If I Wanted To Get More Bookings On Airbnb, I'd Do This

In the description below, there's going to be two links. One is where you can give me your Airbnb listing and I may critique and audit you on a future one of these videos on this channel. The second is where you can join in a live 90 minute workshop with me that is going to be happening next week where I go through Airbnb direct bookings and how you can build your business on your own land. Now, in this video, what I'm going to do, if you give me a few minutes, I'm going to show you free listings that have been submitted to me for a roast. I'm going to walk it through exactly where they're going, right where they're going wrong, and the direct booking hack that so many people are missing out on their Airbnb and OTA listings. Welcome everybody to an impromptu roast. Your listing live. My name is Max Simpson, founder of boostly. Helped over 2000 hosts all over the world boost their bookings. And today I want to go through three listings that were submitted to me yesterday via email. And if you didn't get my email, make sure you're on the email list because every now and again I put a message out saying, hey, tomorrow I'm going to go live. I'm going to roast some listings. Send me a link. All these three people have done, Chris, Stacy and Nikki have sent me their listing. That's it. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give them a light roast, give them some constructive feedback, and then I'm going to show them some direct booking hacks everybody is missing out on, including these three, which is cool. So I can walk through it all and show you. What I'm going to do at the end. For those that stick around to the end is I'm going to show you the tool that I've been using to audit these listings that you can use for free. And I'm also going to walk you through some other cool things as well. So whether you're watching live with me now, I know we've got quite a lot of people jumping in because I'm live on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or if you're watching back on the replay, then you'll be able to take this hand. And even if I'm not doing your listing and if you would like for me to do your listing, this is only for the live people. Drop the link to your Airbnb listing in the chat. Let me know where you're tuning in from around the world also, as well, put the link to your listing. And if I get to it before my voice goes, then I'll, I will give it a quick audit. So what we've got, we've got these three listings. Don't even know where they are in the world. They're totally separate places. We're going to look at them all. I'm going to give some feedback and again, if you stick to the end, I'll show you exactly the tool that I'm using and give you a breakdown of how you can use it as well. So you don't have to wait for my next live to do one of these. So we're going to start off over in Montana. So this is Chris's property. It's called Anaconda Chalet, Ski Discovery, Fishing and Golf. Which you know, as far as the avatar that they are speaking to, I mean it's, it's pretty, pretty obvious, which is a testament to you over here, Chris. So Chris sent him his list and didn't really give any context. He just said, hey, come and give us a roast. So what is first and foremost before we go into what could be doing better? What is Chris doing? Well, so the title and the description, it immediately speaks to me where you are top attractions with the golf and the ski. And you know, it's, it's, you are speaking to your ideal audience right there. So if, if I am somebody who is up for fishing or golf, etc. Something that's in the, the outdoors, that mountain range shot is perfect. It's going to stop my scroll. Right. I also like with the listing as we go in that you talk about the arcade games, you know, the puzzles, the board games, the smart TVs, you know, every room feels like a major draw. So whether it's group bookings or families, these features are consistently highlight only in the images, but which is really important for 2026 for everybody in the reviews as well. So they talk about in the, in the reviews, which is what Airbnb really wants to see is from the real people that are staying there repeating and talking about what he talks about in the listing. So that's that that's the first little hack for everybody is in your actual reviews that you get from your guests if you want to get them talking about it. Fantastic. That's the first things first. And again, if you want to go look at this listing as you're looking at with me live, head on over to Airbnb, type in Anaconda Chalet, which is in Montana, United States, you can look at it with me at the same time. Now, where can we. Where can we look to improve? So, first and foremost, there is a good variety. So we've got a good, you know, a good bit of images. But also as well, what we need to see is, I think that it would. It's missing, for example, this one, if we could have it where it would be like a sunset shot. So just imagine sitting on this decking, you know, glass of wine, cup of coffee, can of pop, whatever, and have a different style of shot where this looks like it's done on your phone, for example, or yourself on a camera. If