7 | Listing Your Space on Airbnb: Starting an Airbnb 101

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Today, we walk you through a real listing, step by step. We cover what you need to have to start the process, what you need to know about the prompts that come up, and share the answers to some questions that have come up in our own short-term rental businesses.

Listing Your Space on Airbnb

When you are listing your space on Airbnb, the first round is sort of a “quick start” – but you’re not really done yet. We encourage you to immediately go back and add some extra details so that your listing really shines, and we’ll walk you through both of those processes in this episode.

The very first thing is creating an account, if you don’t have one already, then going to the top of the page and clicking “List Your Space.”

Step 1: Start with the Basics.

This includes your place type, bedrooms, baths, location, amenities, and shared spaces.

• Even if you aren’t listing your whole space, you will want to say if it is in a House, an Apartment, etc. Afterward, you will be asked if it’s the entire space, a private room, or a shared room (think hostel style).
• If you want to be eligible for Airbnb Plus, you will need to have everything on the home checklist: https://www.airbnb.com/b/plushomechecklist. You don’t need to make this decision now, but you will still want to keep all of the things on that list in mind when you are preparing your space.
• You can get a free smoke and carbon monoxide detector from Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/trust/home-safety

Step 2: Setting the Scene.

This is when you will upload your photos (but you can actually skip this for now if you don’t have photos yet), describe the space for potential guests, and naming your space.

• We have an earlier episode dedicated to photography, if you want to learn more about getting the best possible photos to show off your space.
• The orders in which you put your photos is very important. Your first five photos should give potential guests an overall view of your space. After that, keep your photos organized by space (kitchen, bedroom, etc.).
• You can add captions, and we recommend using them because it’s your first opportunity to talk to your guests. Feel free to get a little romantic about it!
• After you upload (or skip) the photo step, you will be asked to write a description of the space. We want to highlight two sections of this description: how you will interact with the guest and highlighting the neighborhood. The former lets you set expectations, and the latter gives you another opportunity to sell why your space is special.
• Generally, don’t add a lot of adjectives or fluff. Get straight to the point.
• You only have 50 characters to name your space, and Airbnb encourages you to use every single character. That said, part of the title will be cut off on mobile, so you still want the most important info at the beginning. You also want to stand out, so look at some other listings and try to avoid common words: cozy, renovated, comfy, luxury, etc.

Step 3: Get Ready for Guests.

Airbnb will give you an overview of how guests will book (with graphics), you will set controls for who can book and when, and you will set your price.

• Instant booking is on by default, which will allow people to instantly book any available date on your calendar. However, if you’re not comfortable with that, you can also turn it off and review every potential guest. Turning it off can be a good option when you’re first starting off to familiarize yourself with the Airbnb process.
• We recommend marking all of your dates as unavailable during the initial setup, then going back in to update your calendar.
• Setting your price is a big question to consider. Your two options are prices adapted to demand (called Smart Pricing) or prices that are fixed. Airbnb will recommend Smart Pricing, and we also recommend using it when you’re first starting out (and you can go back and listen to our previous episode all about pricing to hear more of our thoughts on this).
• If this is your first listing, Airbnb recommends offering something special for your first guest – and we do too! You can offer 20% off, which will get your first guests booked quickly and your first ratings. You need three ratings before your review start to appear on the site, and that’s really important for keeping your space booked.
• At the very end of the initial setup, Airbnb will show you the local laws and taxes, as well as their non-discrimination policy. You need to familiarize yourself with all of this. Not knowing is not an excuse!
• Now that you’re done with this initial setup, you should go back in and update a few things: add a cleaning fee (if you try to put this into your base price, you will just look more expensive than the competition), add house rules, add your WiFi info, add information on local attractions, and more. The more information you can provide, the better. 

Resources:

• Have any questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]!
• Learn more at https://thanksforvisiting.me/
• Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thanksforvisiting_/
• Get a free smoke and carbon monoxide detector: https://www.airbnb.com/trust/home-safety
• Airbnb Plus home checklist: https://www.airbnb.com/b/plushomechecklist