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449. 5 Mistakes Airbnb Hosts Are Making (And How to Fix Them)

Introduction and Listener Spotlight

Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:00] Hello, welcome back to another great [00:01:00] episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant and together we are Thanks for Visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s kick this episode off like we do each and every week and that is sharing one of you, our listeners, who is heading on over to strshare. com sharing a little bit about your short term rental so that we can celebrate you here on the podcast, on our Instagram account, on Sundays.

Annette, who are we sharing this week?

Annette Grant: This week we are sharing an at bamboo_dwellings. And they are right next to Disneyland and they have leaned in to this theme. And so I appreciate that. If you have been thinking about potentially theming your property, but in a really well done way, head over, check them out.

Couple of things I want to share with them. They’ve done like small pieces of art that look, that are custom. Seems like they had a custom artist come in from some Um, mural outside to some paintings on the inside, but really family focused. And as I was reading through their [00:02:00] listing, something really stuck out to me.

She shared that she has two daughters, they’ve been to 80 countries, they travel with them so that their home is going to be so well equipped for your family if you’re traveling with kids. And I think just that little extra of like why she’s an expert and her home is equipped for children is her extensive travels. So I actually, that, that trust factor, telling your own story and your listing helps increase your trust factor. One other thing that they did in their listing that I’m like, wow, it gives me that wow factor is they have done a lot of wallpaper on the ceiling. I love it. And I have not seen that a lot.

And that is probably risky and a, an investment. So I just want to say. Uh, kudos to you, I applaud you for that because it was bold and I think that’s what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to make a statement with your property and you can see as you look through the photos, each and every room they are making a statement, but this is an experience stay.

Well done. Thanks for using, [00:03:00] uh, or heading over to STR share and making us aware of your property.

Common Mistakes Hosts Make

Sarah Karakaian: Let’s get into this week’s episode and we’re going to get a little negative, I guess, with reeling you in.

Annette Grant: No, it’s not negative. It’s honest.

Sarah Karakaian: Well, yeah. But we are seeing so many hosts that are failing. And they don’t even know it.

And that’s the hardest part.

Annette Grant: They are leaving so much money on the table. And we are here to tell you what mistakes that you’re making. But also, how can you remedy them? Yes. ASAP.

We’re not TFV, we’re just,

Sarah Karakaian: we’re just this negative channel here. But, we see hosts, and these are like, when we say we see, we are on Zoom calls with hosts.

Annette Grant: Look, going, combing through their listing. You are blocking your own success.

Sarah Karakaian: Yes, so they are chasing hacks. They are complaining about the algorithm, and they are making assumptions instead of focusing on what [00:04:00] actually gets bookings. And like most things in, you know, business 101, that is really understanding what our customer wants and then letting them have it the way that they want it.

And so obviously in our world, the customer is the guest and success isn’t about beating the Airbnb algorithm. It is about appealing to our guests. So today we want to expose the five biggest mistakes that hosts are making and show you how to succeed.

Mistake 1: Chasing Hacks

Annette Grant: Mistake number one, you are chasing hacks instead of focusing on your guests.

Sarah Karakaian: All right, hacks. Listen, like, I get it.

It feels like a quick win. It’s like a, what is it called? Dopamine hit. A dopamine hit. You like, feel like you’re getting a win. And there might even be some truth in these hacks. Truth. But when you lead your business or your mind or your to do list by checking in on that hack and doing this like quick win thing. [00:05:00] It’s a great way to not be in business for the long haul.

Annette Grant: Here are some of the hacks we hear. Um, you know, joining wishlist groups because wishlisting pumps you up in the algorithm. And here, we’re not here to, to, to deny that claim. But however, if your listing is terrible, it doesn’t matter if it’s wishlisted. Your guest is going to see through that. The other one that absolutely like, ah, I’ve been seeing this everywhere is hiring VAs to get bad reviews removed. Like there’s a hack, there’s a way to do it. Here’s the problem. You need to look at why you got that bad review. And if you have multiple, multiple bad reviews, I gotta let you know, Airbnb just removed 400, 000 listings. They’re just gonna remove you. It doesn’t matter if you’re getting your bad reviews removed. So you’re spending all this time and energy remedying things where it’s like, let’s focus on the property. Let’s focus on the experience for the guest.

Sarah Karakaian: Another hack that I see is maybe deleting a period and adding it back on so that Airbnb sees that you’re [00:06:00] active. Or, right, like, adding an emoji to the beginning of your title or not adding the emoji to your title.

