How to Get Bookings on Airbnb (New Listing)

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What's up guys, it's James here and in today's video, I want to talk to you about how you can get bookings on a new Airbnb listing. Specifically, I'm not gonna be talking in this video about how to set up the Airbnb listing. We'll cover that in other videos. But I want to talk about when you first launch a new listing a brand new listing, how do you get initial bookings in there, you know, when you don't have a bunch of reviews when you don't have a track record? And how do you make sure that that listing succeeds long term.

Now, this will be a really valuable video for you if you are looking to launch a new listing as a host, or if you're wanting to get into managing other people's properties, and earn a full time income doing that on Airbnb. And this is going to be an invaluable skill for you to have because you're going to be launching multiple listings. So that's what we're going to talk about today's video before I dive into that, if you are interested in getting started with hosting, or if you're interested in earning a full time income managing other people's properties on Airbnb, then you'll want to check out the description down below, I've got two links there to two different free trainings that you can check out that will help you to do one of those two things.

So I've got one training linked in the description down below, that's going to walk you through how to become a top performing host on Airbnb. And then I've also got another link in the description to a separate free training bars, that's going to walk you through step by step by step exactly how to build a business and earn a full time income managing other people's properties on Airbnb, so be sure to check those out as well. And with that out of the way, let's go ahead and get started.

Now, when you first launch a listing on Airbnb, a lot of people kind of misunderstand what the goal is, what you don't want to focus on initially is maximizing your your prices. And that might seem kind of silly, you might be thinking, Well, hey, James, I want to be making as much money as possible on Airbnb. So I definitely want to maximize my prices. But you're actually going to be leaving a lot of money on the table if you do that. And I know that sounds totally backwards. But let me back up and explain a little bit.

Whenever a new listing is launched on Airbnb, Airbnb algorithms are basically looking for a few different things. And they're making measurements and those measurements and assessments that they're making are going to impact how your listing performs long term, to put that really, really simply and put it in a practical light. All that means that when you launch a new listing on Airbnb, Airbnb search algorithm is trying to determine do people actually want to book this property. And if it determines that people do want to book this property, it's going to show it to more and more people.

So you might have experienced if you've launched a listing before on Airbnb, that you get an initial boost of searches, and you probably get an initial boost of easy bookings. But then a month or two down the road, whether or not those searches and those search results. And those bookings continue is dependent on how well your listing did in the initial phase. Because initially, Airbnb sends you a whole bunch of traffic to your listing, and you don't actually turn that traffic into bookings, then Airbnb algorithm is going to learn well, people don't really like that listing so much. So we're going to show them this other listing instead, because it's more likely that they're actually going to book that place.

On the other side of that coin. If they send traffic your way, and a whole bunch of books, then you're teaching airbnbs algorithm that people absolutely love your space, and they want to book it. So in the future, after the first few months of testing is over, everybody's going to know that and their algorithm is therefore going to present your listing to more people, you're going to show up higher in the search rankings and get more traffic. So by lowering your prices slightly in the beginning, you're giving Airbnb algorithm a whole bunch of data to show them people want to book this place, because obviously more people are going to book your book your place at a lower rate.

And then if you on the other side of that increase your price too much, when you're first getting started and you don't get enough bookings, then you might get those bookings, the few ones that you do get at a higher rate. But long term, you're not going to get as much traffic to your to your listing and you're going to get fewer bookings overall. So what you want to do is start with your pricing lower and then gradually increase it over time will yielding all that traffic, you want to get the traffic and make sure that you have the traffic there to stay and then start gradually increasing your prices. Another tip is to make sure that you have your listing perfectly set up before you launch I have I've run into a lot of people that often think okay, it's actually best if I just launched this listing right now with some okay photos, and the place isn't quite furnished the way I want it to be. But I'd rather launch it now as opposed to waiting another week.

Because if I wait that week, I'm going to be losing out on potential bookings. That's a very backwards way of thinking when you actually think about what I just shared with you. Because what's going to happen is yes, you're going to have an extra week of potential bookings. But what you're going to sacrifice in exchange for that is tons of bookings in the long term, because your listing isn't going to perform as well during the initial testing period as it possibly could have. So for that reason You want to make sure that your listing is dialed in, it's properly set up your photographs are amazing on the listing, and that all your pricing and everything is optimized right from the get go when you first launch a listing, the other thing I highly recommend is that you don't stress too much for the first two or so months, the first two or so months of your listing, you're not going to have a whole bunch of opportunity to get those booked.

The simple reason is because you pretty much rely on last minute bookings. If I open up a listing right now for the month to come, then the only people that can book any of the dates in that month ahead of me are the people that are looking less than a month in advance. Whereas if I have dates opened up three or more months in the future, then I'm going to be able to capitalize on people that are looking further out in advance to book their travel as well as capitalize on those last minute Booker's down the road when the dates come. So for the first two months, don't expect to be hitting your top tier performance thresholds that you might be aiming for or exceeding them just focus on getting more bookings in if you can, don't worry so much about your pricing. So you can set your listing up for future success by month three, four and five, that's when you should really be hitting the top tier performance. And it's quite easy to do that as long as you have the right system.

So again, if you're interested in learning more in depth, what that system looks like how to properly price your listing. And you know, if you're looking to build the business, how to actually get clients let you manage their property on short term rentals so that you can do this for them, then just check out the links in the description down below to those free trainings that I've got put together for you, they're going to walk you through everything step by step, go over everything in complete and full detail. Now, those are some of my top tips for launching a new listing, it's really, really important to remember that when you're launching a new listing, you have to make sure that it performs really well. Because what's essentially happening, the way I like to visualize it for people is that you're being dropped kind of Midway up a mountain, and it's up to you whether you actually stick there and hold on or whether you slide back down.

If your listing doesn't perform well during the first two to four weeks of your lifting being live, then you're effectively sliding all the way back down the mountain. And so now you have to work hard to climb your way back up. Whereas if you do perform well during those first two to four weeks, then you get to claim that spot halfway up the mountain already. And then you use the next couple months to climb the rest of the way to the peak and of your listing performing as well as it possibly can. So it's incredibly important to have things dialed in to make sure you get started on the right foot because it's going to put literally 1000s more dollars in your pocket over the next couple months here as your listing continues to perform well versus taking that money right out of your pocket if you don't start on the right foot.

So again, just check out the links in the description down below. If you want to learn more about the step by step process, and or if you want to earn a full time income managing other people's properties for Airbnb, this is one of the most valuable skills you can have whether you're hosting your own property or managing for others. So I hope this video has been valuable for you. And I hope you check out the free trainings down below. They're going to go through things in a lot more detail.

Until next time, I'll see you in the next video. And if you'd like to stay up to date with the channel, then please just do two things quickly click that little subscribe button there so you can stay up to date with the channel we do post two new videos every single week, all about how to help you perform well on Airbnb. And you can also just give this video a little like give it a thumbs up hit that like button. It does help me out tremendously with the YouTube algorithm and it means you will be more likely to see our videos when they come up. So I hope you've enjoyed this video. I hope it's valuable to you and I'll see you in the next one.