you can get a professional in to take this, this, this shot and have it as a sunset shot or a sunrise shot, I feel like that would absolutely be a much better one. I also feel as well that this living room shot here is a good one. But again, I think with a professional taking these pictures, they could make it pop a lot better. I do like that you've got this here and I do like you've got that there because then it is showcasing, obviously this time of the year for the guests are coming now, the, the skiing and this is obviously good as well, but maybe not having both. Having one or the other, not, not both is definitely a good route for this one. Obviously, we buy with our eyes. The consumers buys with their eyes, right? So if we click on show all photos, we've got the photo tour turned on. I've talked ple. And there is a video that is on this channel about the photo tour Airbnb hack, how you can have your cake and eat it. Because one of the things that everybody doesn't like about the photo tour, yes, Airbnb do, do give it a little bit of a priority in the search if you use that tool. But at the same time, you will have much better pictures that are all the way on the scroll down, down here. So what I would say, number one, go and watch that video on the Airbnb photo to a hack. And again, I'll reiterate this. I really would invest a little bit of money getting a professional photographer. There are loads out there, you know, they, they will make this property stand out way more than your DIY shots that you are doing right now. And again, the description. So let's go into the actual description itself. What you really want to do with these Airbnb listings is you've got to tap into where we are now in our human mind as we evolve. We do not read big blocks of text. Okay? We have got this tick tock Genification in our head. Big blocks of text like this will just put people off. So instead, what I would do here, take this, run it in a an AI of your choice and ask for it to turn the word in into a more easy to read format. So bullet points, super simple AI will literally put it into bullet points for you because it is dense, it's hard to really understand what you've got. And again, you've got such cool things going on here, it'd be a shame for people to just to scroll on by. So again, use any AI of your choice. I'm going to show you a tool that I used at the end of this video, so please make sure that you stick around for that one and it's absolutely free to use. It's a simple case of copy paste that gives you the result and paste it back in, which is even cooler. The other thing as well, and this is more of a safety thing, not having a carbon monoxide detector. So again, Airbnb really wants to make sure and this is the same for verbo booking.com but just for for all, is that they want to make sure that every list in every property is as safe as it can be. And one of the things that is obviously wanting to know is have you got a carbon monoxide alarm? Now, I don't know your budget, any of that, but in all honesty, I'd be looking to get one in there just because again, if this is a filter that is on Airbnb and if this is a filter that they're showing is not available high up on here, but it's obviously something that people are wanting, right? And it's a trust, it's a safety thing. And again, I don't know what the budget would be, I don't know how much it would be to install for your property, where you are, etc. Etc. But if you're looking to get the most out of it, if you're looking to charge, you know, a hefty sum per night, and if you're wanting to get more guests, families, then this will be something that they will pay attention to. So definitely, definitely look at doing that. Now, what I want to walk you through next is the direct booking hack that so many, many, many, many people miss out, right? And again, I don't know if you have got a direct booking website. I tried doing a little search on Google beforehand before going live. I couldn't find it. So again, this is for everybody and this is for you in particular. Go and grab the dark booking website the property has already been branded Anaconda Chalet. That's pretty cool. Then what you're going to do is you've got to give somebody an excuse to go and run a search online, like a Google search or asking ChatGPT or Google Gemini, et cetera. The best way to do that is in those first two lines of your copy. And again, you can ask ChatGPT to help you on this, but the one that I find works really well is introducing Anaconda Chalet, brought to you by whatever your business name is, located in Anaconda, Montana. Then, next line, check out our online reviews. They're really good. Or check out our online reviews and socials, right? Because then what you're doing is you're implanting into the brain of the person on your listing, the future potential guest, that, hey, I can go and check you out online. And, you know, you may be thinking, mark, who would actually do that? Well, 65% of all direct bookings come on the back of an OTA search. So if, let's just say 6.5 out of the last 10 guests that have booked direct with you have started their search on Airbnb, that shows that there is an appetite for this, to send them