New Airbnb Listing Advice

[Paulina Le]

Hi fellow hosts – looking for some advice on strategy to get the first few bookings on Airbnb. We listed almost two weeks ago but haven’t gotten any bookings. The timing isn’t ideal because my market (Sedona, Arizona) is in slow season right now. However, some of my competitors are booked, and last year we were hosting another listing and were at almost 100% occupancy in July.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:

- Made sure I had all the boxes checked in Airbnb for our amenities > increased our first-page impression rate from 34% to 38%.

- Updated the order of our first few photos and cropped the first photo to more clearly show our view > increased search-to-listing rate from 2% to 32%.

- List-to-book rate is still 0% since we haven’t gotten any bookings, so potential guests are falling out of the funnel after clicking our listing, but I’m not sure why. I already updated our property description to be more concise and included bullet points for easier reading.

- I’ve seen some conflicting advice on whether or not to use Price Labs right away. I decided to turn it off for now and manually adjusted my prices in Airbnb to be slightly lower than my competition. In addition to the 20% new listing promo, I have a rule set for discounted weekday checkins and length of stay discounts. 

- Market booking lead time is about 30 days. Demand starts to ramp up in September, peaking in October/November. My calendar is only open through Labor Day as I'm hoping to get my first 3 bookings prior to high season since my launch rates are heavily discounted.

- Relaxed some restrictions: 1-night minimum stay, pet-friendly, lowered cleaning and pet fees slightly.

- Increased exposure by listing on Vrbo, but so far it's not gaining traction (only 21 impressions in the past week, and 4 views). I probably need to optimize the Vrbo listing, but I've been mostly focused on Airbnb. We did get one booking inquiry for all of August, but it was almost definitely a scam lol.

Anything else I could be doing to get our first few bookings and reviews? Thank you in advance!

[Renee Krystek]

You’ve got some great furniture pieces, and the space has a lot of potential! Personally, I think adding a bit more visual interest, like artwork, curtains, a bold accent wall, or even a peel-and-stick mural—could really elevate the feel and make the photos pop for guests scrolling through listings.

The backyard looks like a nice open space, but it might benefit from a few fun touches. Maybe some yard games, a fire pit, or a cozy outdoor setup to make it feel more inviting and memorable.