If you own an Airbnb, then it’s likely that you must have invested some reasonable capital into the business. Airbnb is a platform that strives to make travel more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
They verify personal profiles and listings while also maintaining a hitch-free communication system for hosts and guests.
Airbnb is particularly popular with travelers who require a place to stay whilst on holiday, which is why their closest competition is the bed and breakfast industry.
This line of business requires huge start-up capital and operational cost hence it is expected of investors who operate Airbnb to employ all the needed strategies that will make people patronize the business.
Having said that, here are 10 practical tips you can employ if indeed you want to boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb and of course maximize profit from the business.
Ways to Boost AirBnB Occupancy Rate and Maximize Profit
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Create and Promote Special Packages on a Regular Basis
One of the ways that you can boost occupancy for your Airbnb is to ensure that you come up with promos that will be too tempting for customers to resist and at the same time will not deep into your profitability.
For example, if your Airbnb offers additional services like access to washrooms, laundry rooms, recreation halls and playgrounds et al.
You can package them together with the accommodation for a really great deal that encourages guests to book your Airbnb.
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Partner with Key Stakeholders That Will Help You Attract Customers
Another strategy that you need to adopt if you want to boost the occupancy of your Airbnb is to ensure that you partner with key stakeholders in and around the location where you have your Airbnb or target market.
You can partner with travel and tour companies, corporate organizations, and social media influencers who have the capacity to send clients across your way.
Note that you can reach an agreement with them on the percentage they stand to get when any customer comes through their referrals.
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Develop Mailing Lists
Develop mailing lists of your best weekend customers and stay in contact with monthly emails listing weekend gateway special offers and promotions. Remind them that weekend is the best time to visit local shops and attractions; away from the weekday crowd.
Mail them weekend discount vouchers too. You should also endeavor to print out flyers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities, and train stations et al.
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Spend More on Advertising and Promoting your Airbnb
If indeed you want to boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb, you must be ready to spend money to be in the faces of your target audience.
You are expected to advertise your Airbnb facility on national dailies, local TV, and radio stations. You are expected to promote your Airbnb facility online via blogs and all available social media platforms.
Make use of attractive handbills to create awareness and also to give direction to your facility. Position your signage at strategic places in and around the city where you have your Airbnb facilities.
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Offer Top Notch Services and Always Make Your First Impression Count
Making your first impression count positively to those making use of your Airbnb facility for the first time will no doubt help you boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb and also help you maximize profits.
The truth is that first-time customers will only return to patronize your services if they are impressed with how they were treated when they came for the first time.
If they are not satisfied, they may not come back again and may as well discourage their family and friends from patronizing your business.
On the order hand, if they are impressed, they will come back and as well recommend your Airbnb to their family and friends.
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Ensure That Your Facility is Top Notch
Another key strategy you need to adopt if indeed you want to boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb is to ensure that your facility is top-notch and always welcoming.
You must ensure that your facility is equipped with modern technology. Always make sure you pay attention to details in and around your Airbnb facility.
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Create Loyalty Plan
If indeed you want to boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb facility and also maximize profits, then you must be ready to create a loyalty plan.
A loyalty plan is a plan that will enable you to reward your consistent customers especially those that book your Airbnb facility on a regular basis.
As a matter of fact, it is easier for those who have benefited from your loyalty plan to become your brand ambassadors; they will be more than willing to encourage their family members and friends to patronize your Airbnb.
The bottom line is that you must make sure that you offer your customers incentives if you want to retain them and of course, continue to generate repeat sales from them.
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Make Use of Effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software To Effectively Manage Your Clientele Base
In order to boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb and maximize profits for the business, part of what you need to do to achieve this is to track progress, results, or outputs with the aim of improving on them quickly as the case demands. When it comes to managing your customers, and building a loyal clientele base, you should purchase a CRM software.
With a customized CRM system, you can easily stay in touch with your clients (you can carry out a quick survey, you can introduce new products and prices to them without any hitch, you can felicitate with them on their birthdays and other anniversaries, you can keep track of their progress, you can send bulk SMS and customized emails and above all, you can easily receive complaints and feedback from them).
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Diversify your Marketing Methods
Just like how your current customers do not match up to one particular profile, your methods to find new customers should also be varied.
In order for your advertising for Airbnb sales to be effective and have the furthest outreach, you need to be as digital-friendly and accessible as possible.
Most of your target audience will search the internet as their first resource when looking for an Airbnb to lodge whenever they are visiting your city.
The first rule is about attribution. If you have a client portal, you can have a custom integration done with the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and Google Analytics to report on how many leads are coming online.
Make sure to use Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMS). UTMs are tags that you can add to your website’s URL that will track where your online traffic is coming from.
When these are combined with your CRM in your facility management software, you can find out which marketing channels (social media, content, paid, etc.) are bringing you the most won prospects. No doubt, you will have members that don’t sign up online, and that’s okay.
But be sure to have your sales representative or front desk staff ask each prospect how they heard about your facility, and attribute the lead manually. Whether they came in manually or online, you will need a CRM to monitor the success of your business.
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Be Prompt in Converting Leads to Customers
You must ensure that all the hard work and money you put into your marketing campaigns helps in boosting the occupancy rate of your Airbnb. Make sure that your diverse campaigns all end with the same result: collecting and storing client information.
After collecting all client personal and contact information, ensure this information is funneled into your CRM system so that these promising leads do not become missed opportunities.
Since a good percentage of your leads will not immediately book your Airbnb facility for a variety of reasons, periodic follow-ups with deals and offers are a crucial sales strategy.
However, when these leads are stored with poor organization, prospective clients can be discouraged from booking your Airbnb if they feel annoyed by repetitive sales pitches.
This is easy to avoid by assigning leads to specific sales staff, who can then simply update the status of the lead over time.
In Conclusion;
There is no one strategy that fits all when it comes to ensuring that you boost your Airbnb occupancy rate. All you need to do is to put into practice all the points highlighted above and also ensure that you customized it to fit into your environment and the business model you are operating on.
The bottom line is to ensure that you keep improvising if indeed you want to continue to boost the occupancy rate of your Airbnb and maximize profits.