Optimize Your Listings for the New Airbnb Categories | Airbnb Updates 2022 | Tim Hubbard

Airbnb makes it really easy for us to put our properties online. In fact, it only takes a few minutes and they spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising our properties for us. So that's pretty awesome. But it also means that they have a lot of power over our listings and who sees them. So when they make big changes to the way people make searches on their website, it affects us. So that's what I want to talk about this week on the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. We'll discuss investing in real estate, but with a specific focus on short term rentals. Quick actionable items to acquire, manage and scale your portfolio. I'm your host, Tim Hubbard.

Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. I hope you're doing really well out there. I hope your short term rentals are staying booked and I hope you're adding more. I'm sure you've noticed by now that when you log on to Airbnb, there's a new way to search. You can search by categories and there's a lot of categories on there. In fact, there's 56 different categories that Airbnb has divided up millions of homes with. So I want to go over some of those today and some stats, like how many are in certain categories, some things for you to be aware of in terms of how you might get your listing into one of those categories. I want to talk about just why the search was added to Airbnb, the top three questions that hosts are having in regards to these categories and how they affect us. So I want to get into all those things. But before I do, I just want to talk real briefly, give you a real quick reminder that all short term rentals are different and they have different risk profiles. Which means if we're investing in a short term rental property, we really have to consider this. I did an episode. You can go back and check it out. Episode 116, comparing vacation rentals and more urban type property. Because they're all different. They have different, just to name a few. They have different average lengths of stay. They have different booking lead times. So sometimes people are booking these properties further out in the future versus, you know, maybe tomorrow or the next day. Some of them have better financing options with the bank. Some of them are more recession proof if we happen to go into one of those. So go back and check out that episode just as a good little primer if you're still looking for your first short term rental. So there's some really interesting categories in here among these 56. And now Airbnb now has 6 million listings online. That is a ton. That's split among about 4 million hosts. And of course, we're adding more and more all the time. I want to just break down some of the actual amounts of units in these different categories. So I'm sure you've seen they've got everything from castles to yurts. If we look at the actual numbers, and this is recent, as of the recording, they've got about 2,600 castles on Airbnb. That's pretty cool. That's quite a lot, right? But remember, if you own a castle and you are 2,600 listings out of 6 million, and Airbnb is putting you at the very top of the search results, that's going to really, really help you. So if you can make it into one of these categories, it's going to really help you. We'll talk about a couple things we're looking for here a little later in this episod. Those are pretty common, right? They've got about 240,000 cabins. Now, I don't know the exact metrics that this data was pulled from, but this is pretty General. Tiny homes, 60,000. Again, I don't know exactly what equates to a tiny home. That could be like under 300 square feet or it could be slightly more. Caves. They have 750 caves. That's pretty cool. Windmills. This is the lowest one on the list. So if you have a windmill you and you found yourself in this category, I bet you your windmill is staying very, very booked. As of the recording, there's 190 windmills on Airbnb. So there's some really interesting categories. I'm sure if you've gone on there, you've seen the big potato, you've seen the yellow submarine, you've seen all these. And so these categories were created to inspire us to get people traveling more, trying new options. I've stayed in a lot of Airbnbs, personally. I've been staying in Airbnbs for probably over since 2012, I think, so very, very long time. Started investing in them about seven years ago. And most of you know if you've listened to this show for a while, that most of my rentals are more typical urban type properties. They're not super exotic. But I have stayed in some really cool ones. I actually just booked one in Sofia. Does anyone out there happen to know where Sofia is? If you do, write in and I will send you $1,000. Just kidding. I'm sure some of, you know, it's in Bulgaria. So going to Bulgaria, I'm gonna go do some Eastern Europe travel. I'm really excited. Of course I'm gonna be staying in some short term rentals. So I'll have some good feedback for you guys later on in the near future. So the search was created to inspire us to showcase some of the really cool listings that Airbnb has and to sort of bring back this experience. How Airbnb started, it started more as an experience based company versus just a pure accommodations play. So I think they did a really good job with the categories. Of course there was a lot of pushback. I'm gonna get into the top three questions us hosts have had since they released this search change. But just to recap real quickly, there's 56 different categories and there's not, at the time of this recording, a way to just put your listing automatically in the category. Of course, if you know what the category offer, if it's a castle, for example, then make sure you're using and you happen to have a castle, then make sure that you're putting that information in your listing, in your pictures so it can get recognized by Airbnb and hopefully you find yourself in one of those categories. So we've had a lot of questions since this came out. Actually, when it came out, this was a new way to search. So one of the big questions was the ability to not be able to search by listing titles anymore. And they took that away, but they've added it back at the time of this recording. So they do listen to us. We do, after all, run their business. So I'm glad that they have their ears open. And I really do think that Airbnb is a good company. I really stand behind what they've done. They've opened travel to the whole world. So if you have a property and you're not seeing it in the categories, it may be that you're just in a seasonal place. It could be the economic conditions and your property is just not visible because of that. Again, at the time of this recording, there's not a way to just put your property in a category. Although I'm sure that there will be some updates in the future that are going to give us a little more insight into how we can do that. But until then, we can easily see what these categories are. You can go on Airbnb and check them out. So if you think any of yours fit in there, but you're maybe not using the same lingo they are, well, then I would make sure you change the lingo, change any photos you need to change any amenities you need to, to best fit this specific category as best as you can. And that will definitely up your odds. So just a quick recap of the 6 million listings that Airbnb has. They've broken a lot of those, not all of them, into categories. 56 categories, actually. Everything from an OMG category, which could be the big potato or the submarine, to a castle. And now what? I recommend buying a castle so you can get it in to that castle category. Well, maybe if it makes sense with the numbers. Right? We always talk about the numbers. We are here looking at potential investments. So if you can find a castle and you can run the numbers safely and conservatively and it makes sense as an investment, then by all means, go ahead, pull the trigger on that castle. I think that would be an awesome property to have. But of course, castles have a little more risk, right? Please go back and check out that episode 116, if you haven't already. There's different risk levels with all different types of properties. And if we go into some dark times and we have a recession, a lot of disposable income goes away. Do you think more people are going to be staying in castles? Probably not. That's sort of a vacation type property. It's a unique experience. Right. And with only a little over 2,000 on Airbnb, I bet it's a pretty high nightly rate. So if you haven't seen the categories yet, jump on Airbnb, check them out. There are some really cool ones on there. And hopefully if you have a property that fits another one of these categories, you see it in there sometime soon. Hope you're doing awesome out there. Until next time, have a fabulous day. Want to get on the fast track to financial freedom through short term rentals? Well, it all starts with the properties you acquire, but you want to make sure that you acquire the right properties. Properties. I want to give you my ebook that will show you how to do just that. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. Just go to restmethods.com that's R E S T methods dot com.