Tag: Hosting Tips

Airbnb Bad Reviews: Use them to your Advantage

Post author By Shivam Kaushik
Post date June 28, 2021

There is nothing more demoralizing than receiving a bad review on Airbnb, especially when you go above and beyond to take care of your guests and host them to the best of your abilities but they still leave a negative or unsatisfactory review. Getting a lot of bad reviews can negatively impact your future bookings as the majority of guests go through negative reviews to make a decision before booking a property.

Every Airbnb host has to deal with unsatisfied guests and bad reviews at least once during their hosting career, and if not dealt with properly could do a lot of harm. In this blog, we will tell you what to do if you get a negative review and how to deal with the guests and convince them to delete the negative review, and also some methods to harness bad reviews on Airbnb and use them to your advantage.

Getting rid of Negative Reviews

1. Requesting the Guest

If a guest leaves a negative review on your listing, you should try and reach out to them as soon as possible. Ask them what you could have improved to make their experience better. Let’s say if the guest pinpoints out something that you disagree with, you should not dismiss that and become defensive as it will cause a conflict, instead, you should agree and tell the guest that “they are right and you’ll try to improve on the suggestions given by them”.

Doing this will help the guest realize that you have acknowledged the issue right away instead of dismissing it and then this will make them more receptive to your request of deleting the bad review. Then you should ask them to remove their bad review and explain how it negatively affects your business, and if done right will most likely work.

2. Give Discount/Compensate

If the above method of “Requesting the Guest” doesn’t work out and the guest is still not ready to change their negative review, then you can try to compensate them for the unpleasant experience they had. You need to be careful while using this method as if not done correctly it could backfire and leave a bad impression on the guest as you may sound arrogant. Choose the right words and way of compensation.

You can give your guest a discount for their next booking or send them a gift card which they can use to pay for their next booking at a discounted price. This compensation can help you get a negative review removed and retain a guest as well. Many airlines and professional services use this method to make amends with unhappy customers.

3. Don’t Rush to Review the Guest

Don’t rush in to leave a review for your guest after they leave, wait till they have left you a review especially if you feel they will leave a bad review. This will help you decide on how to review them based on the honest experience review. Also, it’ll discourage them to leave an unreasonable review as they’ll be worried about you reviewing them negatively, which might make it harder for them to book good properties in the future.

Also, guests just have 14 days to review a property and if you feel there is a slight chance that this guest might review your property badly then you should not write a review about them. Airbnb will prompt them as well to write a review about the property if you write the review early. If you do write a review, write it after a few weeks so that the guest doesn’t recall small things to nitpick and give you a positive review.

4. Reach Out to Airbnb

If you feel that the bad review you have received is unjustified and does not express the real experience of the guest then you can raise a review removal complaint to Airbnb. Airbnb reviews also fall under Airbnb’s Content Policy which monitors if a review is a spam, a threat, use of foul language, maliciously motivated, or fabrication of real experience.

If you followed all the Terms of Services and kept your conversation with the guest on the Airbnb platform then it’ll help you a lot to convince Airbnb to get rid of the review. You need to be able to prove that you are in the right and the review violates Airbnb’s Content Policy to use this approach.

Use them to your advantage

Leave detailed responses

When you receive a negative review make sure to respond back. Make sure to pinpoint every detail of the guest’s stay. Keep it as brief as possible and mention all the minute details. This will help in making a positive impression on the other reader as you’ll seem like someone who cares and takes notice of guests’ needs.

Focus on the Positive

When responding back to a bad review make sure to highlight the positive aspects of the guest’s stay and don’t blatantly disagree with negative reviews. You shouldn’t accept them either if you feel you were not in the wrong, but do acknowledge them. Acknowledging them and then telling why those issues occurred and how you are working on making sure other aspects of your guest’s stay were up to mark will help you build trust with readers.

Show what you have learned

If you were in the wrong then accept the mistake and if you weren’t in the wrong then acknowledging it will go a long way. Telling what you have learned from it and what you have you are doing to improve on it leaves the reviewer with nothing to defend and argue about.

Highlight the steps you have taken after this last negative review to improve future guests’ experience. Also, go through all the negative feedback to get a broad understanding of all things you can change to have more satisfied guests in the future, and use negative remarks as a guidebook to improve your hosting.

Don’t bad mouth the guest

Arguing or speaking unfavorably about your previous guest will portray you as rude and make you an undesirable host for future guests. You need to be calm and professional throughout and realize bad reviews are part of being in the Airbnb business and should be handled professionally and strategically.

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Red Flags to Look for When Renting on Airbnb (Airbnb Guest with No Reviews)

Post author By Shivam Kaushik
Post date June 17, 2021

Airbnb guest with no reviews is a major red flag when accepting a request. Learn how to onboard this kind of guest from this article!

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Airbnb guest with no reviews is a major red flag when accepting a request. Learn how to onboard this kind of guest from this article!

December 18, 2023

Being a host is never an easy task. For starters, you have to take care of marketing your listings, communicating with guests, and property management. Recently, hosts have started to report scams and illegal activities that have started taking place due to the massive reach & popularity of short-term rental platforms. These people are taking advantage of hosts and their property by finding a loophole in the system. Usually, they are Airbnb guests with no reviews.

