The Greatest Opportunity in Over a Decade

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Hey there everyone. My name is James. I'm the author of Airbnb for Dummies. And in today's video, we're going to be doing another listing breakdown.

If you haven't seen this, this kind of now turning into a series on our channel here yet, basically what I do is I go ahead and I go on Airbnb, I check out some listings and I do a full listing breakdown to kind of dissect some of the pros and cons of different listings, look at the good, the bad, the ugly, and just get my feedback on a listing overall.

So we're going to jump into the computer here in a second. And I'm going to go through a listing that was actually submitted as a response to the last listing breakdown video that we did by a viewer named Masha so he she submitted the link to her property and so now I'm going to be doing a full breakdown on that listing.

Now, a great note for this is that if you are a host, you have a property right now and you would like my feedback you'd like my thoughts, my critique on your property, you want to break it down in one of these videos and getting my feedback like to do for Mattia, then just comment down below this video and let me know just comment and give it give me a link to your Airbnb listing and I would love to do an Airbnb listing breakdown similar to this one here.

Also, if you liked this video, please please please give it a thumbs up just take a quick second now before watching the rest of the video, just click that little like button in the bottom right hand corner there, a little thumbs up, it helps me a lot with YouTube's algorithm. So if you could do that, I would really really appreciate it. Also, if you're new here to the channel, please consider subscribing. We have videos that we get we publish twice every week. Sometimes we have bonus videos like this one that's even more than the twice weekly videos.

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Without further ado, let's go ahead and jump onto the computer here and we'll break down a listing from Mattia so We're looking at matches listing here. This so the first thing I want to look at is the title that's always the first place that I like to look. Urban cottage MD so I have really no idea what that what that means like that doesn't really tell me much it doesn't.

Is it a cottage where's it really located like it says urban but it says urban cottage. I'm kind of wondering like, it just doesn't tell me much about the listing and then MD I have no idea what that means. So it means completely nothing to me. So that I would say is like a big opportunity. I think that there's definitely an opportunity.

This is one that a lot of hosts I see overlooking kind of stepping over is the the listing title. Keep in mind that between that your price and your initial cover photo, those are the three things that that guest is going to see before they actually click through to your listing.

And so if you like number one, having a fantastic cover photo. And by the way mashes cover photo here I really like it. It does a great job of highlighting the space. The space is staged Well, you can see it's got the nice pillows, it gives you a good shot where you can see like the living room, it's got a pull out couch there, you've got the kitchen there as well.

You can see it's got this like cool little attic feature with a ladder up to it, I assume there's probably a little banged up there. Really cool, like really cool highlight of the space. I love it. I think that that's a great choice for the cover photo. So that's one of the things that a guest is going to see before they actually click through to the listing, the other one's going to be the price and then the other one is going to be the title.

So that's why the title should give you some details as a guest about the about the actual listing and I recommend using all the characters you have available in your limit matches only using a few of the available characters here and he's not really communicating any kind of value to me as a guest if I if I'm just searching for this on Airbnb and I see it come up.

Urban cottage doesn't tell me a whole lot. md tells me absolutely nothing because I'm not familiar with location I assume it's referring to something to do with the Washington location. But I don't know that. So I would recommend something like for example, cozy cottage in the heart of the city if it's in the heart of the city or cozy cottage in x location.

Cozy cottage with attic loft in XYZ location cozy loft with fireplace in XYZ location. Like I can see here that there is a fireplace I can see there's an attic block, I would look and I would go down here's exactly what I would do is I'd go down to their views, and I would go through and look oh, you're surrounded by nature and yet just a two minute drive from National Harbor.

That's really cool. Okay, so that's a great location. And I would go It was such a pleasure stay with Masha Calvinists beautiful. So without being instructed and stuff she decorated. It was very cozy a bit cold. Yeah. Okay, and then I would Yeah, so I would basically go God feels surrounded by nature. Yeah, so people love that. It's that it's surrounded by nature, but also right near the National Harbor.