Annette Grant: Or I love, like, putting, um, putting captions on your photos, like, Superhost, or doing, like, multiple, uh, you know, things on, on your, on your photos to try to lure in, lure in extra guests. Like, we just, sometimes I gotta keep it simple.

Sarah Karakaian: I’m here for the creativity, but I just feel like these hosts get so

Annette Grant: Well, they’re, they’re swirling around the actual issue of Be a better host, have a better property.

Mistake 2: Poor Quality Photos

Sarah Karakaian: Mistake number two, your photos are costing you clicks. Oh my goodness. I, and here’s the thing. We talked to hosts who have incredible properties. They are incredible humans, and I’m expecting to go onto their listing and do an audit or talk about their business. And these photos are not good. You know what it is? And we’re [00:07:00] at fault with this too in other areas of our, of our business. This, this, this content here today is meant to help you like get outside of yourself because we’re all

Annette Grant: too close to it sometimes

Sarah Karakaian: too close to it. You’re too close to your photos. Maybe there was some event that happened when you took your photos or the photographer is as a family friend of yours, or it was your first time, but that was years ago, right? Like, but the photos have got to be better. Everyone. They’ve got to be clear, they have to capture a vibe and a mood.

Annette Grant: They have to be realistic.

Sarah Karakaian: They have to be realistic.

Annette Grant: Is that actually what’s in your property still? And we look at properties every single day and are still just floored that people are not paying attention to they’re listing photos. This is how people this is how you’re showing up to the entire world are these listing photos so these have to be remedied and Again, we see hosts chasing the hacks [00:08:00] and doing I think it’s like well Let’s start by just simply going back to the base going back to basics and looking at your photos.

Sarah Karakaian: Here’s what we find We find cluttered spaces we find a slew of beautiful photos and then all of a sudden like you updated the bed size or you updated something in the kitchen so you took a photo with your iPhone and never got back to it.

Annette Grant: Oh, and it’s so disruptive to see this like, all these horizontal pics and then a vertical pic.

Sarah Karakaian: Or the order of them, it’s like 20 exterior photos before you get to the interior photo.

Annette Grant: That make no sense because Curb Appeal, think about it, we’re not trying to sell the house here, you’re staying inside the house.

Sarah Karakaian: Yeah, I mean if you have a really cool Architecturally interesting property, yes, but then the next photo should be, like, give them a tour of the first five photos so they can get a taste of your property.

Annette Grant: Oh my gosh, like, just cluttered spaces, messy spaces, like, where the trash can and the, um, maybe it’s the plunger or, like, actually the focus of the photo. It’s like, what is even happening?

Sarah Karakaian: So before you think this isn’t you, [00:09:00] cause even me right now, I’m like, I, it’s been a couple months I’ve gone through my photos, I just need a triple check.

But before you think this is not you, Just do yourself a favor and go look at your photos. Or go show them to someone else, like your truth telling friend. Like, that friend who is blunt with you. And that’s a reason why you love them, but it’s also a reason why you maybe don’t hang out with them so much.

Annette Grant: So, Sarah, Sarah, will you look at my listing photos?

Sarah Karakaian: I will look at your listing photos, Annette. Okay. Yes, and I will tell you the truth. But, yeah, they’ve got to be better. They’re costing you clicks. And if people aren’t clicking on your property, and right now we don’t have videos to go off of. We have very little to go off of.

To our potential guests. These photos are very important.

Mistake 3: Rigid Calendar Management

Annette Grant: Mistake number three, you are too rigid with your calendar.

Sarah Karakaian: I feel like there’s a subset of hosts who are like way too loose with their pro, like they’re like, we’ll do whatever, anything, let’s just make money.

Annette Grant: Minimum, same day, any, you know.

Sarah Karakaian: But our audience, I love all of you so much, but you guardrail your calendar. [00:10:00]

Annette Grant: We have been doing a lot of listing audits lately, and people want, the number one thing they come to us, like, we want more bookings, we want to make more money. So the first thing that we do, we do look at the photos.

The second thing that we do is we look at their calendar. And we are astonished, we have been going behind the scenes and we see so many parameters that hosts have on, I’m going to give you a few of them right now that I could not believe. Number one, had someone, their cleaner only cleans on Tuesdays and so every single Tuesday was blocked, every single Tuesday. So the cleaner is essentially running their business and that means no one could ever have a full week’s stay. That was real. Another one is someone had Um, on all of their weekends, a four night minimum. I don’t know about you, weekends in my world are two nights not four nights. And listen, if you are a part of that four night weekend world.

