Top 3 Challenges with Airbnb Management
Increasing numbers of Malaysian homeowners are earning extra income through Airbnb, but this isn’t without its challenges. Know what to expect going in – and have strategies in place for handling commonly experienced issues – and you’ll be better equipped to run a successful Airbnb business.
1. Competition
With an increasing number of units being listed on Airbnb every day, it is important to know how will the constant addition of new places to rent affect your ability to consistently get bookings. If you’re a new host, identifying your competitive set is crucial to determining your initial base rate and how to market your listing. By doing so, it will give you insight into the constant movement, rates, and supply within your area.
When building or updating your listing, photos, headlines, or descriptions are three important factors to attract guests’ attention. Look for common words or phrases used in the titles and descriptions on the most booked listings. These words or phrases could be landmarks, or nearby transit options. The constant growth and change of Airbnb will definitely affect the future performance of your listing. Analyzing your competition on a regular basis will help you make adjustments to book more and earn more as well.
2. Guest Management
As guests are paying for the privilege of staying in your home, it’s reasonable for them to expect certain things in return. However, some guests may be unreasonably demanding – and this can easily eat into your time, Airbnb earnings and patience levels! Worse, you might encounter guests with the attitude that they've paid for it, so they can break it. Others might even host wild parties that leave your place in tatters. Therefore, the best way to manage demanding guests is to create a list of house rules outlining what you will and won't do. Leave it in a prominent position in the room or, better still, list in clearly on your Airbnb listing. That way, there won’t be misunderstandings or arguments.
You’ll have to coordinate with your guests so that they arrive at your home smoothly and if throughout their stay they have any issues, you should be available to help them out and answer any questions they may have. Doing all this not only helps your guests feel comfortable, they are also more likely to leave a positive review on your listing. On the other hand, power outages, faulty appliances and Wi-Fi interruptions can have a disastrous effect on your guests' experiences of your Airbnb home too. The speed at which you respond to an emergency is crucial and determines whether you get a good, bad or indifferent guest review.
3. Algorithm
Although Airbnb hosts can control how often and at what price they are booked by guests. For example, they can change their profile title and description, modify their listing’s photos, or offer discounts. However, demand from guests is highly affected by how Airbnb represents hosts on its platform. For instance, when Airbnb guests search the site to reserve accommodation, the order in which different listings are shown in the search results could affect their likelihood of being booked. Successfully catering to the algorithm's quirks can mean the difference between a top-ranked listing that is seen by countless guests, and an also-ran rental that remains buried at the bottom.
Airbnb is a purely organic search engine and this means there is no “pay to play”. Airbnb’s algorithm cannot be gamed by paying more money. As a long-time professional host on Airbnb, we have gained experience and explored a ton of the Airbnb ranking factors. Most hosts are interested in growing their short term rental business and the best way to do that is by optimizing your listings to satisfy the needs of both the search engine and the guests. Hence, it is important to indicate things like listing quality, trip experience, ease of booking, and guest preferences in your listings. The higher your listing is on the search results page the more bookings you will receive.