How to BEAT the Competition on Airbnb

Hey, what’s up guys? In today’s video we’re gonna be talking about how to beat your competition on Airbnb. Now the reason I want to do a video on this specific topic right now is because there’s so many people right now they’re talking about the oversaturation of Airbnb in the market right now, they’re still talking about Airbnb bust. And there’s a whole bunch of people saying that it’s just not the right time to get started with Airbnb and that you can’t make money anymore with Airbnb. And the thing I always like to remind people is that whenever there’s an increase in supply in the market or a downturn in demand, what most people envision happening in their heads is they think that all Airbnb hosts across the platform are going to get an equal share of the bookings. And so when there’s more listings, it means that everyone gets slightly fewer bookings. And people think that that means that as well. If there’s fewer people looking for properties to book that everyone sees a slight decrease in demand. And that just isn’t true. I invest in properties, I own a number of short term rental properties. I’ve managed dozens of short term rental properties. I’ve consulted at this point on 1000s and worked with property management companies, investors and hosts all across the world. And I can tell you, without a doubt with absolute certainty, that that is not what happens when there’s an oversaturation Airbnb market, or a drop in demand in Airbnb market. Not all hosts feel that that impact equally. In fact, the top 25% of hosts in any given market are almost not going to feel it at all. And we can see this by looking at the numbers, we can look at the data. And what you’ll notice is that if you look at the top 25% of listings in a given market, year, over a year, over a year, it doesn’t really tend to change that much one way or the other, those properties tend to be really performing well, no matter what’s going on in the market cycle, where you start to see a really big impact is when you look at that middle group, the properties that are in that 50th percentile range, those properties are the ones that get booked after everyone else. And so naturally, if there’s an increase in supply in the market, then those properties are going to have a worst chance of getting booked. And if there’s a drop in demand in a given market, those properties are going to have a worse chance of getting booked because the only time that those low performing properties actually get booked is when the high performing properties are no longer available as options. And so the name of the game, at any point in time, no matter what’s going on in the market, no matter where we’re at, is always beating the competition, certainly at this type of point in the market, where there are some markets that are oversaturated. And there is a decrease in demand from what we’ve seen over the last couple years and a lot of markets as well, the name of the game isn’t let’s go run out and get the next shiny object. There’s still tonnes of money to be made with short term rentals. The name of the game, though, is beating the competition. So I want to share with you a few things that you can do right now to outperform your competition. And make sure that you have a blockbuster year with your short term rentals, whether you own them, whether you manage them, whatever it might be, I want to make sure that you’re successful. And the way to do that is by beating the competition. Now, first and foremost, the most important thing that is going to really underpin every single one of the strategies I’m going to share in this video is you have to be a great host, meaning you have to actually care that you get five star reviews from your gas, and then you do what it takes to make sure they’re satisfied. Now there’s tonnes of nuance to that. And I’m not going to dive into that in this video, and share all the different nuanced situations of what can happen with hosts and guests, and how to deal with all of that. That’s something I dive into and other videos as well. But I just want to really make sure that said upfront is that if you apply all the strategies and tactics I’m going to talk about in this video, and you neglect to actually be a good host and make sure you satisfy your guests, then none of it’s really going to matter. So with that said and out of the way, let’s talk about some of the main things, the highest leverage things that you can do right now on your short term rental to beat out the competition. First and foremost, number one, is make sure you get professional photos and make sure those professional photos are exceptional. Not good. Not great, exceptional, because the number one thing that people use to sift through different properties when they’re looking for a place to stay on Airbnb and find the one they want to stay at is photos. If you imagine if they’re looking through the search results, what are they looking at? Well, there’s a little bit of text for your headline. So that is important. I’ll touch on that in a moment. But the most important thing they’re looking at I think that occupies most of the search result actual real estate on the search result page are the photos specifically your cover photo. So it’s super, super important to your photography is done exceptionally well, because a lot of the times great properties get eliminated from buyers, you know, ideas of like their shortlist, just simply based on poor photography. So you want to make sure that you hire a professional photographer, do not try to do this yourself. And make sure you get a photographer that specialises in and or is experienced with shooting Airbnb and short term rental property specifically, it’s quite a bit different from shooting other forms of real estate shots or other types of photography altogether. So make sure you have someone that knows what they’re doing, that’s going to be able to help a guest to envision themselves in that space and actually get the optics, they’re going to want to see the visuals they’re going to want to see in order to actually book that place, and pay top dollar for it. So photography is number one most important. And specifically, you want to really highlight your cover photo. And next after that you want to optimise other parts of your listing, like for example, your headline, make sure it’s a headline that grabs people’s attention and makes them want to click and learn more about your listing, don’t bother telling them about the things that’s close to like the neighbourhood that it’s in that nobody knows the name of who’s travelling there. Sure, if you’re in a really really recognisable area, like let’s say, for example, you’re in New York City and your steps to Central Park. Well, it’s a pretty safe bet that most people travelling in New York City know exactly where Central Park is, and know it’s an awesome place to be. But if you’re in some obscure city and you tell them it’s near a certain neighbourhood that they probably never heard of before, that’s not giving them information that is actually relevant to them, or is going to make them more likely to click through to that listing, you’d be better off highlighting things like your fast Wi Fi, the hot tub, you’ve got the swimming pool, you’ve got whatever amenities you have, that are really going to track them. If you’re nearby to a specific neighbourhood that has restaurants, shopping, etc. Don’t name drop the neighbourhood that’s not going to be meaningful to