In this blog, we surveyed over 100+ super hosts to take note of the red flags when renting your property on Airbnb so you make the best decisions when hosting an Airbnb guest with no reviews. Continue reading to learn more!

1. Airbnb Guest with No Reviews

When you come up with profiles with no single reviews, this could indicate that the person is using Airbnb for the first time or has created a duplicate account. It gets very hard to judge guests based on their type of profiles. Your best bet here would be to communicate with the guest and request them to complete their profiles. This is especially necessary if they already don’t have an ID and photos.

Questions to ask Airbnb guests with no reviews

But fret not! Of course, we can give guests with no reviews the benefit of our doubt. But just to safeguard your interest as a host, you can ask the guests the following basic questions:

What is your purpose for visiting?
How many people will be staying?

At the same time, hosts can also use this simple message template for Airbnb guests with no reviews but are showing interest in the property.

Hey there {{guest’s name}}

Thank you for showing interest in my property and welcome to the Airbnb community. As your host, I want to make sure that your first stay with us will go smoothly. Before I approve your booking, please verify your profile photo with a government ID & kindly fulfill the required information below:

1). Brief information about your stay & number of guests
2) What brings you to the neighborhood & what are your expectations?

I look forward to approving your request pending this information.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Cheers,

{{Host name}}

2. Not reading/following the rules and guidelines

To avoid Airbnb guests from having last-minute changes such as bringing extra people or pets, it’s ideal to remind them of the rules and regulations prior to confirming their stay. Although this isn’t always a red flag, Airbnb guests who keep changing their statements that are against rules and regulations should be reminded to read the listings to avoid complaints and confusion.

3. Having inappropriate photos or no photos

Similar to Airbnb’s no review guest’s account, an Airbnb guest with inappropriate photos or photos that don’t show their face clearly could be considered a red flag. Having no photo might also indicate that the profile is new, and if that is the case, you can request the guest to update his/her profile using the message template indicated above. If they hesitate to upload a photo or the uploaded photos seem altered, then it is certainly another red flag. As an Airbnb host, you should ask for proper verification in case of any suspicion before confirming the stay.

4. Convincing to book a listing outside of Airbnb

If a guest is trying to use alternate methods to share his number to book the Airbnb listing, then it’s a major red flag. Keeping all the chats and conversations on the Airbnb app is really important. This is truly necessary in case of damages to the property or any other mishappening during the guest’s stay. It also helps you to be on the safe side in terms of receiving the money and having proof of conversation in case of any legal action. Taking the conversation on some other platform will not only increase the chances of a scam, but it’ll also leave you stranded without anyone to reach out for help in case of a mishap.

5. Unconventional name or email

In 2022, getting a decent email without numbers and weird symbols is next to impossible. While there are some odd emails that use offensive words, and sexist or racist remarks, this can be a red flag as a lot of scammers use pseudo emails to make Airbnb accounts. It’s important to be aware of unconventional names or emails. These people often do this to prevent leaving traces of their personal identity in case of any investigation.

6. Broken language

Many times, scammers who pretend to be Airbnb guests run bots and reach out to multiple hosts at once. They send them personalized messages based on their listing using learning bots. You can identify these messages if the grammar is incorrect or if even a single sentence just doesn’t make sense. Usually, these bots have the conversion for a few seconds until some human switches over. You need to be careful and look for these types of sentences that sound auto-generated by a bot.

7. Exchanging services in return for a stay

Another red flag is if a guest offers to clean the house or do any other service in return for a stay instead of paying money. The chances of that person leaving without cleaning the place are very high. At the same time, this is not a good practice to follow as an Airbnb host. It’s still advisable to have your property cleaned by a reliable cleaner as the chances of getting scammed are very high in these types of situations.

8. Asking the right screening questions

If the Airbnb guests are local and staying for one night, you may want to ask their motive for visiting the property and confirm if they agree with your house policies. If they are visiting from outside of town, you can casually ask what they would like to do in the city. This way, you can easily identify the intention of guests while giving some helpful suggestions depending on what they want to do.

9. Do what your gut says

Sometimes you don’t need any red flags. If you have a feeling of uncertainty when giving your property to a guest based on his/her profile and messages, it is best to drop that guest as your gut instinct could be right.

When to take the risk of accepting bookings from Airbnb guests with no reviews?

While there are red flags to look out for when accepting Airbnb guests, it’s important to take note that there are some Airbnb guests who might have difficulty creating their accounts as they are new on the platform. Here are some of the go signals for Airbnb hosts to take the risk:

1. Airbnb guest provides necessary data

If you require the guest to provide a valid government ID and a clear photo, and they promptly follow along with a clear intention of their purpose of visit, then your worries should at least be minimized.

2. Airbnb guest instantly confirms the payment

The majority of Airbnb hosts are usually worried about guests with no reviews because they might be a no-show and waste the bookings on their calendars. However, if the Airbnb guest instantly confirms their payment online, then it’s recommended to take the risk (and still follow the mentioned precautions).

3. Airbnb guest is willing to go through security checks & verify account

Airbnb guests who are willing to go through security checks & verification on the platform should be considered as a go signal for hosts to accept the booking. At the same time, it’s necessary for Airbnb hosts to make sure that the guests are responsive and agree to the rules & regulations of your property.

How to decline an Airbnb guest with no reviews?