So I would put, I would put like cozy cottage surrounded by nature, near the heart of the city. Like that's along the lines of what I would put, because that's what guests seem to love the place. And if I say it's cozy, then they get an idea of the aesthetic. You get the idea of the vibe cozy cottage, surrounded by nature. Okay, but in the heart of the city.

Oh, wow, that's really cool, right? You might want to like I would look through more of the reviews there and I would see our people mentioning the fireplace and they love it. There's a fireplace. If so, I'd consider putting that in my listing description or in my in my headline story. Another thing that you can do it's a really, a really great tip is to use abbreviations when they're abbreviations that everyone knows.

So MD, I have no idea what that means. So I wouldn't recommend using that abbreviation. But if I if I put for example, Urban cottage, two minutes are two minute drive from I wouldn't put two minutes I would put two men drive right keep it short because you do have a character allowance in your title. So there's abbreviations you can use. Like bedroom br bathroom bt minute m i n, those sorts of things.

Everyone knows those but stay away from ones that people aren't necessarily going to know. So that's my that would be my big pointer on the on the headline there. Now let's look through the photos because that's like I always say that's the next the that's the most important thing for your listing is your photos. The cover photo being number one, right away.

I love the cover photo and I love that Marcia has 46 photos, I can tell she's going to give me a full walkthrough of everything. She's probably going to highlight a lot of the big features of this space like just the space itself, but also show some of the amenities that she's gotten the kitchen because with 46 photos, I would probably I would expect to see like some close ups of some of the amenities and I'm going to get so that I can really get a good picture of what I'm getting which is awesome.

more photos is better, always in my opinion. So another shot so I can see from an angle this is good. Okay. Yeah, I can see from another angle I like that this the order already I really like because I can see that this is just another angle of the of the space. So now my kind of question that I have here is like what's behind this? And then answered right there it's answered right like I don't have to wonder anymore. Really cool.

My other question would be like what's up there in the attic? So I hope that that's gonna get answered pretty soon here as well. So yeah, this is a really good job of highlighting space. Like I said, boom, you're getting you're getting a highlight shot that shows you one of the amenities. So now I see Oh, it actually is a wood burning fireplace and she's got wood right there. And you can actually use it amazing like that is really really cool.

And something that I love that Masha did a good job of actually highlighting in the images that now we can see. Okay. That's exactly what that is no more questions about it outside shot. Cool. I would probably show a little bit more of the inside first but yeah, like this is good. I like that, like, obviously is a selling feature it seems like so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna dock any points for that. It seems like people really love the location.

So I think keeping it in disorders, there's nothing necessarily wrong with it. And again, I like that this is gives you kind of a nice nighttime shot, but I love that these shots of the inside are clearly done during daylight. That's something that people often miss. That is a huge, huge, huge mess up. A huge mistake is to have your photos inside be shot during the nighttime or really anything other than like peak daylight hours. That's a huge mistake.

You want to be bright, spacious, especially the smaller space like this, you really want to be photographed when it's as bright and spacious looking as possible. So, all right, we got some more close ups. Yeah, I think I think that right now like these photos. I like that they're in here. I don't recommend taking them out.

But I Still have the question what is up in that attic? And I'm really having to like flip through photos to get like, Where's the bed? Like what is up in the attic right? Like, it's really taking me a long time to get to that. So I don't love that so much in here I like like i'd maybe get you can do with that one of one of these kind of photos. I want to know more about what amenities I get.

So I can see there's a coffeemaker there, I can see there's a toaster oven there, I can see it. There's a microwave there. So those are good. This doesn't really add anything to me. I can Okay, I can see here that that there's like a burner, but most people like I know that a lot of guests wouldn't necessarily know what that is. So they'd assume Okay, there's no cook talk. But it looks like that's just a plug in cooktop.

