Advertise my Airbnb listing: Y/N?

Research
1

Hi Everyone,

This week I´m starting to rent my apartment (Miami).

Have you ever advertised to potential guests on social networks like Facebook or Ínstagram? What are the dos and don’ts? Is it worth it to promote it outside Airbnb?

Many thanks in advance.

2

Hi @Christianeg

It depends on the target audience for your listing and whether you have social media networks that will engage them. For example if your target audience are high income professional couples in Paris - do you have social networks that will engage them?

It certainly doesn’t do any harm but unless you have thousands of engaged social media contacts or have high profile celebrity friends or VIPs who will share your content, I don’t know how much traction you will get.

There is a guy in the Airbnb Community Forums who promotes himself as a SEO/marketing expert and claims he can help hosts get more bookings/increase their bookings by ‘favouriting’ their profiles and sharing links to their listing through his social media. This is complete rubbish.

Some hosts have their own websites and social media and promote their listings directly, some use other hosting sites, some use paid Google and Facebook ads, some reach out to bloggers, travel sites and journalists to offer free/discounted stays to encourage reviews, some invest in third party marketing (partner with local attractions, tourism sites, universities, businesses.

Sorry have probably given too much detail but I work in marketing and comms, so an area I feel passionately about.

I would suggest you focus on have well written copy and amazing photos on your listing, strong house rules, great customer service and vetting guests rather than using instant book to get a feel for how Airbnb works, you can then move on to consider wider marketing once you become a confident host.

3

It’s completely possible via FB (don’t know about instagram), to have an ad from your ABB biz page be targeted to a very specific demographic.
Last time I ran a $7 ad over the course of 3 days, targeted to 30-40 yr olds with a bachelors degree or higher, more than 50k income, interests hiking, kayaking, yoga, to a 50 mile range of a specific town. There were other demographic choices also…career type for example.
Guess what I got?
A booking from a 37 yr old woman and her partner, both with graduate degrees.
I did it as an experiment and don’t always spend moola on FB for my ABB.
But I do use FB for a couple of my other little biz’s and have noticed the better targeting choices get results.