If you see all these red flags and you can’t see any redeeming quality in your guest, now is the time to decline the booking request. Declining a guest is a delicate process. So, be sure that you keep the conversation professional and courteous until the end.

Remember, maintaining professionalism and politeness is key when communicating with potential guests, even if you need to decline a booking request. This approach will uphold your reputation as a host and align with Airbnb’s community standards.

1. Start with Gratitude:

Begin your message by expressing your appreciation for their interest in your listing. This sets a positive tone for the conversation.

2. Explain Your Policy as a Host:

Let the guest know that, as part of your hosting policy, you usually prefer guests with reviews to ensure a smooth experience for both parties. Make this sound like a general policy rather than singling out the guest.

3. Apologize and Explain:

Apologize for any inconvenience and explain that you are unable to make exceptions at this time. Make sure your message is respectful and understanding.

4. Suggest Solutions:

If possible, offer some alternative solutions that could help the guest build their Airbnb profile and increase their chances of securing future bookings. For instance, suggest that they consider booking with hosts who are open to new users or recommend ways they can improve their profile.

5. End on a Positive Note:

Conclude the message with well wishes and a friendly tone. This helps to maintain a positive reputation and ensure a good impression of you as a host.

Feel free to use the sample template below for declining guests who show red flags

Hi {{guest’s name}}

Thank you for considering my Airbnb listing for your upcoming stay. I appreciate your interest in my space. As a part of my hosting practice, I typically consider guests who have reviews from previous stays. This helps ensure a positive experience for both guests and hosts. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this might cause, but I currently don't have the flexibility to make exceptions regarding the review policy.

However, I suggest you explore other listings where hosts might be more open to hosting guests without reviews. You could also enhance your profile by verifying your identity and completing your Airbnb profile, which will increase your credibility in the community.

Best of luck with your travel plans, and I hope you have a wonderful experience using Airbnb in the future.
{{Host name}}

Conclusion

I hope this checklist is somewhat useful in your hosting journey!

If you are just getting started with hosting, I believe you want to get more quality bookings. The first step is to have a clear picture on your listing’s performance against to similar listings in your area. This allows you to set a realistic goal.

Compare your occupancy rate against to other similar listings around your area using Airbnb Analytics tool (Click the banner below). Once you are in the app, search for your market, and zoom into the area where your listing is located. Then, you can find the average occupancy rate of the area you are seeing in the map.

Unlock Worldwide
Short-Term Rental Data

Find unsaturated neighborhoods with the highest occupancy history.

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How to do Airbnb Pricing right in 2021 using vacation rental data?

Post author By jae an
Post date May 14, 2021

Pricing Short-term rentals correctly for this upcoming (2021) Summer became a challenging thing as the supply-demand of rentals in your market has never been like this before. This post describes how a revenue manager could use vacation rental data to price your listing efficiently. After reading the post, you will learn what type of vacation rental data is available and how accurate and useful it could be to your future pricing strategy.

So…what is the vacation rental data we are talking about here? The three widely used data for vacation rental revenue managers come from 1) their listings 2) from other property managers 3) from web scraped data.

The fundamental Airbnb data you need for Airbnb Pricing

Did you know that web scraped data can show 1) average daily rate 2) price year on year trend 3) seasonality 4) weekday vs weekend price 5) events and 6) other promotion prices?

Firstly, there is the baseline market price. It is the average booked nightly price of a specific market for a specific type of property.

Secondly, you need to know the trend derived from historical data. It can show you whether this market’s price has been increasing over years or decreasing.

Thirdly, seasonality. It is how a specific week or month is performing compared to other months. Does this market get more visitors in Summer than Winter? Then the nightly rate in Summer is probably higher than the winter given that the supply remains consistent throughout the year.

Fourth, the prices of the week of the day. The most typical pattern is that Friday and Saturday night has 10 – 50% higher prices than Sunday – Monday. But this can vary by market and type of property.

Fifth, the local events, holidays, and global events. You typically see these days booked in well advance with higher nightly rates.

Sixth, booking lead time. How many days in advance do nights get booked in this market?

Lastly, the promotion prices. This includes a special discount for long-term stays or a discount for unpopular days like Monday.

The dynamic Airbnb pricing data you need for Airbnb Pricing

The pricing data changes every hour and knowing that can make you more competitive. These are the dynamic Airbnb pricing data you can get from web scraped data.

Firstly, the last-minute pricing. Many Airbnb hosts or revenue management teams drop their prices if nights are not booked until the last minute. Knowing those prices can be useful information if you want to grab more bookings. Your competitors might have been monitoring your listings and taking the majority of bookings by just lowering $3-5/night than yours.

Secondly, recently made booking data. You can also get nearly real-time booking data (nearly because in the case of us, it takes somewhere between 1 – 23 hours to process the booking data). This gives you a good idea of what is happening in the market currently.

How to do pricing right for this Summer?

Your focus should be on the supply and demand of this year, not the previous years. Start with a general understanding of your market by looking at search volume data. This will give you a general idea about the demand of your market this year. So, let’s say if the summer in 2019 was 75% booked in your market, and the search volume has increased by 10%, you can expect around 82.5% of rooms will be booked this Summer if the supply remained constant.

Tip1. If your market won’t do well this year from the search data, you should probably lower your rates to get those few bookings. If your market does well, then, you should carefully design promotion strategies based on the expected booking lead time we will discuss below.