Sarah Karakaian: There is a club out there and you have not invited us.

Annette Grant: I want [00:11:00] to be a part of this four night weekend. Oh, travel, yes. I want to travel for four nights. Travel, right. That’s a hard life if you’re a four night weekend. But seriously, you could only book if you stayed for four nights, so the weekend started Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, um, three night minimums during the week. There were just, Oh, seven night minimums and I do know historic vacation towns are still very like Saturday to Saturday, but it is a new ball game. Okay.

Sarah Karakaian: I say, but are they? Here, here’s the deal. We’ve got forcing check in, check out rules that don’t allow your guests to come and go when they want to, um, blocking off dates unnecessarily. Now, if that’s a decision that you want to make because you’re the CEO of your business, fine.

Annette Grant: But don’t, don’t come out as that. I want to get more bookings and make more money. And you have all these restrictions. Those don’t correct. Don’t mesh.

Sarah Karakaian: Cause here’s what happens. We hear you, we listen to you, you explain the calendar to us, and we’re [00:12:00] like, got it, cool, cool, cool. And then we log in to Price Labs, and we’re like, that’s interesting, because last year’s data, and the year before, is telling us that no one is booking four nights days.

They’re booking two nights days. Or, hey, Old school vacation town. The things have changed since 2010 and now people actually want us to want to come for a long weekend to Cape Cod, you know? So, and who, what, how do we know this data?

Annette Grant: And here’s here, we will share with you. There are some times to have the three night minimum, the four night minimum.

Sarah Karakaian: No, for sure.

Annette Grant: There are certain events that it absolutely, um, would be, behoove you to have these minimums, but not just in perpetuity. So that’s what we see is they’ve like blocked their calendar these same days, these same requirements, and just let them flow throughout the entire year.

Sarah Karakaian: And not just because you, I’m using air quotes here, feel like that’s what happens. Cause that, we’ll, we’ll ask that too. Why do you have four night minimum [00:13:00] sets? Well, I feel like if I’m going to let them book at that point, I want to make the most money then, but it’s like the traveler is booking two nights with all of your competitors and paying more money on those two nights than you get for your four nights day. And here’s the thing. I don’t know about you Annette, but I’d like to make more money and have less people. And less wear and tear on my home.

Annette Grant: Right, so higher ADR, lower occupancy. And the last thing that we see, again, if you just want to be making more money and not failing, is also a lot of folks are, require a day before and a day after check in. So imagine that. Just think about that. You’re, that’s two days per every reservation because Again, you have a cleaner that needs an entire day after a checkout to do it. Um, and again, if that’s how you want to run your business, fine, but when I go into these calendars and I see every five day reservation has another two day blocked, it’s [00:14:00] essentially you’re slashing your calendar in half.

So, you know, the thing about short term rentals, we get a limited amount of inventory. We get 365 days of inventory. And when you’re going in and putting these parameters in, you’re just Your pie is getting smaller and smaller

Sarah Karakaian: because these guests are logging into the OTA or your direct booking site doesn’t matter and They’re searching for their dates and you’re not coming up. You’re not coming up. You’re coming up as unavailable And so you can’t make money or you can’t quote unquote get bookings if guests can’t find you.

Mistake 4: Emotional Pricing

Sarah Karakaian: Mistake number four your pricing is based on emotion And not math.

Annette Grant: But I feel my price should be this. I feel I can’t charge anymore.

Sarah Karakaian: I could never get that price Annette.

Annette Grant: Right. I feel like this is my max rate.

Sarah Karakaian: I feel like if it goes any lower than this, then parties will happen.

Annette Grant: [00:15:00] We are, and again, I can share that I was at fault for this. And I’ve done this in several areas of my life. But we take so many of our money stories and impress them upon other people. All travelers, and that’s not fair.

We don’t know why they’re coming, what they’re willing to pay, the value that we are bringing forth, and that’s why we need the data over the drama here. The facts over the feelings.

Sarah Karakaian: Yes. So a component of pricing with emotion and not math or data is maybe the more correct word. We see it in people selecting their base rate.

So what is that base rate that the algorithm is then going to base the rest of the pricing off of? And. The cool thing is with data, it’s like you don’t have to guess. Like, literally the market will tell you what the booker is willing to pay. Or then we see hosts setting these arbitrary maximums, and you are literally, and we see it, we, [00:16:00] we are not exaggerating.

We see it happen all the time. Hosts preventing themselves from making money.

Annette Grant: So true. And here’s an analogy I want to give. Just talked to a host the other day who had a maximum inside their dynamic pricing because they felt that that was the most value that they could give to a guest. And I wanted to share, I want all of us to think about hotels and their dynamic pricing.

