Own a rental property and want to maximize your earnings? Ever thought about listing it on Airbnb and starting your hosting business? Well, now’s the perfect time to do it!
But why it’s better to list your property on Airbnb? Airbnb and booking.com are the two online platforms travelers trust the most these days. Based on newly released statistics, Airbnb reached over 150 million users in 2022, and over one billion bookings have been made through this platform this year. An Airbnb host with an average rental property in America is get booked for at least 21 nights monthly. It doesn’t matter if you have your own way of marketing and your own direct booking website; listing your property on Airbnb is essential to increase your booking rate or at least sustain its rate. Stay tuned to learn how to join the Airbnb hosts community and create your very first Airbnb listing.
Now It’s Time to Make Your Listing
Before starting to list your property, you need to sign up on the Airbnb website and join the community as an Airbnb host. The signing-up process is really straightforward, and you only need to input and confirm your email, username, and password; after signing up, you’re ready to take the very first steps to list your property on Airbnb.
First Thing First, Let’s Set It Up!
Click “Create New Listing” in the upper right corner of Airbnb.com to list your property. A form will appear asking for your rental information, and you must fill every part carefully and accurately. Here are the different types of information you need to input.
Property Type
In this part, different options will be suggested by Airbnb, such as “Entire place,” “Private room,” or “Shared room,” and you should choose one of them. Entire place means to give full access to every part of your property. If you want to rent out just one bedroom with access to the property’s common spaces, such as a shared kitchen and living room, you have to choose the private room option. The shared room option means the bedroom is also shared and is not exclusive for one guest; guests need to share their sleeping space together.
The Number of Guests
Before specifying the number of guests, you have to consider your Airbnb property space, the number of beds, and how many guests it can have who can freely and easily move around. Accepting guests beyond the space capacity makes the stay uncomfortable and disturbing.
Location
Find the exact location of your property on the Airbnb map and pin it. Don’t worry about privacy and safety matters; only confirmed guests can view your property’s directions.
Amenities
What essentials and amenities your property has? In most cases, guests filter the search results based on specific amenities such as self-check-in and free parking. Remember that more amenities equals more bookings!
Spaces that guests have access to
In this part, you have to mark off all the places and rooms available to guests throughout their stay.
Property Description and Title
You’re not done till you haven’t written down a detailed description for your listing. Get creative and describe the experience of guests who have reserved your short-term rental property. The next item is the title of your Airbnb listing. It should clarify and highlight your selling points and be attractive simultaneously.
Photos
Pictures are the main items of your listing that grab your attention the most. Most people who are trolling and take a quick look at hundred options just look at the pictures; there’s no time for reading descriptions of each listing, so the listing with the better and more attractive pictures gets to the next level and reaches a much higher chance of booking. It’s so common that the first pictures you’ve uploaded to your listings are not perfect or even not really good, so now it’s time to put more effort into your property photos. If you’ve redesigned your house, added amenities, or changed something, take a photo of them.
If you’re not so good at photography (Airbnb Photography) and finding golden angles, get a professional photographer’s help. There are many photographers out there who come to your place and take magnificent shots of the area. Choose the best shot for your listing cover photo; it’s the most important one!
House Rules
In the next step, you must input house rules for your Airbnb guests. Airbnb suggests options to choose your property’s policies, and the only thing you need is to check the one’s matters to you. If your house has specific rules not mentioned on the Airbnb option list, you can write them down in the “additional rules” section. In case of particular and specific facts about your house that your guests should be aware of and warned of, you have to add them here too.
Set Availability and Pricing
It’s essential to define your property’s minimum and maximum nights you can rent out your place and select how often you want to rent it.
1. Set up the Minimum and Maximum Stay Requirements
Airbnb’s minimum night stay policy limits guests’ stays. One-night stays may increase Airbnb bookings, but they may attract unreliable guests. One-night rentals may become party houses, and since they might need more effort on cleaning and maintenance, they’re harder to host and need more expenses on these services. So, the recommended setting and what most hosts choose as the minimum stay is a 3-night setting. It boosts occupancy and attracts reliable guests.
