What's your conversion rate on Airbnb ?

Question

Let's compare our notes and learn. Airbnb provides good stats about our listings here: https://www.airbnb.com/stats/views but they don't tell how good or bad it is. Let's share our metrics here so that we can learn if we can perform better.

I start. My numbers for a property which has been live now for 4 months are:

1) # of views in the past 30 days: 279

2) Average # of daily views in the past 30 days:  10 (approximate visual reading of the graph)

3) Average Booking Rate since 1/1/2017: 1.35% (average monthly rates: jan, feb, mar, april, add the posted rates for each month then divide by the number of months)

(If you want to see the results of the anonymous survey in real time I built a quick public and anonymous survey with Google form where you can enter your numbers and see the results at the end:  https://goo.gl/forms/ig0Pl8cuQETwVHjv2 )

PS. Intuitively I think I am doing well in terms of number of views (means good pricing, good listing parameters) but not in terms of conversion (my description, amenities or photos need improvement maybe) ?

Your turn...

Mark S. · Answer

I'll play.  While we've had the property on VRBO for over a year (And doing well), it's only been on AirBnB for 4-5 months:

AirBnb Stats:

1.  # views in past 30 days:  283

2.  Avg # of daily views in past 30 days:  Maybe 8?  (This is hard to tell because it is an approximation and there are plenty of days with 0 views, per the chart)

3.  Avg Booking (Occupancy Rate) in 2017:  3%

Sounds like we're in a similar boat.  Our area has a lot of inventory so there are a lot of views before people settle on something.  We do much better on VRBO than AirBnB where this house is.

And I don't have anything to add about bedbugs

Kevin Lefeuvre · Answer

Never heard of it nowadays. Regardless, that is not really related to my post, Ken. Feel free to ask your question in a separate post.

Christina Brown · Answer

This sounds fun, now we just listed our rental a month or two ago, so that may skew things a bit.

1. Views in past 30 days: 181

2. Average # of daily views in past 30 days: 5 ish?  Ranges from 0-25.

3. Average booking rate: 6.1%

We are in a pretty high demand time up here so maybe that why mine is a little on the higher side?

Account Closed · Answer

I'm older so I am not really familiar with AirBnB but long ago I used Bread & Breakfast's across Europe and N. America.

My question, how do you prevent getting bed bugs? Sounds gross, I know, but it can be a real problem and I know that even hotels have the problem. At least with a hotel there are inspections so I have a half chance of finding out about it before I book a room. How does it work with AirBnB?

Kevin Lefeuvre · Answer

@Ariel Vincent So you have a lot of competition I guess in this period of the year, but still, at the end of the day you got 6 bookings in a month which is great. In your case I guess viewers spend time in shopping among listings and I am sure price is key.Thanks for offering to feedback on my listing. Won't post it here to avoid self promotion, but will share privately.

Ariel Smith · Answer

Mine are much different because I am in an area that hosts many festivals and we just had Coachella so views are very high:

1) # of views in the past 30 days: 1,092

2) Average # of daily views in the past 30 days: 40

3) Average Booking Rate since 1/1/2017: 0.625%

My booking rate is so low because my property is usually booked up 3-4 months in advance. I also had a long-term guest stay for a month and a half Jan - March. She booked in 2016.

@Kevin Lefeuvre would you mind posting your listing for us to take a look at? I'm happy to give feedback on photos, amenities and details.

Kevin Lefeuvre · Answer

@Mark you are doing great. I have the opposite experience probably due to my big city location  (LA). Airbnb with short stays of 2-6 nights is the norm. They don't stay at home, mostly use the place to sleep and they are out visiting the attractions. Also I have quality guests from Airbnb with a track record of good reviews while on vrbo not sure. I had one case of damage out of 30 bookings and that was one of the 5 vrbo guests. And finally the technology  (website ) is really old and buggy. But it fills the airbnb s calendar gaps so it's welcome.

BTW, occupancy rate not same as booking rate. Occupancy rate is definitely the number one metrics,  but none of these sites know the number, since we have multiple sources of bookings. But the booking rate is a good metrics to know how well we convert the "prospects" that airbnb sends us into "customers".

What's your conversion rate on Airbnb ?

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