Before we posted our Airbnb we had a lot of questions about what the Airbnb hosting experience was going to be like. I would like to give you a peek under-the-hood and show you exactly the kind of feedback and data the Airbnb platform provides. Stats are the star of this post. Here we go!
Welcome to the host dashboard. The performance stats are what we are going to take a look at today. The dashboard has a flash overview to let you know generally how you are doing. In the world of Airbnb, ratings and response rate are pretty important. In fact those two things mainly drive search engine optimization and also super-host status. In the world of Lauren and Kasey, the earnings overview is pretty important. Under the performance tab, we can look at things in more detail.
Reviews
Within the performance tab, we will start with reviews. You can see your rating, total number of reviews, and the latest reviews. What I find most helpful are the compliment badges. When someone rates you a 4 or 5 star, Airbnb prompts them to select from 7 compliments that made the space particularly great.The compliment options are stylish space, quick responses, thoughtful touches, sparkling clean, local tips, outstanding hospitality, and amazing amenities. We aim to check as many as these boxes as possible, however stylish space, quick responses, thoughtful touches, and sparkling clean all seem to be what guests have liked about our space. Amazing amenities is our lowest badge, so maybe some room for improvement there!
Earnings
The earnings tab, my favorite. So when you click on the earnings tab, it will show you your overall earnings performance for the year. Since we started in August, our total earnings show 5 months. The bar chart is handy and shows your max potential and also shows seasonal trends. Typically, winter in our area sees less bookings and you can see exactly how much with the chart. Another big stat that Airbnb hosts will use to judge their pricing is Occupancy rate. The general rule of thumb is if you hit 100% occupancy consistently, you should consider raising your prices because the market wants you baby! You can also see the range of the pricing per night. Airbnb has a feature you can turn on called smart pricing that adjusts the price per night depending on demand. You can adjust the minimum and maximum value to whatever you want, but Airbnb does give you a suggested range based on local pricing. For us we see the smart pricing shifting the nightly rate 3 to 5 dollars usually increasing on the weekends.Within the earnings tab, you can also look at a specific month. I find this helpful to get an idea of your specific minimums and maximums throughout the season. For us, October was hot and we hit 100% occupancy, where as December was less than stellar at 55%. From my previous market research, typically we see much higher occupancy in the summer, so when things warm up here in Pittsburgh and we will be watching our rates. If we see more like October, we can go in and adjust our pricing margins.
Views
On to the views tab. Honestly, I don’t track this one as much and from what I read within the Airbnb community, its not always clearly linked to outcome. A number around 4% is healthy, but even successful Airbnb’s sometimes are down around 1%. We have ranged from 1.5% to 3.9%. So far for us, it tends to be predictive of the next months success (for us people tend to book 1-2 months ahead, so that lines up). I imagine if you start seeing this slipping and your are also noticing less bookings, its time to take a closer look at your post. There are a lot of ways to optimize your post: improving your photos, making sure all of your amenities are listed, optimizing your title and description can all impact the initial impression. Airbnb does have a lot of walk-me-through ways to improve your post.
Superhost
The coveted superhost status. Superhost status is assessed every quarter. If you meet the criterion, you get the status. An airbnb superhost gets the following perks: superhost bonus (after 1 full year of superhost status you get $100 ABNB gift card), priority placement on searches, a profile badge to signifying status, superhost search filter (guests can chose to only look at superhost postings), an additional 20% bonus for referrals and priority support from Airbnb. The badge and search priority is really what superhost status offers. To get the super host you must rate over 4.8, you must have above a 90% response rate (respond to a new message or booking enquiry within 24 hours), a minimum of 10 complete stays or 100 nights, and less than 1% cancellation (as in the host cancels on a guest).
That sums up my peek behind the curtain into the helpful data Airbnb provides for hosts. For those who are new to Airbnb, looking into starting one or just plain curious, I hope we shed some light!