to Google. Right? They want to do this. Right. This is why tools like directo have been created. Because the traveler, the future potential guest, they are looking to book and book direct. Now, they definitely are up for it. They definitely are wanting to do it. You've just got to implant into their vision when they're on your listing that they can find you direct. Now, those first two lines there are absolute gold dust for this. You can also prop this in your Airbnb profile as well. So we're very lucky on on Airbnb that you get to add a description in here. So this is like your bio. Okay, so this is called it. You're talking about, you love Montana, you love Anaconda, you love goldfish and skiing. Instead, rewrite this to show off that you're a professional business owner. So, Hi, I'm Chris McKenna, owner and founder of Anaconda Anaconda Chalet, based in Montana. And then, whatever, check out our online reviews are really good. You'd be amazed at how many people actually read this when they're looking on your listing. Now, there is another hack. The direct booking hack is on your pictures. You can't throw up watermarks, as in put us into canva, have a little your logo in the bottom left hand corner or saying book direct. But what you can do when you get your pitches done, try and put into like the, the tabletop here, a little sign that says book direct and with an Instagram handle or your website, if you put it in the image, as in like it's like a, I don't know, somewhat on Etsy, like a placeholder or a book or something like that. Or in the, in the living room on the cushions, you can have it as well. Put your logo on it, put your brand name on it, put your website on it. People will see that because again, we buy with our eyes. I've said this three times now and I would love for you to see. To do this is booking a profess photographer. That is a fantastic drone shot, right? Really, really good. But it is outdone by just random pictures like this. So again, if you invest in a professional photographer, invest in carbon monoxide things this year and amending your listing, you will do better for it. So obviously you've come to me for a reason. I think the availability is looking a bit sparse. If you can do that, it will have an impact on you. Let me just very quickly jump over to one of my favorite tools that I love to see on this. Let me see if I can log in, Let me get logged in on Air DNA. I'll actually see what your revenue is looking like. Look what your predictions is looking like as well. Let's see if we can get quickly logged in on here. Okay. For those that are tuning in live, let me know what you think of this listing. I can see that we've got some cool comments in there. Tap tip number two, and this is in the comments, which is awesome. Chat GB2 is getting insane for picture adjustment professional photos. You could just take a picture with your phone and ask for it to adjustment a professional picture. Yep, you can do that. I'm a massive fan of that. But I also think you've got to be a little bit clever in how you analyze this because yes, you can do AI pictures, but AI pictures really stand out. And I feel like if we're getting into the realm of tricking our guests, people now are aware what an AI image looks like. Yes. For if you haven't got the funds, if you haven't got the budget, you could very easily, for example, take this picture, put it onto ChatGPT, Google, Gemini, whatever, and just say put a sunset in the background. But the end result is they do look like AI. Right? And it doesn't matter how good the prompt is, it doesn't matter how good the image is or the tool that you're using. If it looks like AI, your guests will know that it's AI. Right. And at the end of the day, you don't want to trick your future potential guest into booking something that when they arrive, it's not the same thing because that will just hurt you in the long and medium term. For short term wins. So yet using these tools, these AI tools, I have seen them, played around with them, talked about them a lot. But at the same time, I feel like if we're going to get into the realm of using AI to adjust an image, short term game 100 but medium to long term game could have ramifications. So going back to air DNA, got nothing on there for you. I'll come back and let a thing I've got to log in on another email for, for that one. But again, I can see there's tons of availability. Chris, I hope that you like this. Can we all please show Chris a little bit of love in the ch. It's not easy to get roasted. So let's move on to our next one. All right, we're gonna go in to Stacy. So Stacy reached out. Stacy, Stacy, Stacy. Where we got, we're moving over to Bentonville in Arkansas. So again, thank you very much, Stacy, for putting your, for putting your hand up. Before we go over what is not going well, we're going to move on to the things that you are doing well because I always like to start with the good one. And again, if you want to come and look at this listing with me, just go into Airbnb, type in bike in, bike out, two luxe patios in Bentonville, Arkansas. Right. Or Arkansas, however you want to say it. Okay, so what's doing? Well, so the niche positioning. The listing definitely