Ronni Bartles from Bookful explains how to rank higher on Airbnb and other OTA sites. Professional photos and a fully completed listing matter most because OTAs boost complete profiles in search. Write descriptions that tell a story about the experience, not just list features, especially for millennial travelers who spend around $5,000 yearly on travel.
Questions this video answers
About $5,000 a year.
Bookful — a free property management software for short-term and vacation rentals.
Chapters
I mean, you've been doing this for a while. I know the product is new, but you've been doing this for a while and you can see a lot of things that people are doing. What would you say from the time that you've been doing the research on this? What is the biggest mistake that you see people make when they come to list their properties on these OTAs?
I think the biggest mistake they make is that they go into it thinking, okay, I have 10 minutes. I'm going to take these 10 minutes and just get it up. As opposed to really taking the time to think about what am I actually writing, what am I actually putting. I'm finding that travelers are different now than they used to be. They're very savvy. All the research is showing that millennials spend more on travel than any age or generation. They'll spend anywhere from about $5,000 a year just on travel. And they're big on experiences. That's what they really are looking for. They're looking for an experience. I do think photos are really the crux, particularly on Airbnb. Look, you just can't get away with amateur phone photos anymore. You've really got to invest in some professional photos and it'll come back to you twofold for sure.
So when you talk about in the blogs that you wrote, staging, staging your short stay properties, is this what you mean about that? If you could just delve into a little bit more. What does staging mean?
Staging as far as, like, making sure that you have everything in the property that a guest is going to want or need, but not overdoing it. I think that one of the things that we talk about in a lot of our staging blogs is to get rid of the clutter. We do it in our, in our homes, we do it everywhere. But get rid of all the stuff you just are personal to, you really need. They don't want it too much clutter. They want more space. They want the necessities they need, but they don't need all the other stuff.
All right, welcome everybody to the Boost Hospitality podcast. We are in season seven, episode five, and in this episode we're going to be talking about how you can optimize your OTA listing to make sure that you can stand out from the crowd.
Sam. So I actually, I live in Charleston, South Carolina, and today I'm visiting in Savannah, Georgia. We are definitely a southern company, but we're very lucky to be in Charleston. And so Bookful is a free property management software for short term and vacation rentals.
Where are the majority of your customers? Where the majority of your clients would you say? From around? Is it very much America based or is it everybody in all areas of the world?
Really? It's. To be honest, it's everybody in all areas of the world. We've been really surprised because we are, you know, a small company. We're brand new. We just launched. We've been a company for a couple of years, but just launched the software.
Last month that I read. And the topic is how to stand out on those crazy busy ota. So when I say an OTA for those who don't know, it's booking.com, it's Airbnb, it's Expedia, it's Home Away. We're really going to delve into that. But before Bookful, what's, what's your personal career? How did you get to book for? Where were you beforehand? Just sort of shed us a little bit more light into that, please. If you don't.
I come from actually the marketing research background, So I spent 15 years in consumer behavior research, the marketing side of all of that. And so I spent many years in that and then kind of ventured off on my own, did some consulting for some small B2B, a few things that were retail as well. And about almost three years ago, a friend of mine came to me and said, I have this opportunity, I think you might be really good at and really like and enjoy. And so they persuaded me to come onto Bookful. I was hire number two. So that's been really nice to be able to build that.
So the first thing that we're going to go on and Ron, if you could just delve into this a little bit more, you've had a really good blog on the Bookful website where you talk about listing quality. And if you could just delve into what listing quality means for me and just explain it in simplistic terms just so everybody can get on board what.
We'Re talking the listing quality on any OTA is really going to dive into one. You're a really good headline, a really great description. We're obviously going to talk about photos, that's always a big topic, and really making sure that your listing is completely filled out. Because in the algorithm of all those OTAs that is actually weighted within that algorithm is making sure that your listing is filled out. So the higher quality that you have on that listing, the more likely you're going to show up in a search for somebody that is looking for your area, your neighborhood, for specific times that you have availability.
I mean, you've been doing this for a while. I know the product is new, but you've been doing this for a while. And you can see a lot of things that people are doing. What would you say from the time that you've been doing the research on this? What is the biggest mistake that you see people make when they come to list their properties on these OTAs?
I think the biggest mistake they make is that they go into it thinking, okay, I have 10 minutes. I'm going to take these 10 minutes and just get it up. As opposed to really taking the time to think about what am I actually writing, what am I actually putting. I'm finding that travelers are different now than they used to be. They're very savvy. All the research is showing that millennials spend more on travel than any age or generation. They'll spend anywhere from about $5,000 a year just on travel. And they're big on experiences. That's what they really are looking for. They're looking for an experience. I do think photos are really the crux, particularly on Airbnb. Look, you just can't get away with amateur phone photos anymore. You've really got to invest in some professional photos and it'll come back to you twofold for sure.
So. But when you talk about in the blogs that you wrote, staging. Staging your short stay properties, is this what you mean about that? If you could just delve into a little bit more. What does staging mean?
Staging as far as, like, making sure that you have everything in the property that a guest is going to want or need, but not overdoing it. I think that one of the things that we talk about in a lot of our staging blogs is to get rid of the clutter. We do it in our. In our homes. We do it everywhere. But get rid of all the stuff you just are personal to you. You don't really need. They don't want it. Too much clutter. They want more space. They want the necessities they need, but they don't need all the other stuff, really. I've been using this term quite a bit lately with a lot of people. When you go into your property and you're looking to design it or stage it, you want it to be Instagram worthy. Like, that's how people judge where they're gonna stay anymore. Can I post this on my Instagram? You know, because everything there is beaut. And so it's the IKEA world of being Instagram worthy.
Instagrammable. Hashtag Instagrammable. Is what I noticed. I spent a lot of the first part of 2019 in Bali, and a part of Bali is called Shangu. And every villa, every restaurant, every cafe, every bar has got something in there that is Instagrammable, whether it's a big flowery wall or there's something pink flamingo ish. And you've got to do it because you want to make your guest walk in and go, that's going on my Instagram later.
Exactly.
Which crazy is in the world we're in. But like you say, millennials are the ones that are dictating this travel industry right now. And next it's going to be the Gen Z. This is what you've got to sort of pay attention to when it comes to Airbnb, which is different to booking.com, which is different to Home Away. What advice? Let's focus on Airbnb for a minute, because I think Airbnb is just going to grow and grow and grow in popularity over the course of the next few years. What would be some of your advice when listing your property on that platform compared to all of the other platforms that are out there? What do you really have to pay attention to with Airbnb?
I think that on Airbnb, the top things to really pay attention to are good quality photos that are very modern, light and bright. The other thing I think that is very important on Airbnb is when you're doing your headlines and your description of your place to really tell a story. So if you create your description like it's a story, like you're telling the story of your place, why it's yours, why you love it, what's the uniqueness about it? That's when you can really stand out. I mean, you still need to kind of like, give the basics of what everybody needs to see, how many bedrooms, how many baths, all that kind of good stuff. But people want to feel like they're in that experience already and get excited about going to it.
