hosting tips

Maximize Your Airbnb Occupancy to Maximize Cash Flow

Maximizing your Airbnb occupancy rate requires a proactive strategy and constant attention to your guests and listings throughout the all seasonal period. Here are pro tips to help you get the most from your Airbnb business during peak season.

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Your Airbnb occupancy rate is one of the most important factors to determine whether or not your Airbnb business is successful. Essentially, increasing the number of bookings you receive, and filling in the calendar's gaps, virtually guarantees you more money.

However, maximizing your Airbnb occupancy rate during peak season needs proactive planning and 2-4 months of forethought. Often, there’s only a Season, in which the demand for your short-term rentals are higher. Here are some quick tips to help you get the most from your Airbnb business during peak season.

Weed Out Outdated Information

How do your photos look compared to the competition? Have you made changes to your house rules? If you haven’t updated these items on your listings, do it now.

To increase your Airbnb occupancy rate, it starts with creating 5-STAR listings. Errors such as missing information, typos, and outdated photos will only drive potential guests away. While you should never mislead guests about the accommodations, optimize your listings with keywords or emotional words to help to create interest and boost the number of bookings you receive.

You should also be aware of the fact you might receive more guests who are looking for accommodations for a group or want to book at the last minute. Cater to these guests by updating your listings to emphasize how easy it is to book at the last minute or the fact that you offer ample sleeping arrangements for groups.

Keep Your Listing+Calendar Updated

Updating your listings frequently is the best way to maximize your Airbnb occupancy rate during peak season. Frequent pricing updates ensure that your listing prices are priced competitively at all times. .

Finally, to maintain your listings and ensure that guests always have access to accurate information about their availability, update your calendar at least 1 to 2 times per day. By following these tips, your listings will stay on top of Airbnb’s rankings, helping you to stay ahead of the competition.

Instant Book = Higher SEO

If you haven’t already, enable Instant Book because it increases your listings SEO. The easier you make it for guests to book your property, the easier it will be for you to achieve maximum occupancy rates.

If you’re wondering why Instant Book is so effective, consider things from the guest’s perspective for a moment. As a guest, you want the booking process to be simple and fast. Any additional steps that make it harder to book a listing simply make you more likely to consider listings from other hosts.

Even if a property has gorgeous Lake views, it isn't worth it if working with the host is difficult. Turning on Instant Book means it's simple and easy for guests to book with you.

5-STAR REVIEWS + Audit Your Review Count

As a host, quality customer service matters all year round, but it’s especially important during peak season. The more positive reviews you receive on your listings, the more bookings you can expect. In turn, the easier it is to maximize your Airbnb occupancy rate.

Make sure that you always deliver consistent, friendly service. Provide fast and complete answers to any questions that your guests have before booking and during their stays. By ensuring that every guest enjoys a safe and comfortable stay, you increase the chances to receive 5-star reviews.

Finally, ask every guest to leave you a review at the conclusion of their stay. Don’t expect guests to do this on their own, especially when you’re racing against the clock to achieve as many reviews and new bookings as possible before peak season ends.

SPRING Cleaning + Update

While guests should be impressed with property's cleanliness, it doesn’t hurt to give it a makeover. This shows guests that you are dedicated to maintaining your property in the best condition possible.

You don’t even have to spend a fortune to change your property come Spring time. A few updates of the décor, such as fresh Spring flowers, Spring dinnerware for the dinner table, and lighter bed linens can attract more attention.

You should also update your photos so that they focus on amenities that people tend to use more during peak seasons, such as the swimming pool or patio. By using peak season as an opportunity to make your listings shine, you can dramatically increase your Airbnb occupancy rate.

Longer-term Rentals (1-3 months) During Off-Season

If maximizing your Airbnb occupancy rate is your primary concern during off-season, consider long-term rentals to help you fill in the gaps. 

Make sure that you adjust your listing to appeal to guests who might be looking for this sort of arrangement. Some types of guests you could target include those who are looking for study abroad accommodations or long-term business travel.

Plan Ahead to Maximize Your Airbnb Occupancy Rate

It’s not hard to keep up with your bookings when they’re fewer of them. However, managing your Airbnb or HomeAway listings can quickly become chaotic during peak season if you don’t plan ahead. In addition, peak season may vary from year-to-year, often due to circumstances that are outside of your control. You want to be prepared for these variations.

If you consider how demand for your listings changes in advance, you can ensure that you can have the resources you need ready.

5 Ways to Earn 5-Star Reviews on Airbnb

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If you’re an Airbnb host, you likely face stiff competition that is only getting worse. There are almost 5,000 listings in Chicago alone, and that number is growing daily. Case in point: hosting isn’t getting any easier, and if you rest on your laurels, your business will slowly profit less and less as more supply hits the market.  

This is, unless you stay on top of your game and do everything you can to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Better reviews = more bookings = more money

Your Airbnb property is not your average rental. It is a hospitality business that requires thought and careful attention to detail. It isn’t rocket science, but most people overlook key aspects of hosting. This results in leaving money on the table. 