nails its niche between bike friendly garage access to Bentonville trails, shout outs to Mojo Bike Rental as well, which is pretty cool. It's optimized for the areas, you know, biggest tourism driver and most importantly, the reviewers love it. And the language speaks directly to that crowd. So another one that has matched up what they offer with what they deliver and what their guests love. So a lot of these factors will take will pay into the Airbnb algorithm in 2026. So again, the reviews talk about what they offer, which is a big one. So again, if you're thinking, well, how can I get more visibility? How can this Airbnb listen be visible more, Think about your reviews, look at what's being said in the reviews, and then match that up to your actual listing as well. The next thing that you're doing well. You've got two lux patio areas and this is again what people talk about. Gas and solo stove, fire pits, grill, spacious layouts. The outdoor living is a big part of it. Now this was a thing that was loved and people loved about it. And this is going to be one of my things that a, you're doing well, but B, what we could do better is in these first five pictures you've got interior, interior, interior, interior, interior. The reviews and the people talked about the outdoor. Okay, so again, you've got two pictures here that look the same, just different angles. Change one of these to be the outdoor area where you've got the, the fire pits and, and barbecuing and the bits that people talk about. So let's just see here what we got. So these are all good. Again, you can tell you've used a professional, lots of pictures. And again, please go and check out the video about the photo to a hack because I've had to scroll a lot of the way down to get to the outdoor to the outdoor bit. So again, you can use one of these, swap that out, put that in onto, onto here. These first five pictures are key. And again go and check out the Airbnb photo tour hack how you can have it where you can have the photo tour but also as well showcase in the first five or six pictures of your photo tour your major selling points. Right? And your, your, your reviews will guide the way. Now what? One thing I will say is that the pictures that you have again are professional. They are bright, which is good, high quality, you know, and they do tell a story. So you've got your, you know, very cool setup. Your interior design is very, very cool. It looks nice, it looks chic. It's again, clean, which is an absolute basic that everybody should have, but well lit. And again it's got, it's got the element of bigger groups which 10 guests is. It doesn't feel like it's going to be cramped in any way, shape or form. So that's good. Well done. The, the other area for improvement that I would say is that the title. Now obviously you are speaking to your future potential guest here. What I would be looking to do is to have a little play around with the title. So we've got bike in, bike out, two luxe patios by dwtn, pet friendly. Try something along the lines of trailside luxury, two fire pits, pet friendly downtown retreat or bike in, bike out, oasis, fire pits, garage, walk to downtown. So again, have a little play around I can tell that you like to play around with the title because that does look like an Airbnb optimized title. Have a little mess around with them. Again, it just got to grab that attention. So, again, really good listing. I'd say probably an 8 out of 10, but try that. Let's have a little look at the. At the description. Again, the description is a bit bare. So again, what you can do is you can take this, all right? You can take all of your imagery, everything on your listing with control, and a put it into a tool like Chat GPT or Gemini, and I'll show you the tool that we used for your listing audit and just ask for it to give you more of a description based on what is being said in your reviews. 12 good reviews. And again, they're solid reviews that are giving you a lot of oomph. But what we need to do is we need to fill out the description. And again, the listing is very nice. Your pictures are very nice. But I feel like you need to be either leading. I think you need to be leading with an outdoor shot, right? What that outdoor shot is, you know, you're listing better than me. But I feel like, because it's very much about the exterior and about the. About things to do in the area. Bike in, bike out, have that first shot being around the experience and not the property. Again, this is like, this is all about active lifestyle meets relaxation. Active lifestyle here, relaxation here, group, right? So you've got to combine those three things. Those are your avatars. I feel like you need to be leading with that. If we go back to the Anaconda Chalet, that is like the experience straight off, the view in the background is like the money shot, right? That is what gets the attention. I feel like without me truly going through Bentonville and seeing what the other people are doing, I feel like if you were to lead with the experience, I feel like you'll get more attention of your listing. And again, I feel like what we could be definitely doing and you 100% are not doing, this is the direct booking