And I would definitely recommend if now there might be one already in the in the photos here to come. But I think a close up shot of that so people can be clear on what that is. And then putting a folder description. I think putting descriptions in have photos of like, exactly what we're looking at here can be really helpful so that people know oh toaster oven. Oh coffeemaker. Oh, and she's like written right down there. So, yes, don't have a close up of that.

Still looking Okay, that's cool. Like, you got to close it with that shot. I like the bathroom. We're kind of jumping back to the sink now, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't I wouldn't recommend having that photo in here. I don't think this photo is super necessary. Again, like I really just want to know. Okay, wait, is this the is this the bedroom like, is this is this the only bed here? I thought there was something up okay.

There is something up in the attic. Okay, so yeah, so it takes until photo 25 for me to see where I'm going to be sleeping. That I don't like at all. I would put this a lot further up in the photos. So the guests can very quickly see the main points of the space.

There's a lot of filler photos here, which again, like I don't think it's bad to have, because as soon as you what I think is important to keep in mind when you have when you're looking at your photos is you want to give, do you want to answer all the questions that a guest is going to have as quickly as possible? And then you can keep answering those questions again and again.

And you can keep on like, like if a person wants to if a person gets all the info they need, they'll stop flipping through the photos, right? So I don't think there's a lot of harm to be had with having too many photos, unless you wait until photo 25 to answer a really important question, because then suddenly, it's like I had to flip through all these filler photos just to figure out where the bad was, then it becomes a harm but if you put that photo the bed further up in towards the beginning, vow suddenly I don't have to flip through a bunch to get my questions answered.

And if I want to get more if I want to look at more photos, I can if I don't I don't have to So that's what I would that would be my feedback here. Another thing that I'd recommend that I would say is like a lot of people overlook actually doing the bed up properly. So if you have bedding I think it is nice that Masha photograph this as a as a polo, which is good.

Because now I can see like I knew when I first saw it, it was a pullout but a lot of people wouldn't know that I just know exactly what couch This is because I've used this couch in many of my listings. It's a phrase from IKEA and I know exactly which one it is so I knew that but a lot of people wouldn't know that that's a pullout. So for photographing it fully pulled out into bed form is a really really good idea.

So that people understand that however, I'm still left with the question is there actual bedding or am I expected to sleep on throw pillows and on like this this rough couch material underneath like two blankets or is there like an actual proper do a proper bedsheet, proper pillows like that sort of thing? So I still don't know the answer to that.

So if if you do include that sort of stuff with your listing that I'd recommend keeping it. Yeah, I'd recommend having it in the photos, rather than just some throw blankets. And then again, because that was that happened before this photo, the bedroom, I'm thinking that that's my only place to sleep. And it would i would like there's a risk of me as a guest getting to this part.

I mean, like, oh, it doesn't even have a proper bed. No way. I'm gonna go book this other place that I already have opened up in another tab ready to go right? That's what you have to be thinking of, is you really want to answer these questions before the user flips over to another tab finds another property that does meet their needs and then books that so let's see. Yeah, the bathroom. I'd love to know more. Okay, cool.