2. Rental Calendar
Booking calendar availability is the next stage in Airbnb listing construction. You must take care of updating your rental calendar by blocking and unblocking days and months, getting bookings, and avoiding double bookings.
3. Set Up Your Pricing
Airbnb recommends Smart Pricing, but before pricing your rental property, it’s necessary to do some research. Use the Airbnb host calculator to compare nearby properties to find the best Airbnb listing pricing. To maximize your property’s value, adjust your pricing strategy (Airbnb pricing strategy) according to seasonality, local events, and market variations. This will maximize your income too. If you’ve just listed your property on Airbnb, it’s recommended to offer a discount For the very first bookings. Weekly and monthly discounts might increase the guests booking too.
Usually, 7 to 27-night reservations receive a weekly discount, and the monthly discount applies to 28-night bookings. You can adjust weekly and monthly discounts by clicking Edit next to Length-of-stay discounts in your listing’s Pricing setting.
Pricing rules include:
Nightly price: Seasonally adjust overnight rates. Holiday rates can be 15% higher.
Length-of-stay discounts: Discount longer stays. Discounts can be weekly, monthly, or other.
Last-minute discounts: You should lower your prices as the day of the check-in come closer.
Early-bird discounts: Offer a discount to customers who reserve their stay a significant amount of time in advance.
Make the Final Adjustments to Your Airbnb Listing
You’re not done yet but almost there! It’s time to take a last look at your listing, fix the problems and inaccuracies, and take care of the small final details.
Cancellation Policy
In this part, you have to define your cancellation policy by going to your listings, choosing a cancellation policy, then clicking on the booking settings, and then the edit option next to the policies. The following policies are available: Moderate, Strict, or Flexible. We usually recommend hosts, and vacation rental homeowners avoid choosing strict cancellation policies to maximize their booking rate. The most flexible and free cancellation attracts more guests to book your place and can significantly impact your income.
Additional Fees
Hosts can add extra fees like pet fees or cleaning fees to their Airbnb listing to avoid financial losses caused by various reasons and damages. Click Pricing at the top of your listing. Edit Extra costs. Set a reasonable fee for cleaning services, extra guests, and a security deposit here. Since the Airbnb Host Guarantee only covers “rare cases of damage,” you can cover minor property damages which guests cause by Security deposits, up to 20% of the guest booking price. However, it may discourage some guests from booking, but it’s essential if you care so much about financially securing yourself.
Instant Book
Instant Book lets guests book without your permission. This feature allows guests to book your new listing immediately by default. Select All guests must send reservation requests in your listing’s Booking Settings to disable this option.
Refine Your Airbnb Account
After finishing the preceding stages, it’s time to refine and polish your hosting Airbnb profile cause it’s an essential step due to make prospective guests trust you.
- Your Airbnb bio must be complete and include a professional photo. Choose a picture that shows your face and makes you look friendly.
- Write a detailed self-description to help guests in getting to know you. Describe your outstanding hosting style and include some personal details.
Airbnb requires verifications to prevent fraudulent listings.
Airbnb profile verification has multiple options that require you to take the following steps:
- Use the camera on your smartphone or the one on your laptop to take a picture of your ID.
- Upload a current ID photo from your phone.
- Include your legal first and last names.
- Include your legal address (it should match your billing address).
- To give your profile a more credible appearance, provide all of them. Fill out your profile and offer proof to reduce guests’ fears about renting a stranger’s property.
How Much Does It Cost to List on Airbnb?
Signing up for an Airbnb account is free, as is listing your property on the website. Because you won’t have to pay the Airbnb hosting fees – which are typically 3% – before you start to accept your booking, this is a risk-free investment opportunity.
Final Words
It is done and done! Welcome to the Airbnb hosts community! You’ve completed all the steps of making your property listing on Airbnb, and now it’s time to get your first bookings! Please take all the steps we’ve mentioned carefully and accurately. In case of any challenges and problems, ask your questions in the comment section below.