
  Hosting Hotline.
• 0:09
  We got, Annette, a message today from Ashley.
• 0:11
  My question is, what can I do to make sure that a bad review
• 0:16
  doesn't highly impact my business?
• 0:20
  So we have a cute little house that has been doing so well.
• 0:25
  Through the off season, we were maintaining 80% occupancy.
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  And for our area, that's really good.
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  We normally would average 60%.
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  And then in April, we got a review that I felt like was
• 0:42
  untruthful, but it is what it is.
• 0:44
  So we responded to it very professionally of, hey, we've never
• 0:48
  gotten feedback like that before.
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  This is what people normally say.
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  It was about our neighborhood being unsafe.
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  And so after that, though, we have only been able to get
• 1:01
  about 25 to 30% occupancy.
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  And our listing used to be listed on the first three pages of search,
• 1:10
  and now it is on the 12th to 15th.
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  And the only difference we can find is this one review.
• 1:18
  And we're just struggling to figure out how to bounce back from it.
• 1:22
  That's a great question, Ashley.
• 1:24
  Ashley, by the way, is a member of our Hosting Business Mastery membership,
• 1:28
  so we'll be able to give her even some more personalized feedback.
• 1:31
  If you're interested in our membership, we would love to have you.
• 1:33
  We have coaching calls, coaches' office hours, and we bring our industry experts
• 1:39
  and friends into our membership to speak one-on-one with our members.
• 1:44
  So if you hit hostmasterclass.com, you can find out more about it there.
• 1:49
  But, Annette, initial thoughts?
• 1:52
  I have so many.
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  Well, first of all, Ashley, it sucks.
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  I'm not going to say that it doesn't suck.
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  It does.
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  So let's just sit, be there with that.
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  However, a couple of things that you said at the very beginning that I want
• 2:07
  to bring to the light is I love that you call your short-term rental your
• 2:10
  business because it is a business.
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  So as entrepreneurs, you are going to be on the entrepreneurial rollercoaster,
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  and there are going to be highs, and there are going to be lows.
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  There are going to be abrupt stops.
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  There's going to be some--
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  Twists and turns.
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  Um, some stomach-flopping, all the things.
• 2:26
  However, when we are thinking about our business, and Ashley, we can dig into
• 2:31
  this again on the membership in a hot seat, but the first thing I want to
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  offer, not only Ashley, but everybody listening, is as a business owner,
• 2:38
  are we marketing in multiple areas?
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  She's just talking about the bad review on Airbnb right now.
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  And so that's the first thing that I want to offer up, is that, yes, we want
• 2:50
  to continue to get the good reviews on Airbnb, but what are some other avenues,
• 2:55
  other places that we're working on to diversify where our bookings are coming
• 2:59
  from, and what other marketing channels?
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  Are you doing direct booking?
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  Are you Vrbo, booking.com?
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  What other things are you doing potentially?
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  Zillow or Furnished Finder?
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  A multitude of things.
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  So this is an opportunity, I think, when all of our businesses hit one
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  of these rollercoaster moments is to really think about buckle in
• 3:18
  and go, wait, how can I go through the lows and get back to the highs?
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  So that's the first thing that I just want to offer up, is we were just
• 3:25
  talking about one platform in one place.
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  And I will just say this out loud.
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  It can feel like Airbnb is a household name at this point.
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  They've done some great marketing work, incredible marketing work.
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  So we can feel like optimizing other channels is a waste of time because
• 3:45
  it's like, well, am I really going to get bookings off of these smaller
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  channels when Airbnb is the go-to?
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  Although I've been there with you feeling that way, the answer is yes.
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  You will get other bookings.
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  You will diversify your business when you optimize other channels,
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  especially now with Google offering their Google Vacation Rental search
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  engine, which is really incredible, and we can talk more about that later.
• 4:11
  Also, really excited to dig in about direct bookings and
• 4:15
  listing optimization at TFVCon.
• 4:17
  So, is Ashley going-- I feel like you said she's going, Annette.
• 4:19
  Hopefully she is.
• 4:20
  I don't know.
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  That was another name that I just saw.
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  Yeah.
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  So because this is so topical and so important, on top of this, Ashley, what
• 4:27
  you can do now, though, so it's like, yes, in hindsight, diverse my business.
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  Of course, ladies.
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  Information I could have used yesterday.
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  Or it just takes time to optimize those other channels
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  in your direct booking efforts.
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  So just make sure you stay there.
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  But to look into your listing and to see what you can do to optimize it,
• 4:45
  we have been championing Intellihost, which is a paid service to help you see
• 4:50
  where you're ranking, why you're ranking there, and what you can do to improve it.
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  Adjustments you can make.
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  There's also Rankbreeze.
