Make sure your profile is turned on to Active!!! You should be getting inquiries almost immediately upon activating so something seems wrong.
Iām in the Coachella Valley. Actually with the added fees my competition ends up being 90-155 per night. The lowest nightly charge was a 45 and has reviews already.
Thank you for helping, I donāt really have experience to know if the 2nd guest would double in amenities or its just as if there was only one person there.
Okay, there are several hotels hereāIāll look around to see their prices. Thank you.
I bet if you had opened during the festival it would be a whole different story. Things are slow, as I said, almost everywhere. People have traveled during the summer, and in general, are back to school or work and have not made plans for holiday travel yet. Coachella is a bit far from the real tourist centers of LA and Orange County. Not criticizingā¦ just sayin. Make sure your description includes the sights and activities to do right around your beautiful desert area. 
Is this for an entire apartment or a room in your home?
Hereās my 2 cents:
When I got started I immediately booked the free photo service of air to make it look nice. I set my price as the lowest in the area (city centre) so I was also the cheapest option to rack up bookings/reviews before charging more. I tried to write the best description I could - this took a while haha!
No cleaning fee
Normal deposit (250ā¬)
No extra charge for second person
Instant book ON
Good luck!!
Like others have said:
- Carry out an anonymous search and ensure your listing comes up (you seem to have done that already).
- How high up in the listings does it currently come up?
- How are you priced in relation to others around you with similar amenities?
- When carrying out searches, try with one guest or 2 or more, to see how your pricing changes in relation to your competition for different group sizes - sometimes the extra person charges may unknowingly be sending you way above the competition!
- Are your pictures attractive and do they and your description correctly highlight the positives of your listing?
- Is there perhaps one thing/ picture/ house rule that could be acting as a turn off and sending an unintended message, that you may have overlooked?
- When you look at the calendars of those around you, how fully booked are they really?
- You may want to set a price up to 50% below the competition just to see what happens! and hopefully get some reviews in. At least 3 reviews so the stars start to show. I cannot overestimate the importance of reviews. I found them extremely important.
When I first listed I priced very low just to get reviews and made no money which was fine for the first few guests as I just needed the reviews.
Now that the good reviews came in, my prices have more than doubled, and Iām still getting bookings!
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I was well into my first successful year on Air BnB. Getting booked every weekend from May to Oct. Then, for no reason, Air BnB took my listing down! It was only after a month that I noticed a little note on my listing page saying ānot activeā of something like that. I went into the listing and found a way to activate my listing again. So beware, for no reason your listing can be taken down. It happened to me! But not since then, two year more and it has not happened again.
Where do you find that active button? My shows up in the search results and it is in my ālistedā section.
I think it may be the photos are not appealing. I have to rearrange my private room in hopes it getting more attention. The pictures that I put up are not that great and perhaps scare away people. But this wouldnāt be the reason because I havenāt even gotten a view! No views and no messages to inquire about my place.
I lowered my nightly rating and increased the weekend just by a little. I even made a specific amount for each month and lowered the nightly price if they decided to book the entire month.
I hope I can get reviews and bookings by the end of the year though.
Good question. I am frustrated by Air BnBās listing pages, and how they change all the time. Something that should be right there in front of you like āyour listing is activeā seems hidden on some special page you find by accident. Since my disaster, they have changed everything, so I donāt know where the little icon is that confirms your listing is up and active. You have had no views? Is that right? If so, I doubt your listing is up and active. Your listing comes up when ever anyone searches your area or town for a room. Ask a friend to search your town or area on Air BnB and look to see if he/she finds your listing. Could be it is a failure somewhere, and it doesnāt appear even though it should.
Let me be clear. I have had several serious problems with Air BnB. For no reason at all they stopped forwarding booking requests to my email, thus I missed a full months worth. Then they dropped my listing like I said. Then they started to fail to confirm bookings with guests after I confirmed on my end. Those three Air BnB cockups, cost me a half dozen bookings, and they told me too bad.
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This is what I am scared about. Maybe it isnāt active or maybe people expect a lower price? Iām already at 50 a night. How do you promote your listings and whatās a good place to start?
YOUR LISTINGS - scroll down and there it is
best place to start with (until you have 4-5 reviews) is undercutting everyone in the area. Go half price of what you want to charge. I started with 15ā¬ a night and now Iām at 30ā¬ a night for one person. Think of it this way: 2 15ā¬ bookings are still 30ā¬ more than not getting any bookings at all!
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you should take it down, it has your email on it
ah thanks oppsā¦ 
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Airbnb suggests that new hosts assess competitive pricing and then set their prices lower than those. Approaching hosting from this angle will help your listings stand out even without reviews and this way, you can gain traction and begin to build your reputation.
Which post is this in regard to? Iām so confused.
Theyāll know what it means Julie. bIllybob has always come on here to spread spite towards hosts that ever share about experiences with difficult guests or problem situations. Sarcasm is his favorite if not only method to try to let everyone know how stupid he thinks they are. In this case he is referencing āsmelly old Chinese peopleā (as if anyone had ever been so crude), to show his disapproval of anyone discussing problems with different cultural groups behaviors in their properties. These ājokesā are meant to make people feel stupid for discussing real issues, making out that people have been cruel or racist where they havenāt, and represent the bullying tactics he/she is known for. It is always a surprise for me when I see people that I believed to be decent supporting a bully.
I would love to hear their reasons for doing so. I know the Chinese question is sensitive to them because they are Chinese and/or have Chinese family members. This shouldnāt mean that they canāt enter into a discussion on the cultural aspects without turning to underhanded shaming of those genuinely seeking help or answers. I could happily discuss my country and why hosts might have struggled with a guest from my country without taking it personally and lashing out this way. This is just my opinion. I donāt think sarcasm is the greatest form of humor, and especially not when it is being used to convey a message meant to put others down.
Another thing I also disagree with is pushing people who come for anonymous help to reveal themselves and their listings. Many people have reasons to keep anonymity, and if they wanted to share they would. I find the pressuring to do it uncool. People can be helped without having to look at their listing.
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Good-bye, Everyone. It has been great fun and very helpful getting to know most of you, but I will not remain to be slandered.
If anyone has been offended by my posts, āspitefulā, as described by Sandy, please let me know privately and I can consider what you said.
Except you, Sandy, you have slandered me publicly so I do not have any need or desire to hear your opinion about my posts.
Oh please. Here we go with the victim card. I have seen this dozens of times on forums when bullies get called out. They try to play the victim so everyone will suddenly go āOH please donāt leave!!! That person is so horrible to have upset you! You did nothing wrong!ā.
These are total high school antics. Please show where I have slandered you. All I have done is pulled you up for being two faced. All it would have taken was recognition that it was a bit of a slip in your usually decent behavior, and that you can see that this is not the way we promote a caring environment.
So many people are afraid of bullies. Others love the drama, and enjoy seeing people being put down. They like to get on side with them, so long as itās others being made fun of, it wonāt be them, right? Well, not really. Bullies make fun of anyone. Itās a pity, because these people are parents and know that they wouldnāt encourage that same behavior in their kids. Thereās nothing funny about making other people feel stupid.
If you want to pretend you didnāt encourage Billybobs stupid remarks or the other one above and are claiming technical difficulties then thatās what youāre going to do. You can try to make me into a bad person for pulling up this kind of behavior but I donāt mind. Iām not overly tied to this forum. I just find it disappointing when adults behave this way and am not afraid to call it out. Claiming slander is a stretch.