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I’ve been running my listing for a few months with consistent books and i’ve been wondering what are some ways to increase revenue and bookings beyond the simple “optimize pricing with tools, take better pictures, and get good reviews”.
I’ve seen hosts with almost 90% occupancy with rates of $150 in my area. Do many of you advertise through a custom sites you’ve optimized for seo or made other marketing channels like offering companies or booking services a special rate?
Yes, it is important to spread your marketing over several channels.
If you run it like a business, you have to do marketing like a business.
I spend at least an hour on average per day, on online marketing (webpage, facebookpage, facebook groups and forums etc) and maintaining all my booking channels.
Five years ago we opened our first AirBnB. The competition in the City was less than 500. Today the competition is over 14000. During that time we have pushed up our bookings and returns keeping an 80% booking rate despite the competition. The most important tool is the review, needs working at!
But, we also have our own site and use several other sites. We spent a week in one EU country going to travel agents and showing them our offering…great results. Locally we have Company deals for regular staff bookings.
Go Well
I would recommend you using Airbnb filters. Filters on Airbnb will help you out a lot though not many hosts use them. Set 3 days’ minimum stay so that you don’t get into a situation when someone books only one Saturday leaving no chance for Friday and Sunday to be booked. Usually, guests plan their visit 3 weeks in advance. Set 5 days’ minimum stay starting from the 4th week from now and change your settings every week. This is an important consideration that is going to prevent you from inefficient bookings.
Also, consider some Airbnb SEO tips in this article.
You might find some other articles as well on our blog.
And like any business, it’s a good idea to have a marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be posh, it can be a few notes on your phone or a list written on the back of an old envelope. Mine involves mainly social media - I spend about two minutes a day, every day and every so often write an article promoting the listing.
But social media takes time, it is not like booking.com or AirBnB, “make an account and they will come”.
It takes time and patience. But it will make you a lot more revenue (13% fee) and no 3rd party involvement.
I am fully booked trough July and August, all direkt bookings, no channels needed.
I have some small gaps, mayby I will fill them with some AirBnB’s. But maybe I close those dates, avoid the extra cleaning and enjoy summer.