The next thing you could do is tracking the summer occupancy rate of your market. Compare that with your “expected 2021 summer occupancy rate”, and once it hits 60-70% of the “expected 2021 summer occupancy rate”, you should start sending the promotional offers and discounts. In most markets, you can expect the 60-70% to be happening a lot later than 2019, since globally, the booking lead time has decreased significantly. However, this year, the booking lead time has been increased from the last year.

Tip2. If you are booked quicker than your market’s average booking lead time, you should consider raising the price, you are probably underpricing. Or, are you less booked than your competitors or market, maybe you should lower your price.

How to get 2021 Summer Vacation Rental Data

If you are resonating with the methods outlined above, it’s probably the best bet to contact us to get the data mentioned above. We will be able to deliver a daily pricing report of your market to your inbox every morning.

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Airbnb hosting: Why you should be checking out your competition

Post author By hannah mandapat
Post date February 15, 2021

Whether you’re an Airbnb host as a full-time business or renting out your spare room for some extra cash, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to be able to do it well. Creating your listings, taking photos of your property, ensuring the calendar is accurate, confirming bookings, etc. And that’s just the beginning. There are various tasks you need to complete before and after every booking to ensure a pleasant experience for your guests.

Yet after all the hard work already put in, your bookings don’t seem to be going up and the calendar remains empty. Especially in the middle of a pandemic when travel is limited, every booking you make is valuable. It makes you wonder if it’s even worth it.

While each host’s situation is different, checking out what the competition is up to should give you an idea of what steps you can take to improve your situation.

Here are four reasons why you should check out your competitors today.

1. Gives you a benchmark

How is your pricing compared to other vacation rentals in your area? Too high? Too low?

If you’re just starting out with Airbnb hosting, checking out what other Airbnb hosts in your area are already doing would give you a good idea of how you should price your property and what to provide. It would also give you a chance to see how much revenue you can potentially make. Doing a search on the Airbnb site for available properties in the area and checking out each listing or using Airbnb’s own pricing suggestion tool are a few ways to do it.

But if you’re short on time or want to see more in-depth information in a given area at once then using a vacation rental analytics platform would be the best option. This type of platform can provide you with a breakdown of various metrics such as the occupancy rate and average daily rate of your area over a period of time. You can easily slice and dice the data available to get a better understanding of your market.

2. Helps you understand your target audience better

You might feel that your offerings are already at a competitive level, but might still be struggling to draw in those extra guests.

Regularly checking out your competition ensures you have your finger on the pulse. Reading your competitors’ review section will allow you to find out qualitative information on what customers enjoy or don’t enjoy in certain accommodations, what their needs are, and what gaps are there that you can fill in with your own offerings.

3. Improves your marketing

How did others promote their listings? Did they mainly rely on just the Airbnb listing or have they posted on other sites too? Do they also have a dedicated website or social media accounts for their vacation rentals?

How can people book your place if they don’t know about it? Once you’ve got a good grasp of the people you can target, you would be able to ramp up your efforts to make sure your marketing is personalised to your prospective customers. With COVID-19 changing the way we travel, it’s important to showcase that you’ve taken such considerations, such as an increased emphasis on cleanliness or staycations becoming more commonplace. Here are some of our suggestions on increasing your Airbnb bookings during the pandemic.

4. Determines whether it’s worth the investment

As mentioned earlier, great Airbnb hosting, while can be fun and extremely rewarding, is no walk in the park. If you’re just starting out, seeing what’s already out there and understanding how they’re performing means that you can determine whether it’s worth putting in the time and resources for you.

Airbtics analytics platform’s upcoming update will make price benchmarking and finding out your potential revenue a lot easier. The new Benchmark dashboard means you’d be able to see the top ten listings of your area by revenue, along with property type, ADR and reviews at a glance. If you’d like to get a firsthand look, make sure to join the community and receive news about our latest feature updates and releases.

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Should Airbnb hosts engage in Airbnb Experiences?

Post author By Shyeni Gan
Post date January 16, 2021

While accommodation is one of the first things people look for when planning for their travel, many people travel primarily for local experiences. Airbnb recognizes this and as you might be aware, they introduced ‘Airbnb Experiences’ in 2016 which allows users to host activities, tours and classes, and users can book directly on the platform.

What are the pros and cons?

Nowadays, people seek for authenticity. Airbnb Experiences started off by reaching out to the locals on things to do in their cities. It adds a personal touch, rather than the usual “top things to do” recommended by tour guides, where many would be deemed as tourist traps. That sets Airbnb Experiences apart from other booking platforms. Furthermore, it is always helpful for travelers to be able to book both their accommodations and activities for their trips through the same platform. As for the hosts, they can be getting paid for doing something that they love, be it introducing their hobby or simply the engagement with people. It may also help to bring more guests to their rental properties listed on Airbnb through those experiences.

However, the downside of Airbnb Experiences is that they may not be available in all regions. It is dependent on the interest of the locals and in some places, it may be hard to get them to be involved. Having said that, the authenticity and unique experiences of those activities may be what attracts people, so it can be a double-edge sword. Since the experiences offered are based on personal interests and passion of the hosts, it may be hard to keep track of their quality of service in delivering the services. On the other hand, for the local hosts, they may worry about the volume of people visiting their city. If it is not a popular city, there may not be people interested in engaging in the experiences they offer. There could also be language barriers between the hosts and guests.

