Please critique the s*** out of this place

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We simply threw ours away a few years ago :slight_smile:

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42

LOL. Best I can tell most Americans are far from doing that. Even with handheld devices on which to view content there is still the communal desire to gather together at whatever altar the era presents. I thought in home theater would be the demise of the theater chain but it’s not…yet.

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43

I’d stay there in a heartbeat! I think you’d be lucky to have guests read more than 3 sentences, so make those introductory sentences count. When I searching for a stay, the 1st 5 pic’s have to make an impression or I move on.

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44

Love, love it! Beautifully done @Suntory

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45

Hey everyone, sorry for the late reply. This is all brilliant advice which we are completely taking on board. It’s amazing how supportive and well organised this community is. Based on everyone’s feedback, this is what we have done:

  • cut the photos from circa 36 to around 26. We might cut them a bit more based on what people recommended.
  • we need to re-shoot the entrance photograph as it’s not very inviting. It’s on our to do list. Thanks everyone for the tip. We agree with your views.
  • I went out to take a picture of our local pub which we added at the end. We might add one or two more shots of the neighbourhood.
  • we changed the first sentence as per @JamJerrupSunset’s recommendations. Thank you.
  • we deleted “curated” as per @GardenGnome’s recommendation
  • we changed the list of kitchen utensils
  • we lowered the minimum night stay from 2 to 1 day and increased the cleaning fee from ÂŁ20 to ÂŁ30. Within 2 hours we had another inquiry for a one night stay. Thanks for the guidance.

And yana, thanks for the feedback. You are quite right, Nottingham is not a major tourist hot spot like London or Edinburgh. We know our market is relatively small with a large proportion of our guests thus far coming up to visit family rather than tourism. This has its pros and cons but one thing we do enjoy is having people over who just genuinely enjoy nice design, good hospitality and so forth. Again, it’s a small market but we were quite aware of that when we first listed the place.

I hope I’m not forgetting anyone in this summary. I just wanted to make sure to thank everyone for the brilliant advice and feedback. I’ll keep you all posted on how things develop.

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46

You’re welcome. And by inquiry does that mean you booked them in or they merely asked about it?

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47

I pre-approved and now hoping they’ll book. I think higher cleaning fee and 1 night minimum is a really good idea. That way if we do have a one nighters it means they really want to stay and essentially pay a premium. Thank you fir the tip. This is great help.

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48

80% of my bookings are one nighters and I believe that is one of the reasons we have such high occupancy as nearly everyone else in the area has a two night minimum. Our cleaning fee more than covers the actual cost so if people are prepared to pay the cleaning fee then everyone is happy.

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49

Yes, you are right, the first five pics have to nail it. We hope we are getting there in our listing. It still needs so e five tuning but it’s much better now than it was before

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50

Depending on the market one can easily imagine having half the bookings if you have to stay two nights. And when you are just starting out and trying to build the review count it’s even more crucial to give yourself every opportunity to book as much as possible.

Do you have instant book or do you require approval for all stays?

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51

Sorry, still too many repetitive photos. You don’t need another photo of the living room at night, too many bathroom and bed photos - less is more. 12 photos tops of the home and then some photos of the local attractions. No need to go out and take photos, just find some online or take them from the other listings in your area!

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52

Thank you for the kind comments. The TV curtain was my wife’s idea. The curtain is actually made of kimono cloth we bought in a vintage shop in Japan. That tells you how crafty my wife is.

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53

I have instant booking but the guest had no reviews yet so he had to ask for approval.

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54

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, there is space to edit further. It’s painful letting go of photos we like but I take your point. We will reduce the photos further though we might just wait after we have recovered from the initial shock.

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Thank you. That’s great to hear that you like it.

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Thank you. You are very welcomed me to stay at any thank me. I’m glad you appreciate the space.

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57

Believe it or not but we initially were thinking about getting that exact TV. The only problem is that it is outrageously expensive. We opted for a cheaper Sony which wouldn’t kill us if it broke. We are also toying with the idea of getting a projector for the bedroom but not sure if the nightly rate warrants such type if investments.

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According to a number of “how to do Airbnb” sites more photos are actually better. For example one site said this: " * Great photos –again, having great photos are crucial. Not just the main photo, but every single photo. Listings with >30 photos have 40% more bookings than listings with fewer than 10 photos. It matters, a lot. For more photo strategies and tips, go [to another article on the blog]. If you don’t have professional level, high resolution photos, you’re leaving money on the table.

Other sites say 15 is an optimal number. Everyone agrees the first 5 are most important so if you try to start and the entrance and take the guest through the apartment as if on tour you’re going to misuse those first 5.

Personally, for an overnight stay the most important things are the set up of the bed and bathroom and having a private entrance. If I’m staying for more than a night or two or staying as a vacation then the kitchen, stuff in the drawers, outside space, become more important. So figure out what you think your main target audience is going to be or that you want to be and then set the pics to attract them. Poppy has done exactly this, she zeroed in on a niche market that is perfect for her location and then tailors everything around that. You only have one set for first five pictures and they can’t be everything to everyone.

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I started out with no TV, then got a small one (24") then recently upgraded to a larger (32") smart TV. It’s a small (10x11ft) room. My guest that I had most of the past 2 months complimented me on it. I notice in the nice hotels the TVs are huge. I know we aren’t hotels but no one knows more about the business than they do.

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60

I am not sure the number of photos is so much a problem as long as the important dozen are up front. I have endless sunset and local area shots towards the end that people can keep looking at if they want or ignore, it’s not like they have to look at all of them. And sometimes when people are staying they do go and find these places and tell me they saw them on the listing after they arrived. Or I can say, if you are down that way look at Club Mud which is a photo in the listing.

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