This, again, is something that I would have way further up in the photos 28 to figure out there's a shower, right, I shouldn't have to wait until like with a with a listing this small. I shouldn't have to wait until photo number 28 to see if there's a shower. So you So to consider just moving these things up these photos up this I think again like I would have this out like in an earlier photo because this is really cool there's like a little outdoor shower there if this is near the water I'd be really interested in that. I don't know what this would be used for but I just think this is cool. I think it's a cool feature. I would have this further up in the photos. This photo as well I would have further up in the photos this one I would replace the nighttime with because it's just a better photo in my opinion. Back interesting. Yeah, this again like this is a great feature. This is amazing as an amenity I would have this further up. Also just because if you look at those reviews, like we looked at, the guests are really commenting on like you're right out in nature. It's beautiful that you're out in nature, that's something that people really love about this property. So I would focus on highlighting this again, it's like it's taking until photo number 35 for me to see what it seems like just based on a couple of reviews that I checked out is a big selling feature of this property. So I would put that further up. Overall though, the photos are great, I would just consider the order I'd put more time into considering the order the photos appear in. But the photos are really great. I think that all the bases do get covered eventually, but just not necessarily in the right order. As a cover photo, I think this one's good. I would honestly maybe even split test it like I would I would run a test and see how well it performs with this as the as the car photo versus Where was the one that I really liked the one the the outdoor one that is really good at features. I think it's number 38 if I'm not mistaken 3538 Yeah, like this one. This one, I would even try it, I would just give it a shot. Try that one out. I don't know how well it would do. But this might be worth really, really having as a feature photo as the as the number one cover photo. And the way that I run those tests, by the way for anyone wondering is I would just put it up for a week and see how my property performs. I make sure that it's not like the change like from I want, you want to make sure that you run this test when you know it's going to be pretty consistent bookings from week to week and consistent views from week to week, you don't want to run it at like the end of August when you know that the difference between the last week of August and the first week of September is going to be a really drastic shift because it's the end of summer. Now, that's not true of all markets. I'm just using that as an example. But you don't want to run it at that time. But as long as it's like, you know, for us, we know that in Toronto, like the second week of June versus the third week of June, there's not typically going to be much difference. And so if I switch my cover photo in in between those two weeks, then I can just look at the stats on my listing and see how many people visited my listing on the one photo versus the other. That's the main metric that you want to look through is like what's your click through rate and how many people are actually clicking through because that's the main thing that your your cover photo is going to get to differentiate like that's the one that's going to impact. It's not really gonna impact your booking rate. It will like longer term, but it's but the first thing you want to look for in that first week of the test is just to see how many people actually click through your listing. So okay, now let's go a little bit further in here. You've got your description. Okay, I think that there's a lot, there's a lot of missed opportunity here in the description. Simply because, like, I already know from looking at this, that it is not, it's not going to give me a ton of information. Like there's just not that much written here. And then the other thing is that it's one big paragraph. I don't want to read this. I don't if I have questions about it, like right now I'm wondering, okay, does that TV have Netflix? Right? That's one of my first questions as a guest is I want to make sure like, is there internet here? It looks like it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Like, is there good, good high speed internet. And then I go, I look like there's Wi Fi but like, is it actually good? I don't know. Coming into our spacious tache cottage lounge on your private back deck overlooking private Parkland forest, a real urbanist fake and escaping an excellent location just a few blocks away. From the MGM resorts slash casino National Harbor and shopping, that's really good. I like that. Across the river from historic Alexandria and antennas from Washington, DC, great first solo adventure couples and friends up to four guests enjoy the seasonal Russian style steam house. That's really cool and personal wood burning stove if you book in the cold months, okay, so, a couple of things here, I would have a I always recommend breaking your listing description down into sections. So I would have a section here for like amenities and then I have a section for location and then I have a section for four bedroom one, I'd have a section for bedroom two, I'd have a section for kitchen, I have a section for living room, and that way if anyone has any questions, they can just really quickly find the answer to that question. So for me, if I Want to know is there is there good high speed internet there I would find the amenities and I would look under amenities it would say high speed internet or wouldn't and I'd be like cool, I've got