How has the response been?

68% of the travelers regard food and drinks as the most important component of travel, as mentioned in an article by Eater. Hence, Airbnb Experiences have included more than 3000 experiences in cooking-related activities. Other popular experiences are horse yoga, mindful movement (meditating and hiking), Nama’ Tastings (wine and yoga), Carb Feast (pizza and pasta), tie dye classes and historical walking tours. Airbnb came up with a list of the trending cities to visit in 2019 and the top 3 cities are Kaikoura in New Zealand, Xiamen in China and Puebla in Mexico.

Airbnb Experiences also opened up business opportunities for countries where STRs are not allowed. For example, in Singapore, the government banned short term stays and the minimum period of stay is 6 months. With the launch of Airbnb Experiences, local hosts can make revenue through this channel.

How has COVID-19 affected Airbnb Experiences?

With Covid-19, Airbnb Experiences adapted with the situation. They shifted their target to the domestic market and added more online activities. As of May 2020, there were 300 online experiences on the platform. Some of the popular online experiences include “Sangria and Secrets with Drag Queens” in Lisbon, Portugal with $150k of revenue in their first month and “Tarot Reading with Mak Jagger” in Austin, Texas with $11k of revenue in one month.

However, there are still hosts who are unable to transition to the channels online. It may be due to many reasons like not having a stable internet connection in their region, the hosts not being tech-savvy or the experience is simply too difficult to be carried out online. Such hosts are solely dependent on the domestic market for as long as the Covid-19 situation persists.

Conclusion

Airbnb Experiences has grown 13 times faster than their rental property business, making a revenue of more than $1 billion in the second quarter of 2019. If you’re looking for a creative way to increase your revenue, it’s worth considering hosting Airbnb Experiences. You may just find something that the market is willing to spend money on, be it online or physically. The first step is always a gamble as to the feasibility of the ideas but with some time, things get easier and better!

But before you start advertising your Experience package, you might want to consider whether you have enough visitors visiting your city to engage in the experiences you are offering. Airbtics provides close to real-time data on the number of visitors visiting any specified cities, as well as booking rate, occupancy rate, pricing strategies and other customizable data that may be useful boosting your revenue. With Airbtics data, you can have a better grasp of the market and decide what types of experience you can offer. If you are not able to shift your experiences online, it is even more important to know your market and competitors well, which will help you better plan your next move in boosting your revenue.

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The Top 5 Airbnb Trends to Watch Out for in 2021

Post author By Rachell Lee
Post date December 30, 2020

As the year comes to an end, it’s safe to say that Airbnb trends and insights have gone through a rollercoaster of fluctuations within the past year. With tests for COVID-19 more widely available, destinations finding ways to safely reopen without the need for 2-week quarantines, and a vaccine already in sight, constant change is the new “normal”. With a more positive outlook on the pandemic front, the predictions for Airbnb travel trends and insights for 2021 are highly anticipated by those waiting for the markets to bounce back. Data analytics and accurate information play a vital role in understanding these predictions for the next year as Airbnb hosts, property managers, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), and vacation rental professionals alike are buckling up their strategies and tactics for business in 2021.

Here are the top 5 Airbnb travel trends and insights for 2021 based on the current climate in the short-term rental industry:

1. Year-over-Year (YoY) growth in Airbnb bookings will bounce back eventually

North America

Throughout the year, the U.S. experienced diverse responses to the pandemic as some states enforced more strict stay-at-home orders while other states still have yet to enforce strict lockdown procedures. This varied response to the pandemic is reflected in the data trends of YoY growth in different regions of the U.S. and sets the foundation of which Airbnb trends will continue into 2021.

One factor that may change the predictions is the advent of the COVID-19 vaccine. On Friday, December 11, 2020, Pfizer and BioNTech announced the historic first authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. in an effort to deliver hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to Americans by the end of 2021. The vaccine will be given to healthcare workers and high-risk elders in care facilities first, but how soon the vaccine will be available to other civilians is still up in the air. If the vaccine is successful at keeping American travelers safe from COVID-19, 2021 may be able to see more drastic YoY growth in the average number of bookings for properties.

Currently, the U.S. is still experiencing the devastating effects of the pandemic as some states are once again shutting down, such as New York’s ban on indoor dining, and a patchwork of fresh restrictions on social distancing in other states. YoY growth increased in only a select few major U.S. destinations.

As shown in the graph, the YoY growth of bookings in Big Bear, California grew even more in the 4th quarter of 2020 than compared to Q1. We can infer from this trend that Big Bear will continue to thrive as a four season resort destination in 2021. On the other hand, several other American cities have yet to reach pre-COVID levels.

This individualistic course of action from each state spares no room for a unified, solid trend that defines the predictions for vacation rentals in the U.S. However, Airbnb hosts and other short-term rental industry professionals can take a closer look at the data for each state and how each has performed during each quarter of 2020 to predict the near future in 2021.

Europe

In Europe, the Airbnb trends accumulated from 2020 indicate that despite several hopeful factors, Europe has yet to see drastic improvements in their YoY growth for Airbnb. The Airbnb trends for 2021 in Europe point towards a slower climb towards normalcy as each European country continues to battle their own COVID-19 cases within their borders.