anyone say that your steps to restaurants shopping, the things that are actually attractive to that potential guest. So really try to cram as much of value into that headline as possible with the goal of getting people to click through to your listing. Now, once it clicked through the other elements of your listing that are super, super important, are going to be your listing description. And the photo captions, make sure that on every single photo, you have a caption that gives the guests as many answers to potential questions they’re going to have as possible, you want to give them all the information they’re going to need at this point. In order to feel comfortable booking your place without having a message you in advance with different questions they might have. The listing description should be no different use that first paragraph to really sell them on the place. But then what I like to do is convert over to bullet point lists that are going to give them all the information the key details that they’re going to be looking for. I like to break that down in terms of just the top amenities that are the most desirable and then go into each room specifically and highlight the different amenities in each room. That way the information is exceptionally easy to find. If a guest wants to know if you have a dishwasher, they just find the heading for kitchen and look to see if dishwashers listed there makes it really easy. And I find that a lot of hosts just revert to this big wall of text. And as a guest, you’re probably not going to read that. So just do away with it all together in forum in exchange for a nice bullet point list. Guys just want to take a quick break here to say that for those of you watching, who want to build cashflow, and long term wealth by purchasing Airbnbs and short term rental properties, there’s a link in the description right down below for a free training that will walk you through my exact strategy for investing successfully in Airbnb. Now, if you’re not ready to actually buy properties, and you want to get started managing other people’s properties on Airbnb the same way I got started and build a full time income managing other people’s properties. There’s actually another free training linked in the description down below as well, there’ll be a really great fit for you. So whether you want to invest in short term rental properties and actually build amazing cash flow and long term wealth by acquiring the assets, buying the properties themselves, or you’re looking to earn a full time income managing other people’s properties on Airbnb, we’ve got some awesome trainings that are linked in the description down below. That’ll definitely help you out. When you sign up for the trainings, we’re also going to send you a few other tools and resources completely for free just to help you get started. Again, the links to sign up are in the description down below. And both trainings and all the tools are completely free. So make sure to register for the trainings, links in the description down below. Now, the other thing that I think is really, really often overlooked or just avoided by hosts that don’t really know how to do it is pricing. Now it shouldn’t go without saying that if your property is priced too high, then it doesn’t really matter how great your photos are or how great your listing description is because the competition is just going to be a much more reasonable option for anyone looking to book so unless you have some unique factor that. It is so sought after in your market that it really sets you apart from the competition puts you in a league of your own, you want to be in alignment with what other listings are listed on in terms of pricing. Now the best way to do this is to look at sites like err DNA, or use tools like a target occupancy rate tracking spreadsheet, which you’ve got linked in the description below where tools like price labs or other pricing software’s. The reality is you cannot price your property effectively with your best guess or emotional pricing. You can’t just look at Airbnb either to see what other properties are listed for. Because all that tells you is the pricing of properties that haven’t yet been booked. And it tells you what the pricing is after Airbnbs markup not before it. So that’s going to lead you astray, you want to make sure you have a good solid data driven pricing strategy. And I’ve talked about this tremendously at length in other videos. So make sure you check those out as well if you want to learn more about exactly how to set up a daydream pricing strategy. But that’s just another one I had to absolutely Mention this video, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that, hey, if your property is priced out of the market, then you’re just not going to get bookings, no matter how good your listing is, you’re not going to beat the competition. Now, if you price your property too low, you can still get bookings over your competition, but you’re still gonna be leaving money on the table too. So that’s not a great option either. Now, once you have those things dialled in, you’ll be far ahead of most people. One other tip that I always recommend to people is make sure you go into the back end of Airbnb and select all the different amenities that your property has go and get exhaustive, it’s gonna take you 30 minutes, there’s a huge huge list of all the amenities you can check off. The thing to remember though, is that these are often searchable. So if people are specifically looking for properties with that given amenity, they might go and take it off. And if your property doesn’t have it specifically checked off as an amenity on Airbnb is Doc, and then you probably won’t even show up in those search results. So make sure you’ve got all that done, that’s really going to go and make sure that you’re one of those top 25% listings. Now I can reach, I can assure you that if you do all of that, you’re going to have a property that gets booked far more than most people in your market. And you’re really not need to worry too much about competition, the freedom that gives you as it means now you don’t have to worry about what’s going on in the market around you. You can pay attention to it, you can use it to influence your decisions, but it’s never going to be a make or break situation for you. If you can beat the competition, there’s always going to be demand for short term rental properties, you’re going to be the one that’s going to capture it. So if this video is valuable for you if it was please take a half a second and just hit the like button right below this video. It helps you out tremendously more than you ever know with growing this channel and getting these videos in front of more people. So please take just half a second and hit that like button give this video a thumbs up if you got any value whatsoever out of this video. If you want stay up to date with the channel we post two new videos every single week here all about how to succeed with short term rentals and Airbnb. So make sure you subscribe. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. I know a bunch you guys watching aren’t yet subscribed. So make sure you hit that so you can stay up to date with the tuner videos we post every single week here on the channel. Last but not least, if you have any thoughts, questions, anything you want to share with me, let me know in the comment section down below. With that being said, thanks so much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.