tip. There's definitely no mentioning your listing. There's definitely mention in your bio if you have a direct booking website, I don't know about it. So what I would be looking to do would be a give your property a brand name. So whatever that could be. The Bike in, Bike out order, business name, we need a property name and a business name. And again, Chat GPT will massively help you with this. Once you've got that, create your direct booking website. Again, if you want Boostly to help you with that, go to boostly.co.uk b o-o s t-l y.co.uk, book a call of our team. We're more than, than happy to help you with this for, for this listing and any other listings that, that you may have. And also as well, when you have a direct booking website, I feel there's a super quick win for you to start growing your email list and getting more social attention is to put together a trail guide. Again you can easily do it with Chat GPT. You can turn it into a PDF. It's basically a lead magnet. So when somebody's on your website you can say hey John, our our trail guide, Eric's our top trails, our, you know, hidden secret trails. Give us your email address and we'll send it right over. And you can very sneakily mention that in your listing as well. So again, just like with with Chris's, it's introducing brand name, also introducing property name brought to you by brand name. Check out our online reviews are really good. We have a exclusive trail guide available online. So again, you can't say via our website because the Airbnb AI will flag that. You could try and get cheeky and say check out our exclusive trail guides on IG, which is obviously IG is Instagram. You can't say instagram.com forward slash, whatever your handle is, but you can mention IG and people will get it from there. But you got to try and take them from here to somewhere online. And again, the easiest spot and I'll, I'll just repeat it for you Stacy, as I did with Chris. First two, three lines of your description obviously in your property bio and you know, next time you have pictures done, pop them into your, into your pictures as, as well because again, you want to be sending them from here to Google to your website to grab that direct booking, that dial booking hack. There's so many of you don't do. So just to recap, I would be getting the experience as that main picture. Number two, have a little play around with the title. Number three, enhancing your description using Chat GPT 100 copy paste copy all copy paste into Chat GPT and ask for it to help you with, with that. Get a property name, get a branded name, get a direct booking website and and good luck. All right, let's give a little round of applause to Stacy. I love that. All right, we're gonna move on to our final one. Our final, final one. And again, if you would like for me to take a look at your listing and roast your airbnb listing in a future video. There is a link in the description below that you can tap on. Give me your Airbnb listing in that and I will hopefully or maybe do you on a, on a future listing. I'll pick all the names at random chat. GPT literally picked out these three here. We'll do that again. Okay, so we've done Bentonville, Arkansas. We've done Montana, Anaconda, Montana. Now we're going to head over to Port St. Joe in Florida. And this is Nikki's listing. Okay, Nikki. So first and foremost, let's have a super quick look. I didn't do this on Stacy, but let me have a super quick look on you. Nikki's got three reviews, five star weight and what Ron, you're hosting. Nikki's got two other listings which is, which is pretty cool. This one is like I say, in Port St. Joe in Florida, Nikki reached out to us and sent us her details. So let's go and have a look, shall we? Hear okay, so first things first, my notes, what we've got. What is this list listing doing? Well, it is hyper clear on the location and the distance. All right, so starting that, It's a true seven minute walk, not 19 to the beach, right? That is trust building. Charming, funny, unique. And it's this kind of like specificity or absolute on the nose. It reassures the guests how truly close you are to the water. So instead of just saying, you know, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever, seven minutes to beach and food trucks, that's pretty cool, do like that. You are also very spot on with your targeting. Whether you've done this by design or not is spot on. So for example, families and groups, again, you sleep nine, three bedrooms. You've obviously as well use chat GPT for your description, which is good. I can tell that because I've got emojis everywhere. So for those of you that are wondering with Chris what I'd meant when I said people don't read big blocks of text. That is big blocks of text. This is separating it with bullets so people skim read. So instantly I can see from this, it's king master bed, queen bed, full bed, two bathrooms, two and a half bathrooms, essentials provided, kitchen, dining room, living spaces. It's got two smart TVs, yada yada yada, right? Four cruiser bikes available, waiver required. So I can instantly see that. I still don't know what Chris has got because I didn't even try and take a look at his listing because it was