This December of 2020, a new and more infectious strain of COVID-19 shut down Europe, causing a new wave of travel bans and restrictions, creating a logistics crisis in the U.K., and hitting European stocks quite severely. About 18 million people in Southeast England went back into lockdown, an event that would certainly cause Great Britain’s YoY growth in booking to decrease once again going into 2021. We can see from the trends this year how tremendously cities in Great Britain have had to pull back from their Airbnb bookings, and we can expect the same from this new wave of COVID-19 infections.

In other European cities, we can see a similar declining trend in Airbnb booking growth as the year comes to an end. Europe will continue to balance this new and infectious COVID-19 strand with the introduction of the new vaccine going into 2021, so it’s vital that Airbnb hosts and vacation rental professionals to keep track of the YoY growth trends during this time.

Going forward, the Airbnb trends and insights will reflect all of the different factors that have impacted the YoY growth in Airbnb bookings in different fluctuations. Short-term rental professionals can use this information to understand where their current strategy stands each quarter and use each data point as a benchmark to improve or address different pain points.

Asia

Major cities in Asia were the first to experience the deadly effects of the virus, control the virus, and also to experience second waves of infections. Going into 2021, the Airbnb trends and insights for Asia indicate that although many cities in Asia have controlled their infections, it will still take a significant amount of time for booking levels to bounce back to ‘normal’.

Several different Asian destinations such as Thailand, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and South Korea have implemented mandatory 2-week quarantines for any foreigners coming into their borders in order to avoid new infections from outside visitors. This restrictive measure on travelers has had a significant impact on the YoY growth of bookings on Airbnb because travelers are deterred from traveling to these Asian cities with the requirement to pay out-of-pocket expenses to quarantine.

Going into 2021, there is no definite date when the 2-week quarantines will no longer be mandatory. Instead of only relying on current events and news, vacation rental professionals should also rely on accurate data reported from each major city to understand how profitable vacation rentals could potentially be in 2021 because data serves as an accurate precedent for upcoming trends.

Although different cities of the world are experiencing different phases of the coronavirus, the majority of experts predict “a rebound in international tourism in 2021, in particular by the third quarter of 2021, while around 20% expects it to occur only in 2022”, according to the World Tourism Organization.

This prediction points towards a more hopeful future of bringing YoY growth of Airbnb bookings back to normalcy. As hosts, property managers, tourism boards, and financial institutions wait for this prediction to become reality, they can focus their efforts on preparing for this trend with Airbnb insights that help solidify their business model for 2021.

*Note* The YoY growth shown in the graphs is not the platform-wise YoY growth in Airbnb bookings, but instead the YoY growth of the average number of bookings for properties that are available in both 2019 and 2020. If you are interested in the YoY growth in bookings platform-wise (or gross booking value) visit here.

2. Beaches are still trending destinations for Airbnbs in 2021

As the whole world continues to navigate the new ‘normal’ for travel, some destinations in the world have suffered more than others from travel restrictions and lockdowns. Despite the uncertainty of the travel industry, people all over the world are still hopeful of a future that allows safe travel. Many travel itineraries and trips for 2020 have been canceled, but more importantly, they have been postponed until 2021. Now that 2021 is already on the horizon, which destinations are trending?

The easiest way to find this out is to do an analysis of internet searches all over the world. Using several different tools, Airbnb hosts and other professionals in the travel industry can find out where travelers will flock to once more restrictions are lifted by looking at the numbers. Understanding the numbers, demographics, and overall measurements in the travel industry for the upcoming year is a vital tactic to start strategizing for short-term rental business.

Consumers and travelers are already looking forward to the summer of 2021, the summer that could redeem the time people spent cooped up in their homes with cabin fever. With hopes high and the case of the travel bug going around, it’s no surprise that the majority of trending searches for travel destinations relate to most beaches and exotic island destinations.

Our data analysis on Airbnb reviews suggests that the appearance of the word “beach” increased by 2.7x during the pandemic, and will continue to spike in popularity. According to internet searches, there is a surge in searches for these specific destinations:

The Maldives
French Polynesia
Los Cabos, Mexico
Miami- The booming business of short-term rentals in South Florida
Maui and Oahu
Punta Cana
Orlando
Las Vegas
Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum
Cancun

All of these destinations point towards the public’s movement toward more secluded areas and locations that are relaxing, vacation-style getaways. This trend indicated a huge shift from business travel within heavily populated metropolitan areas to more remote and private areas.

3. Properties optimized for domestic tourism are on the rise

We’re not sure how long it will take for international travel and tourism to bounce back completely, but one thing is certain: domestic tourism and travel are some of the biggest Airbnb trends for 2021.

Travelers looking for new, innovative ways to satisfy their desire to explore new destinations have fueled the booming popularity of domestic tourism. This upcoming Airbnb trend has already manifested in the last few quarters of 2020 as travel bans and restrictions lifted in some cities while others shut back down.

In other words, visiting local attractions and destinations within their own borders is a huge trend for the short-term rental industry that will stay relevant going into 2021 as people continue to search for staycation getaways to escape both cabin fever and the current international travel bans.

