Listing thoughts? Thx in advance!

Hello! We are up and running on ABB and doing okay but I’m a little worried that we have 300+ views but “meh” bookings. I know quite a few of our views are family, friends and my husband and I stalking our house. Haha :wink:

However we have been up for about 2-3 weeks and I want to make sure I’m not doing something wrong… Before we lose the newbie bonus time and fade away. Yikes!

Would anyone be super excited to critique a newbie?

Thank you to all you helpful people, I see lot of your names every night when I am on here.

Listing corrected, below :+1:

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Bad link @LCL :slight_smile:

Try again please - thank you!

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No problem. Whenever you’re ready :slight_smile:

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Wow, that is a gorgeous place! Stunning.

I do think though that you’re selling it too cheaply. If I saw it correctly, it sleeps 6 people and costs $28 per person per night?

All hosts have to remember the issue of ‘perceived value’. When I (and most people) see something, anything, going really cheap the immediate reaction is ‘what’s wrong with it?’

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Thank you!

We recently bought the house and the prior owner had it on ABB at that price so I went with what she had bc we were accepting some of her bookings. But those are booked so I was wondering about pricing too.

I was going to raise it at peak times for fall colors etc. Then I got to wondering bc ABB keeps telling me to drop the price. From reading here, I get the thought that I should ignore ABB telling me pricing?

Absolutely! Airbnb wants you to provide the cheapest possible accommodation for their own reasons. Pay no attention. TOTALLY ignore their suggestions.

You know what your place is worth and only you know what your monthly costs are - in other words, how much you need to make per month to make your business viable.

Please, have pride in your listing and what you can offer guests.

Remember that people don’t buy on price. Value for money is an issue, yes, but not price. Otherwise we’d all be driving round in cheapo cars and no-one at all would own a Porsche or Ferrari! :slight_smile:

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You are so helpful! Thank you! My daughter and husband just said “Hey! I like her! She makes sense!” :wink:

Aww, I love that! :heart:

So cool…

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Are you on VRBO? You may find you get some traction on alternate booking platforms to fill in the gaps.

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We aren’t yet but we’re talking about that and maybe trying to get longer time frames thru there. We have a neighbor that caretakes for us but these couple/few day bookings aren’t very profitable when we have to pay so often for cleaning etc. I would love for it to rent two weeks a month and not so much weekends. Less wear and tear on the house and less in cleaning fees.

Has anyone used VRBO and liked it, better or less than ABB?

Thx everyone!

We definitely have hosts who have used other platforms, hopefully they will chime in. @cabinhost is VRBO one of the sites you use?

I wanted to second Jaquo’s comment about the place. It’s really beautiful and you should get plenty of business. My concerns would be that no children are allowed as this place seems that it would appeal to families. Also the internet. You say Please don’t stream movies but what happens when they do? Are there extra charges? Do you have a way to monitor it remotely?

Finally I would have security cameras installed on the exterior. Some of our remote cabin owners have discovered things going on at their cabin that they didn’t want guests doing. @HiddenHaven almost had a major fire from a guest not properly extinguishing the fire pit. She’s also had parties where guys were shooting guns and peeing on and off the edge of her deck. (I think it was Hidden haven). @CatskillsGrrl has seen people walking around her property looking at it before renting and someone who left an allowed pet unattended for hours. So regardless of what rules you have you will inevitably get someone who doesn’t follow them. Cameras can act as a deterrent, catch bad behavior before it’s too late and provide evidence to Airbnb should you need to make a claim.

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I get bookings on Vrbo. I think it is fine, it’s a little harder to have dynamic pricing. If you like to mess with rates a lot.

You get a real security deposit. Payouts now occur at booking as well.

Fee’s seems to be a little higher compared to Airbnb.

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It is not unusual for me to have a conversion rate of 1% or less and I’m doing fine. I suspect what they count as a “view” is it came up in an area search but wasn’t necessarily clicked on. Anybody know if this is true?

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Listen to @jaquo for she speaks the truth. Ignore ABBs price tips except when you want a good laugh. I put my prices up 25% this last year and got more bookings. I always suspected some people were put off that it was too good to be true even though the reviews said it was great value and a great place.

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Looks fantastic. I was just wondering when you say “Kelly & Tom’s home is located in Canton, North Carolina, United States.” are you referring to the rental or is it your own place? I always think people should be clear up front if they are sharing or get the place solely to themselves. “Entire house” can be interpreted as “you can access all areas of the house you will share” or “the house is yours and no one else’s”.

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My security cameras have paid for themselves many times over, the last time alerting me to an out of control fire that I had to get the fire department to extinguish.

Your place is beautiful. I’m in North Georgia and price higher, charge a cleaning fee, and an extra guest fee after 4 guests. I recently got out in a list of lodging the local university recommends for visiting alumni, parents, speakers, and faculty. Partnering with local businesses helps a lot. I’m on Airbnb HomeAway and TripAdvisor but most of my bookings come through Airbnb.

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Thank you everyone! You are such a great help! I’m taking notes as fast as I can :wink: and I really appreciate it.

How scary about the firepit! Wow! I hope that turned out well in the end.

Who do you all use for home share insurance?

Your place looks beautiful! I don’t think you’re doing anything major wrong. It could just be the timing at this point. Summer vacationing will really pick up soon when the schools let out. When we first started we were surprised at how many people plan last minute. Give it some time. You’ll do fine.

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Your home is beautiful, with a stunning interior and surroundings. I’ve looked at Air’s “similar listings” to yours, and there is no comparison; the one charging near the same as you is poorly furnished by comparison, the one charging over $200 pn (5 beds) is pleasant(ish, taste wise) but definitely not stunning. Okay, I don’t know the geography/locale of all, but I reckon you could charge $50 more pn.

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We are in NC and use State Farm. We’ve had State Farm auto and home for ages, and we were pleasantly surprised to learn we were able to add the short-term rental for a reasonable price.

Your home is absolutely stunning, and I’m sure you’ll do extremely well. I’d consider adding an additional guest fee for over four guests. If you decide to accept children (I understand the deck area is a concern), you’ll open up a much wider guest pool.

The Asheville MSA is tops for Airbnb in NC, with our location, Charlotte, in second place. We get lots of residents from Asheville, as well as tourists visiting both Charlotte and Asheville.

Best of luck to you!

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