Here are some tips and suggestions that will help you earn five-star guest reviews and more money. We use these strategies every day while managing our properties.

1. Be Kind and Responsive

This may be the most important thing you can do to improve your revenue and attract more bookings. Many guests don’t look solely at your listing, they shop around and send out multiple inquiries at a time. These guests are looking for instant gratification. They aren’t willing to wait hours or days for a response. Aim to reply in five minutes or less. Guests will thank you for your quick reply!  

Response time is factored into your listing’s SEO.

2. Be Proactive

Being proactive helps you alleviate problems before they occur.  If you are reactive and not proactive, you’ll quickly find that you end up spending hours running around town fulfilling guest requests. Plan ahead, and you’ll prevent emergencies before they happen.  

In general, most guests are busy exploring the city and don’t want to interact with the host. They don’t need to meet you to get the key or text you for more toilet paper. Make sure to stock your home with all guest supplies, batteries, spare keys, (etc.) so that you don't have to make a mid-stay visit because you forgot something.

3. Go the Extra Mile

Sometimes you can’t plan for everything, especially on Holidays or Peak days. Guests are paying a premium for your property so it helps to provide them with extras.

One of reason to personally visit the property is when guest issues arrive. Sometimes a coffee pot breaks or wifi doesn't seem to be cooperating, but the extra effort WOWs guests and makes their stay. More importantly, it helps you avoid a bad review and clear the way for more bookings in the future!

4. Give Guests Free Goodies

Most Airbnbs I stay in offer your standard towels and sheets, maybe a coffee maker or water, but very few hosts provide extra amenities. There are so many things you can offer that cost almost nothing and add huge value to your place, bettering your guests’ experiences. Some include:

  • Granola bars

  • Bottled water

  • Coffee

  • Tea

  • Q-tips

  • Makeup removing pads

Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb’s cofounder and chief technology officer has found that offering a hair dryer earns hosts, on average, $10 more per night.  

My entire “guest freebies” package costs me less than $10 per stay (which I bake into the cleaning fee) and truly wows most guests.  

Note: Be aware of your city's Ordinance before providing food/water.

5. Focus on Cleaning

If your Airbnb property has one good quality, let it be cleanliness. Guests scrutinize cleanliness heavily, and having a less-than-spotless home is the quickest way to get ding'd.

Carefully train and hire your cleaning crew to pay extra attention to the kitchens and bathrooms to make sure they are 100-percent free of dirt and hair. Remember to check things like microwaves and refrigerators that can often contain hidden messes or unexpected food items. And don’t forget to dust! This is often overlooked but is a very important aspect of a clean Airbnb rental.  

There you go! These are 5 tried and true aspects of your guests' experience that will be pillars for a long-time to come. If you have a #6, please share it with us!

3 Simple Tips to Make Check-In Seamless

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Ever get a call at midnight from a guest who can't seem to open the door?

If you have, we know how you feel. Through professionally managing dozens of Airbnb's, we've learned a few things to have as few of these calls as possible and think we can save you a few hours of sleep! By being a proactive host, you can reduce the amount of questions you get from guests and make check-in that much easier for everyone.

Here are a few tips to help you make your check-in process seamless and with no headaches.

Tip #1 - Keyless Entry

You're probably thinking  "keys in a lock box are fine, why should I spend money on a keyless lock?". We understand that, but after the 3rd time a guest mistakenly loses your keys or takes the keys with them home, we think you'll reconsider!

Save yourself the headache and the time replacing keys by making an investment in keyless entry. We recommend the Schlage Sense, a smart deadbolt lock that can be accessed remotely via WiFi. This baby gives you the ability to change codes whenever and wherever through their simple app on your phone and is very easy to install. Once your code is set, be sure to add it in your check-in doc (see below!).

Tip #2 - Detailed Listing + Lots of Photos

Most hosts forget that people do actually read listings! So be detailed in your listing and all of the amenities you offer. Although I'm sure there's lots of fun quirks to your home that a guest should know about, don't go overboard. List out the basics and keep it short. The quirks have a process all to themselves: the check-in doc (see below again!).

Supplement the details with pictures, and lots of 'em! Got a grill out in the backyard that you're ok with guests using? Perfect, take a nice picture with some patties grilling and make sure to add that amenity on your listing. Saves you answering a few questions during grillin' season and well...who doesn't like a nice burger? When pictures contain details you want to point out, consider adding captions just in case a potential guest misses it.

Tip #3 - Create a Check-In Doc

Having every detail about your home in your listing is cumbersome and will turn people off. You want your listing to be concise and to the point, not too lengthy. So where can you list all of the important details like:

-the code to the keyless lock?

-or that front door needs to be pushed up to make it lock correctly?

-your funky WiFi username and password?

That's right...a check-in doc! This is a separate document that contains all basic info and also pro-tips on your home that only you know. Put yourself in the guests shoes and ask yourself what they would want to know before staying at your place. This document is a life-saver and will save you a TON of time and repeated answers to repeated questions.

Check-in doesn't have to be something you dread. By implementing these 3 super simple tips, you'll greatly reduce the time spent on answering questions and make your life a whole lot easier.