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  On top of that, you can do some things that are tried and true.
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  But now, Ashley, you're not wrong.
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  So Airbnb has said it, that reviews and positive five-star
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  reviews are the indicator for where you rank on their platform.
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  And unfortunately, perception is reality for our guests.
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  And so if their perception was your neighborhood was unsafe, the best thing
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  you could have done is what you've already done, which is respond to that review.
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  And it's not to that person who left the review.
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  It's that next booker who's considering your place, they got on page 13, they're
• 5:30
  thinking about your place, and they're seeing how you responded to that.
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  And then they're going to look at all the other responses.
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  What other things that you can do is, Ashley, when you are figuring out the
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  amenities that you offer, you know how Airbnb has all those boxes you can check?
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  Make sure all those boxes are checked, because while your page is on the 13th
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  page on Airbnb, it might be page one or two with these certain boxes checked.
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  And they're always adding things and tweaking things in there.
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  Make sure you're posting your Wi-Fi speed via the Airbnb app.
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  Make sure every single amenity is checked, and you have all the information
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  on what kind of stove you have.
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  They just recently gave you more coffee maker options.
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  Just make sure you're showing up for every filter that could be
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  filled out by a potential guest.
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  And what you can also do is-- you said that you were in your slow season.
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  Are you getting into your high season now?
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  Make sure your photos of the high season are being highlighted in your listing.
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  People can overlook those first five photos, and making sure
• 6:29
  those are super clear and you're speaking to that next potential
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  guest that lands on your listing.
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  Midroll
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  One other thing that I want to chat about is knowing your numbers.
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  Ashley, I know part of this conversation is you are bit
• 6:43
  like, hey, we are crushing it.
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  We were at 80%.
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  So we've also got to-- when we're crushing it and really hitting numbers
• 6:52
  that we never thought, that's one of the things to be thankful for Airbnb
• 6:56
  and what they are bringing to us in those really high season and when you
• 7:00
  are hitting occupancy out of the park.
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  So that's one thing too I want all of us to think about sometimes, is being extra
• 7:09
  thankful too when the numbers are crushing it that you weren't even anticipating.
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  So really knowing your numbers, Ashley.
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  Zoom out a little bit, and then look at the whole year, what's
• 7:21
  coming, what's already-- look at historicals, and let's forecast.
• 7:24
  And really just dig in.
• 7:27
  And I find, not to get woo woo, but celebrating when it is higher than normal.
• 7:34
  Right now you're feeling that it's lower than normal, but let's look back and
• 7:37
  like the numbers that were crushing it.
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  What was that additional money that you were making to help not make this
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  dip seem as the sky is falling awful that it might feel like right now.
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  So sometimes I feel like when we zoom out and look at the numbers
• 7:52
  for the last 12 months, not even for the year, sometimes we get very
• 7:56
  stuck on the actual calendar year.
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  I like to zoom out in just 12 months too because it helps you just see.
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  It doesn't have to be from January 1 to December 31st.
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  Look at the last 12 months, and I think that that will hopefully give
• 8:11
  you some peace of mind because you were saying that you were very high
• 8:16
  occupancy for your slow season.
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  So I hope that just brings you a little bit of peace if you can
• 8:21
  look at the numbers holistically.
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  Because this won't be the last time, Ashley, that you hit a bump in the road.
• 8:26
  That being said, another tip for you is, can you go back to your
• 8:30
  guests who stayed with you before?
• 8:32
  I don't know.
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  Did Ashley mentioned where she's listed?
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  She didn't.
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  So I don't know if it's a market, Ashley, where my guests might come back
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  who've stayed with you before, but just make-- having this downtime while you're
• 8:42
  optimizing your listing and maybe getting into other channels is to really making
• 8:46
  sure that you are collecting your guest information so you can remarket to them.
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  I just got a text message the other day from a place I stayed at two Christmases
• 8:53
  ago offering me 20% off in Hocking Hills.
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  It's so cute.
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  She offered me 20% off.
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  You better believe I thought about it.
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  I was like, should I go and just get away for a couple days?
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  So you could do that too, Ashley.
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  Reach out to guests who have loved your space.
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  You said you had a lot of guests during your low season.
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  Maybe they'd like to come back now during your high season.
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  Give them a few weeks to plan for it.
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  You never know who will take you up on your offer.
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  And Ashley, let's bring this to our next hot seat call.
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  Let's go through all the things together, and we can take a look.
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  We can dig in even deeper.
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  That's right Ashley.
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  We'll get you back up.
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  All right, listeners.
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  With that, I'm Sarah Karakaian.
• 9:25
  I'm Annette Grant.
• 9:26
  And together we are--
• 9:27
  Thanks for Visiting.
• 9:28
  Talk to you next time.