Dear all,
I recently got my first airbnb listing up and running but I am struggling to get booking. The flat is a superior apt in the best possible place in Saint-Petersburg so i do not want to lower the price too much as i might scare the customers away)
Any suggestion about my listing, mught be i should update the photos? Link below:
I looks great to me and the photos are nice. Most of the listing is in Russian for me so can’t comment on that. I don’t think you need to lower the price.
Thanks for the reply, i thought that the listing comes up translated into english? Tourists are my biggest customers:)
Part is English but most is Russian. I don’t see anything wrong with your listing, where are you showing in search.
Also there are a couple of other St. Petersburg hosts on the forum that sometimes post, maybe they will chime in.
The link you posted was for airbnb.ru so it was in Russian. I found yours through the normal airbnb site and it is also 90% in russian. So that is probably an issue preventing tourist from booking. But it was literally the top result for me when I switch to whole home listings. It looks on the higher end of pricing but not unreasonably so. But it looks very nice. I would move the armchair and chair pairing closer to the fireplace because it looks funny kind of stranded in the middle of hte room. I think I will add you to my wish list!
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You have a beautiful and large apartment! Your listing is in Russian for me as well so I couldn’t read the details.
Why is the sofa/couch across the room and against the wall…all by itself. It should be brought in closer to the fireplace and TV to create a sitting and conversation area along with the upholstered chair.
The only thing I can see which might be hindering bookings would be the flight(s) of stairs that guests would have to haul their luggage ~ but there’s nothing you can do about that.
I don’t see any major issues with your listing, at least nothing that would prevent me from booking. The place looks clean and comfortable. The spaces look really big. I think the price is justified. It’s more about cosmetic problems that should be easy to solve.
Things I can comment on:
- I think the main problem lays within the spaces being really big, and you not having handled your furniture and artwork really well accordingly. It’s hard to perfectly judge this, but I thinks this is the general issue.
- The furniture placement is very odd to me: The sofa pushed far away into the corner. The table pushed against the wall. A white chair lost against the wall. Another chair lost against the wall. The small table with radio a bit oddly in the corner. The television pushed in a corner with lose hanging wires.
=> Put the sofa and the armchair around the fireplace / TV, and put the dining table away from the walls and perpendicular to the kitchen. See if this works and take it from there. Get rid of that ugly radio. Can you put in a plant to enliven the place a little bit. - The artwork you have seems nice, but it’s all over the place and too small for the size of the walls => Maybe group it together in one or two groups to create the illusion of a bigger artwork. One bigger group behind the table in the ‘new’ dining corner. And a smaller group of paintings next to the living room entrance (right of the white chair). It’s better to make less focal points but make them more impressive.
Do the two vases on top of the kitchen fit on top of the fireplace? Group them together. On top of the kitchen put one larger elongated sculpture. Those paintings on top of the kitchen belong on the wall. - What’s with all the stuff on top of the fire place? => Declutter !
- Overall the interior looks a bit ‘cold’. It looks a bit bare bones. Maybe trow in a rug and some floorlamps. Some color on the wall? The lamp on the dining table is hideous! Maybe you can spray paint it in a nicer color or sell it and buy something else.
- The pictures of the communal staircase look dim and don’t match the brightness of your other pictures. => Try to take better pictures, or simply don’t include them.
- The room with the office in it, looks very barebones and cold. It’s strange to see such a big room, with the bed pushed against the wardrobe. Try to free up the bed and put two nightstand in.
- The peachy room has a much better ambience to it. Could use some artwork.
- And to finish my biggest problem with your listing: Your own picture. I only see a black jacket, a cap, a cellphone and two eyes. I want to see my host’s face with a big smile on it.
Try and solve the problem with the russian text that isn’t being translate in parts.
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Its in Russian for me to, but the chrome pop up appears and its translated to English instantly.
Thank you very much everyone for such a detailed reply, i have plenty of information about the ways to improve my listing now;)
GutHend, thank you for such a detailed info about the rooms, space and my own picture to start with 
pleanty of things for me do now
Hello Alexsky
I’m one of the Saint Petersburg hosts here.
As you know the market is very seasonal in the city and outside of May- September or local holidays you have a real glut of properties and hotels/apartment chasing fewer customers.
It can be harder for larger properties like yours too as most city break tourists travel in pairs.
Lately there has been a surge of listings entering the market too, see for yourself the listings that have popped up like mushrooms around Tsarskaya Stolitsa or the new builds at Ladozhskaya on Prospekt Energetikov. It’s a classic airbnb bubble, plus add to the pot many listings are added to chase FIFA World Cup fans.
You can see the pricing that is on offer with these listings or you can monitor pricing at a large hotel chain like Azimut to see how they position themselves for the slower months to self-check how competitive you are.
From my experience over the years, requests and views jolt upwards from April/May onward and the booking duration tend to be longer then.
Your apartment is in a good location and the photographs represent things well. In my blunt opinion the apartment looks a bit 50 shades of brown and the curtains and rugs are busy Apraksin Dvor patterns, you might inject some colour into the proceedings to make the listing more winsome.
I second the nightstands. And, even more importantly, in my opinion, you need to add some light source near the beds. Ideally reading lights on the nightstands…