just a big block of text. I can tell with yours that you have had a professional camera that you've used and has been professionally edited as well. They're well lit. They, you know, they showcase that airy, beachy design and they again, they highlight those core features. I feel like if it's missing anything you mentioned about the bikes and seeing that it is a seven minute bike ride or seven minute walk, I feel like one of these instead of being two of the bedroom shots should have been bikes parked up. Let's see if you actually got that at all. Scroll all the way down. Again, the photo to a hack. Absolute essential. Oh look, you've got it there. I think that would be amazing here or there. And also here's what I would do as well. I would take these two out, have the bike shot. But just like what Chris did here with this shot, it instantly shows where's this gone. It instantly shows the ski route, which is very cool. For first eyes, I would get a drone shot or get a map, a Google map shot. Or even better, you can go into chat GPT and it will create for you an image to show where your property is to where the beach and the food trucks are. And then you can just go, we're here, that's there, we're here, that's there. And it. And because you can show it and you can see it, people will look at it. Okay. And you can just enhance the reason why they clicked on your listing. So this is a cool shot. I think that's a cool shot. I would take out this one. On this one have the picture of the bikes. I like that. And then a picture of the map saying we're here, beaches here. Super easy to do. You can even do it on, on AI with Google imagery etc or Google Maps. Super, super simple. The other suggestion would be in the the title. And I can see you've tried to optimize. We only get a certain amount of characters, right. So I feel what we need to be doing is maybe changing it around a little bit. The two ones that the tool came up with was Coastal Escape. I like that. Seven minute walk to the beach, bikes deck, family friendly or salty air, sandy toes, walk to the beach, bikes gill grill and deck. That's pretty cool. It makes it stand out. That is such a cool picture. You've got the, the clouds up here. I think what we, if anything, what we could do is maybe have the picture of one or one or two of the bikes at the front here. Oh, they do bikes. Which is great because obviously you can re. Re Emphasize that there's. But next time you have that shot done, having the bikes out front is cool. I feel like having the bikes is going to be a unique selling point for sure. What else did I notice on this one? You know what? I really feel like your listing description is great. Again, there's no way for me to know if you have got a website. Again, this is a recurring theme. So again, let's give your property a name. Okay. Let's also give your business a name. And again we hire, we. We accentuate that and say exactly what it is in the title, in the description, in the description, not the title, in your property bio. And, and get people to book a view direct. Again, if you need a website, if you haven't got a website, boostly.co.uk come and book a call with the team. We'll all massively help you there. Because I had a little look and there was no way for me to even look to try and find you on online in any way, shape or form. I think the property name is pretty obvious to me. I think it is that Salty Air and Sandy Feet. So whatever the business name is, whatever you decide to call the business name, this is. This property here is Salty Air and Sandy Feet. So introducing Salty Air and Sandy Feet property located in Port St. Joe, Florida by Whatever your business name is. Check out their online reviews. They're really good, you know. And then you can go Nestle. Just two blocks and a true 7 minute, not 19 minute from St. Joe Beach. The home features a long private driveway. Etc, Etc. I can tell this is chat GPT because it's got the, it's got those M dashes there. But great. It shows that you are using the tools that are at your disposal to help get you an advantage. Okay everybody, fantastic work. If you want me to have a look at your listing, if you want me to roast you, look at the description below. There's going to be a link, follow that, put in your Airbnb listing and I'll maybe do you on a future one of these. And if you would like access to the tool that I used to audit and rank and rate these listings, check in the description. I'll put the link in there. All you have to do, go into this tool, paste in your description, paste in your information on your page and your reviews. It will take that and it will audit your page for you, which is really, really cool. And if you want to go back and watch the other video on my channel. There's one more video on there where I show you that the hack and the one tip that I'm going to give you in 2026 that's going to absolutely blow up your bookings and save you so much hours in your day. That is going to be on the description below as well. With that being said, thank you so much for tuning in. If you want me to do more of these, let me know in the comments. It's been an absolute pleasure. Have a fantastic week and I'll see you all very, very soon.