One interesting result of the booming domestic tourism trend in the short-term rental industry is that properties in domestic locations near cabins, beaches, or mountains surprisingly experienced huge growth in 2020. These domestic destinations hit their best numbers while most short-term rentals in urban areas continued to decline. This shift in the movement of travelers flocking to more secluded areas is a significant key indicator of where STR professionals should invest in next in 2021.

In particular, this vacation rental trend is significant to hosts and short-term rental professionals because this key insight can help them re-strategize and pivot their business strategies based on different properties, locations, and amenities that will attract domestic travelers. Vacation rental professionals can use this data to visualize their objectives and goals for the new year and understand the new type of demographic they need to tailor their niche to (domestic travelers).

As hopes are high and the desire to travel continues to fester, it’s important that vacation rental professionals understand the sentiment of the data trends and re-prioritize their resources where needed.

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4. More Airbnb properties are becoming long-term stays

Remote work is now more important than ever. This whole year, companies all over the world pivoted towards a more remote-friendly environment, getting rid of unnecessary physical presences, office buildings, and more. ‘Work from home’ is a defining trend in 2020 that will continue to shape the world’s future of telework into 2021.

As we approach the new year, workers now place emphasis on the importance of being able to work remotely. The surge of remote jobs will continue into the new year as workers re-prioritize which tasks can be completed through video conferencing or emails rather than in person. The WFH trend is highly relevant for Airbnb or vacation rental professionals because now, Airbnb listings are more likely to be booked for long-term stays.

The reasoning behind this trend is that travelers are no longer restricted by time or location to their jobs. Now, they can extend their stay in a destination while working remotely. Another huge factor behind this trend is that people now have the flexibility from remote work to try living in different areas or neighborhoods that might have a lower cost of living or a better quality of life.

Rental property hosts and short-term rental professionals can leverage this trend for their properties on Airbnb or VRBO in 2021 by strategizing their pricing model for their properties to accommodate long-term or mid-term stays. Instead of taking on several guests that only stay one or two nights, it would be more profitable and mutually beneficial for the STR property owners to rent out their places for a longer period of time (15+ days). One way that vacation rental professionals can promote this is to offer discounts for longer stays (2 weeks or longer).

In this competitive market, hosts can gain a significant advantage by ensuring their listings are more appealing. One effective strategy is to add subtitles to videos showcasing their properties to make their content accessible to a broader audience. Additionally, subtitles can provide valuable information about the property, local amenities, and nearby attractions.

According to Airbnb’s survey, there was a 128 percent increase in reviews mentioning words like “relocation,” “remote work,” and “trying a new neighborhood,” when it compared July to September of this year to the same time last year. These widely-searched phrases reflect the buzzwords that Airbnb hosts and STR professionals should continue to monitor within the next year. They can leverage these trending Airbnb buzzwords to tailor their rental property services to a specific demographic.

As the future of both travel and work continues to evolve, consumer behavior will also continue to change. Professionals in the short-term rental industry should monitor these trends to keep track of consumer confidence in vacation rental services or properties. Reviews that mention “trying a new neighborhood” or “relocation” are indicative of the next, biggest trend about consumer behavior: movement from metropolitan areas to satellite cities.

5. Airbnb guests are moving from metropolitan areas to satellite cities

As a result of the remote work trend, there is significant movement from heavily populated metropolitan areas to smaller, satellite cities around the area. Workers are realizing that they now have the freedom to relocate to wherever they want because now they are not bound to a specific location because of their work.

This trend was especially apparent as the U.S. experienced mass, unprecedented levels of people moving out of the Bay area or New York to more affordable cities with cheaper costs of living as remote work gave them the flexibility to do so.

Our data analysis of reviews illustrates this mass movement from urban areas to more secluded areas: the top trending buzzwords found in property reviews include “getaway”, “coastal”, “hut”, “garden”, “farm”, and “cabin”. The combined connotation of this list of buzzwords points toward guests’ sentiment to find more secluded getaway destinations away from their usual, highly-populated urban areas.

Hosts, property managers, and other vacation rental professionals can follow this flocking movement of travelers to new areas outside of large, metropolitan areas and focus their strategy on these satellite cities or outskirt areas.

Tourists and travelers looking to move to a new neighborhood now have the flexibility to live in areas that are better tailored to their own lifestyles without having to completely commit to the location with a mortgage. Alternatively, Airbnb and other vacation rental platforms make it possible for those looking to relocate to experience living in a specific area outside of their usual home base in metropolitan areas.

In coordination with the Airbnb trend of long-term stays, this trend of moving to satellite locations allows vacation rental professionals to leverage the newfound flexibility of relocation and tailor their rental properties to accommodate this trend. As more people move towards smaller satellite cities, guests and visitors are looking for unique experiences and rental properties that can accommodate their stays.

The future of travel may be uncertain, but STR professionals can leverage the power of data and Airbnb trends to re-prioritize and strategize for the new year. Some other key considerations to keep in mind include: consumer and business confidence, economic impact, and government support. The world is still experiencing a global recession that greatly influences consumers’ spending decisions, their travel behaviors, and the different measures governments all over the world will take to support tourism.

Professionals in the short-term rental industry must stay prepared for several different factors in 2021, such as shorter booking lead time due to the uncertainty of the pandemic or the continued, drastic shift from hotels to short-term rentals. The best practice of strategizing for the new year is to practice resilience with the help of accurate Airbnb data and insights.

