How hard to have your first book?

Hello everyone,

I am wondering how hard is it to actually have your first people booking your apartment on your website?
When you first list your place, you have no review and doesn’t appear in the first choices. Do you have any idea of how long should we consider between the first listing and the first booking?

Thank you very much!

this all depends on location. I’m in Chicago and I had 3 bookings within 12 days of listing with zero reviews. I was one of the cheapest 1 br apts in my neighborhood.

I first listed the first week in March and I got my first booking after about a week. As you are a new host to the Airbnb community they initially give you a boost in the search rankings and this lasts about a month. I wouldn’t worry about when you’ll get your first booking, it will come! Happy hosting! :slight_smile:

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I got my first booking 15 minutes after I posted it (it was listed at $35/night). The guest was a student who slept in my bedroom with all my stuff still in there while I slept on my sofa. That’s when I suddenly realized Seattle is a big tourist town and downtown hotels are $100/night. It’s all about the location. If you don’t have location, I suppose then you have to worry about making it look luxurious.

The general advice is to list it for low until you get some good reviews, get some friends to post refernces too and then slowly hike the prices. We started at £39/night and have now had 19 bookings and are up to £55/night. We got our first bookings pretty much straight away and are full more than 90% of the time.