And hotels are normally a square room. One to two beds and a bathroom and maybe a mini fridge. And they can fluctuate in pricing anywhere from 119 a night to 1, 000 a night. And they have no qualms with like having that pricing fluctuate that, that way. And you know why they can and they do, and I’ve gladly paid all of those rates.

It’s supply and demand goes back to basic economics. And why is the guest coming to town? It’s probably high demand and [00:17:00] there’s not enough places to say, and they could command that rate. And I want you to think about your property that same exact way. And I actually want you to think about it even more because as hosts, we have so much more to offer than a hotel room. You have maybe multiple bathrooms. You have a living space, a kitchen. You hopefully maybe you have free parking. Can I talk about free parking versus valet parking

Sarah Karakaian: or garage parking? Yeah,

Annette Grant: so much more to offer our guests and letting with those high demand times are in your market You need to let the algorithms help you and you can’t we don’t want you to have a maximum on your price because Again, like Sarah said you are just under earning leaving money on the table.

So you want to remove that max

Mistake 5: Operating Out of Fear

Annette Grant: Mistake number five, you’re, you are operating out of fear instead of strategy.

Sarah Karakaian: It’s starting to feel like the default is to not trust our guest.

Annette Grant: And it should be reversed.

Sarah Karakaian: And it [00:18:00] should be reversed because I can tell you, do we have bad guests from time to time? Yeah. But, I mean, you have bad interactions with people from time to time.

Whether you’re at the grocery store or you’re at the doctor’s office. I mean, that is just Yeah. The makeup of humans. And if this is your default, you are just going to be making bad decisions.

Annette Grant: Yeah. So we see hosts rejecting legitimate bookings because it quote unquote feels suspicious.

They’re overcomplicating house rules and basically turning guests away by the all caps as they’re yelling at everyone and just you guys have seen all the social media where hosts are just putting way too many rules and then way too many checkout instructions. It’s like, wait a second. Do you even want us here?

Sarah Karakaian: Right. Or everyone’s trying to scam you and so therefore I gotta put all these different blockers in place. And it’s just like,

They’re not, you’re not making it easy on yourself.

Annette Grant: You’re asking for, um, people to write you [00:19:00] why they’re coming. You know, you want to, you want this whole, like, laundry list of why they’re coming, who they’re coming with, when they’re coming.

Sarah Karakaian: Why would you want to book my place? What, you know, and it’s just like, yeah, there are ways to put parameters in place. We absolutely want you to have a structure. to make sure the right guest is booking the right property because that is going to ensure a five star stay. We want you to have safe practices so that the things that happen within the four walls of your home are legitimate and legal. I mean, we’re not discounting the terrible things that we’ve heard in the news, but those things aren’t They’re not what happens on the day to day. Most of the time, guests are incredible human beings.

Annette Grant: Right, and think about yourself. I always like to tell everyone, like, certain parameters that people have into, um, on their listing, like, I wouldn’t even be a guest of theirs. I like instant booking. I don’t want to have to tell somebody why I’m coming to town, and I think I am an amazing guest, and they would just, I would [00:20:00] never even ever see their property because, They don’t have those, they don’t have Instabook turned on.

Sarah Karakaian: And here’s the thing, just a little tough love, if this is your default, you really gotta ask yourself if this is the right industry for you. You really do because it is a hospitality based industry, and when someone comes out, reaches out to you about staying with you, your first instinct should be like, oh my gosh. Absolutely. I am so excited for this. How can I wow them? Not, oh my gosh, they’re probably trying to scam me.

So at the end of the day So many hosts are failing because they’re coming from a place of fear and a place of letting their feelings dictate their back,

Annette Grant: their business and

my business owner.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Annette Grant: And so what we want to do is, um, Take what you’ve learned today, hopefully you have notes from all this, and take one small action on each of these areas. We know that your photos can be improved, we know that your pricing can be improved, your calendar, look at your calendar, let’s have a real look at that. Let’s think about [00:21:00] just your mindset about your pricing, about your calendar, about your guest. A little self reflection here can go a long way, and we know just small tweaks, just some of these small tweaks can really change the game for you.

Let us know are there some hacks that you’ve tried? Maybe they were successful, maybe they weren’t, but we want to hear, you know, what you’ve tried to do in the past to increase your bookings.

Sarah Karakaian: And with that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: I’m Annette Grant and together we are Thanks for Visiting. Talk to you next time. [00:22:00]