my answer my question. If I want to see if there's a TV here I just go and I maybe I didn't see it in the photos. Maybe I want to know if it has Netflix. Maybe I want to know if there's cable. I just go into the living room section. I can see it I would also put that in the amenity section because it is an amenity as well. And so I have it in both so that no matter where I look, boom I can find exactly the information I need. Is it a king size bed, the queen size bed, a double size bed? I don't know the answer to that. I'm going to go into the bedroom one section and I'm going to find out it's a queen size bed, boom done. I want to know if there are if there's proper bedding for that pullout sofa. Because it says that you can sleep up to four guests but is there a proper bedding for it? I don't know. I'm going to go two bedroom two slash living room whatever you want to put it does whatever you want that headline to be. It's going to say pull out couch includes all bedding includes proper bedding dubay pillows. Boom, I got my answer there. So like, that's what your listing description really does is once the person has clicked through to your listing, that's the job of the headline the cover photo and the pricing, then a person's click through it. Now the first thing they're typically going to do is going to be the look through the photos. That's where your job is give them the information they need for their those like first couple questions that they have. Wow them with some really great photography, sell them with it, like make them really fall in love with this base. And I think you did an okay job with that I already shared where I think there's some missed opportunity there. And then your listing description is really just answer any of those remaining questions. So they go and pull out their credit card and book, right like that's the job the listing description. I think this listing description very much falls short of that, just because there's a whole bunch of opportunity to answer more questions that I have. And another thing is like, enjoy the seasonal Russian style steam house. Where is that? I want that. I love that. That's a huge sale. feature I would literally I'm telling you like I would book a property and I'm actively looking to book a property that just visit like whenever I travel somewhere specifically that has a sauna, or a steam room or a hot tub. Those are literally amenities that I look for. And I will book a property just because of them. So if you have a Russian style steam room, that is something that like, for some guests, you're going to really want to highlight that you should at the very least have it in your photos. I think it should be closer up again to the front of your photos because I think it is important. I would have it in an amenity section that really calls it out. I would maybe even put it in in the in the title. Like if you're finding the guests actually like it and they're using it. I'd put that in the title. So I think that just having it slipped in here into one little sentence there that I would probably even miss if I book this place, I think is a huge missed opportunity. Again, I think you gave some good information about the location which is nice. I would highlight the I would highlight it into its own Sort of section there i think is a good idea. So you can have it in specifically a location section and just providing more information answering more. Yeah, answering more questions the space men's from DC setting the word location. Guest Access pleases the managers guest gets to walk to the guest house. Other things to note no fire logs in the stove. Which I want more clarity on that like as a guest I want more clarity on that. Are you referring to this stove like I'm not allowed to start a fire because if you're saying that I can't start a fire in that stove, then I don't think it's a very good idea to have to have this. This photo in here that like really made this one's not bad. I would probably recommend just like not having the fire actually burning in there if it's not allowed. Certainly this one with the wood beside it like I'm I think that I'm booking this place that has a wood burning stove that I can burn wood in So if I'm not allowed to, I think that that should be more clearly laid out and I don't I think it's a little bit misleading to have the photo here of a wood burning stove but then say you're not allowed to burn wood in the stove. Again that might be that I'm just misunderstanding this maybe maybe you mean something different by it. If it if it is if it you do mean something different than I'd recommend just being really clear about that because this like couple of words doesn't really give me a full answer to my question my concern about this. So basically, where I would be at right now as a guest is I'm going to message Masha and I'm going to ask her a number of questions. I want to ask you about Netflix. I want to ask about this about this. about this, this seasonal sauna. I want to ask about steam house. I want to I want to understand Can I use the steam room? The steam house in any season, it's just better for cold months, or is it only available during cold months. I want to see what it looks like. I want to know what exactly it is. I want to know, can I use the wood burning stove? Especially if I'm booking here during the winter? Those are all questions that I want answered before I book. And so I'm going to now message macho with questions rather than just booking the place. If those questions were answered for me as a guest through this listing alone, then I would just go ahead and book it. So I think that matches probably leaving a lot of bookings on the table by just not highlighting that stuff effectively in the listing here. amenities, I'm going to assume that that matches properly listed all the amenities here. That's