Tags Hosting Tips

All About Airbnb Hosting Tips

Top Tips to Increase AirBnB Bookings During the Pandemic

Post author By Guest
Post date April 15, 2020

covid people wearing mask image

Any type of business that revolves around travel and staying away from home experiences difficulties during the Covid 19 pandemic. If you own one or more AirBnB rentals, you need to find a way to increase bookings in order to stay profitable. We have interviewed 3 experienced AirBnB hosts to ask how they are dealing with this. The following tips are safe and effective ways to get more attention on your properties and improve rental revenue overall.

Offer Self-Isolation With a Greater Benefits

Encouraging travel during times of recommended self-isolation is a challenging marketing method. However, when you have an attractive property in an interesting location, it may help get the type of attention you need. People dislike staying at home for long periods of time, so if you can offer them social distancing in a new place, they may just jump at the chance to see a different set of walls around them.

Focus on Deep Cleaning to Improve Comfort and Trust

While getting away from home seems a delightful proposition during this difficult time period, people are naturally reticent to trust other locations when it comes to their health. A large part of your marketing efforts should include assuring people that you use professional cleaners and proper sanitization methods to ensure that your property will not get them sick. Also, it is 100% necessary that you do so as unintentionally spreading Covid 19 to your renters would be disastrous both for their well-being and your business.

Increase Interest With Low Costs and Easy Cancellation

Although you must remain profitable even during the pandemic, drastically cutting rental prices works well to fill in your bookings calendar. Not only do you need to compete with other AirBnB units, but you also have to persuade people to leave their homes and visit someplace else.

Lack of surety about future travel bands or quarantine regulations may work against your rental business, too. Another tip involves making a simpler cancellation policy with absolutely 100% guarantees and transparency. This helps with marketing, but you should push for delayed bookings at a later date instead of canceling them completely.

Smart Marketing Techniques for Repeat Bookings

Think outside the box during this unique time. To market your AirBnB houses, apartments, and rooms to people who are specifically traveling to help out with the pandemic. Many medical professionals, for example, are volunteering their time in different cities and need places to stay. Go on Facebook, other social media platforms, and the usual booking websites and speak directly to these heroes who would be happy to spend their time in a comfortable home rather than an impersonal hotel room.

When it comes to increasing AirBnB bookings, all of the marketing methods in the world will not help you unless you instill the type of trust that people need to feel these days. Focus on low costs, easy cancellation, deep cleaning, and reaching out to new and former renters who just want to get away from it all for a while. You can maintain your profits and set your business up for increased success after these challenging times are gone.

You can find the full details of the Podcast interviews with hosts here!

Story from Teri – Charlotte, NC

Story from DeShan – Dallas, TX

Story from Renee – Grrenvile, SC

Story from Christian – Dallas, TX

Image credit: Designed by Freepik

Tags Hosting Tips

🎉 FREE WEBINAR - July 24th, 11am / 8pm CET - Learn Airbtics in 7 Minutes - Revenue and Market Analysis Tips and Best Practices!

Getting rid of Negative Reviews

1. Requesting the Guest

2. Give Discount/Compensate

3. Don’t Rush to Review the Guest

4. Reach Out to Airbnb

Use them to your advantage

Leave detailed responses

Focus on the Positive

Show what you have learned

Don’t bad mouth the guest

1. Airbnb Guest with No Reviews

Questions to ask Airbnb guests with no reviews

2. Not reading/following the rules and guidelines

3. Having inappropriate photos or no photos

4. Convincing to book a listing outside of Airbnb

5. Unconventional name or email

6. Broken language

7. Exchanging services in return for a stay

8. Asking the right screening questions

9. Do what your gut says

When to take the risk of accepting bookings from Airbnb guests with no reviews?

1. Airbnb guest provides necessary data

2. Airbnb guest instantly confirms the payment

3. Airbnb guest is willing to go through security checks & verify account

How to decline an Airbnb guest with no reviews?

1. Start with Gratitude:

2. Explain Your Policy as a Host:

3. Apologize and Explain:

4. Suggest Solutions:

5. End on a Positive Note:

Conclusion

Quick Links

Quick Links

The fundamental Airbnb data you need for Airbnb Pricing

The dynamic Airbnb pricing data you need for Airbnb Pricing

How to do pricing right for this Summer?

How to get 2021 Summer Vacation Rental Data

1. Gives you a benchmark

2. Helps you understand your target audience better

3. Improves your marketing

4. Determines whether it’s worth the investment

Table of Contents

What are the pros and cons?

How has the response been?

How has COVID-19 affected Airbnb Experiences?

Conclusion

Table of Contents

1. Year-over-Year (YoY) growth in Airbnb bookings will bounce back eventually

North America

Europe

Asia

2. Beaches are still trending destinations for Airbnbs in 2021

3. Properties optimized for domestic tourism are on the rise

4. More Airbnb properties are becoming long-term stays

5. Airbnb guests are moving from metropolitan areas to satellite cities

Offer Self-Isolation With a Greater Benefits

Focus on Deep Cleaning to Improve Comfort and Trust

Increase Interest With Low Costs and Easy Cancellation

Smart Marketing Techniques for Repeat Bookings

Airbnb Data At Your Fingertips!

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