Airbnb for Dummies

Send a warm welcoming message to all your guests after they complete a booking with you to thank them and confirm their reservation with you. Because guests are often booking their trips weeks in advance, you don’t need to share too much information at this point. Here’s the formula for a solid welcome message:

Airbnb makes more than four times more from guests than from hosts. In order to maximize its earnings from fees, Airbnb has incentive to get guests to book as many nights as possible by encouraging the listings to be priced as low as possible. And that’s exactly what Airbnb’s automated Smart Pricing does with its recommendations: It consistently re

Don’t block off any rooms. The whole place should be accessible to guests. If you have a whole house listing and one bedroom is blocked off, you want to unblock that room. If you have a one-bedroom listing that’s in your personal home, then make sure the closet in that space isn’t being used by you. Guests should be able to use that space for their

During your ramping-up period, follow this pricing schedule to build momentum for your listing. Start at 20 percent lower than your baseline pricing. Doing so underprices your listing relative to your competition right out of the gate.

Weekday rates: For each comparable Airbnb listing and hotel listing, collect the average weekday rates (Sundays to Thursdays) for 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks into the future. Take the average of those five days for each of the 3 weeks for each comparable listing. Weekend rates: For each comparable Airbnb listing and hotel listing, collect the av

Have a well-structured, complete listing. Add more photos to your listing so guests are more likely to book and don’t have as many questions for you. Keep a detailed and well-organized listing description that answers all the questions that potential guests may have. That way, guests can book right away versus having to reach out with questions bef

Having your guests return the keys to the lockbox and lock the doors behind them on their way is reasonable. Expecting and requesting guests to run the dishwasher, collect and take all the trash out, strip all the linens and put them into the washer, run the washer, and text you when they leave is asking for too much. Guests

Determining a baseline pricing is finding the optimal amount you charge for your Airbnb listing under typical market conditions with average demand. Any adjustments you make to your pricing start from this baseline level. To establish the baseline pricing, you analyze comparable listings on Airbnb to create a pricing strategy that works for you. Th

If mostly booked for next two weeks, then stay the course until your listing is mostly booked four weeks out — aim for 80 percent plus occupancy. If not booked out, drop pricing by another 10 percent every week until you’re booked four weeks out. If more than four weeks are booked within the first week, then raise prices by 10 percent every week un