a pretty simple thing to do. So that's good. The calendar here it looks like we've got we've got pretty much all our days open. So good to see. Let me see. Actually, I want to see how far in advance matches open up our calendar. Okay, that's really good. I like to see that it's opened up far into the future. You can see it's opened up like over a year into the future. So that's awesome. I think that you're leaving a lot of money on the table if you if you only have it open for like an extra one or two or three months in the future, because you're not going to get people booking further out in advance. But that's good to see. Reviews wise, amazing, obviously like this place it looks like and I can tell from the photos like Masha cares about the space, she does a good job maintaining it. Like It, it, it looks like it looks like a space that someone actually very much cares about. So I think that's really great. Oh, this is cool. This is really awesome to see that Robin comes up twice. He stayed in two different on two different stays. That's great to repeat guests regarding the location. I think Masha knows the location better than I do. So I'm going to let her comment on. I'm going to assume that whatever this green spaces here isn't like a big attraction. This park isn't a big attraction because it wasn't mentioned. If that is a big attraction, you're really, really close to it. So I'd consider mentioning it but I'm going to assume Based on just knowing the area better than I do that the areas that she highlighted were the most desirable areas that people care the most about. Yeah, so that's those are basically be check in after 2pm checkout by 11am. So checking with lockbox building stuff, that's really good. Yeah. I love all that. Free cancellation for four years. Yeah after that cancel up to 24 hours before checking and get a full refund misers fee so that's going to be a challenge for Marsha because she's got a very flexible she's got her cancellation policy set to flexible Now if this is just in light of everything going on with like all the craziness right now then I am all for that because I do actually recommend having your cancellation policy set to flexible given what's going on in the world right now. People want that that flexibility. However, if that's where Marcia normally has it set at I would recommend against that I recommend having a strict cancellation policy. See, in normal circumstances, just because if you have guest canceling last minute, you're going to be leading a bunch of money on the table. And we've we've run different tests with it you are going to you are going to perform better having a strict cancellation policy. Yeah, that's basically my breakdown. I hope this has been valuable to you. So again, we jump out of here. Again, if you if you liked this video, give it a quick thumbs up. Overall, I would say that Matt has done a good job. She's got a lot of room for improvement, I would say just in in a couple of those things that I mentioned. But overall strong listing I think it'll do it's got a lot of potential beautiful space, like definitely nothing i can i can comment on negatively around the actual space, the way that's decorated the way it's set up clear that Masha really cares about the space and obviously her guests given that she's got 252 reviews and a 4.95 star rating. That is phenomenal. Like I think I would imagine that on the guest service side of things the you know providing a good service a good quality state of gas matches both blowing out of the water. I'm going to leave the link to this listing in the description below as well so that if anyone wants to check out Matias listing and go and visit it, if they're in the Washington area, then I'd recommend it, I'm gonna leave a listing link below so that you can do that. Otherwise, if you have your own listing that you'd like me to do a breakdown on similar to this one here and give you some feedback on it and really just kind of do a full breakdown full dissection of everything that I love, everything I don't love, then just leave a link to that in the description or in the comments down below. Again, if you liked the video, please take a quick second, all it takes a second just click the little like button down there. bottom right hand corner there helps me out a whole lot with YouTube's algorithm. So if you could do that, I'd really appreciate it. If you want more videos like this, then click that subscribe button down in the bottom corner there and subscribe to the channel to get notifications when we post new videos twice every single week. And as always, if you are interested in more if you want to learn more about how to make your property perform if you want breakdowns like this have your own property on a regular basis if you want feedback like this if you want to know all the different tips and strategies that we use both in the front end of things, but also behind the scenes, things like pricing automation, things like, like your guest satisfaction processes, things like cleaning processes, literally all that stuff, you want all of our best strategies for exactly how to make your property an absolute beast, a top performer in your market and do it in a way that's sustainable, that's actually really enjoyable and fun with hosting still, then check out the link below to the free training we've got that's going to walk you through step by step how you can become a top performing host in your area and do it with a lot of fun, a lot of ease. So if you want to learn more about that we've got a free training link down below or myself and my business partner Simon are going to walk you through everything step by step, it's going to really dig in depth on it. So if you're interested in that, then just click the link down below to learn more about that. And otherwise, I will see you guys all in the next video.