10 Strategies to Get More Reservations on Airbnb in 2025 – Tips to Receive First Booking & Become a Superhost

Let us guess: you are struggling to get your first booking on Airbnb? Or even more serious: you want to get more reservations and become a super successful Airbnb host? If you ask questions like these, you have probably tried all the strategies and tactics that you know, but nothing seems to be working. You updated your apartment, invested money and time, but nothing is taken off. You are just stuck, aren’t you?

It is no coincidence: the extraordinary growth of the sector in the last decade has provided many opportunities, yes, but for this very reason the competition is increasing and more professionalized. We have considered it necessary to share our experience as hosts with tricks and tips. Here’s a detailed action plan to turn things around:

How to Get Your First Airbnb Booking?

Let’s assume that you have no reservations on Airbnb. Getting your first one can be a challenge. The platform favors those who already have reviews, but there are a few proven strategies that will help you attract guests faster.

1. Properly design your listing

First impressions count. Potential guests are looking at dozens of options, and your job is to make your property stand out from the competition.

Pay special attention to the titles and descriptions

The headline is the first thing a guest sees when browsing through the options. It should be bright, specific and sell your unique advantage. What to write:

• Uniqueness of the accommodation (loft, studio, villa, apartment);
• Main advantage (sea view, city center, pool, parking);
• Additional bonus (terrace, Wi-Fi, jacuzzi).

Examples of successful headlines

• “Stylish loft in the city center + free parking”;
• “Cozy apartment by the sea – ideal for couples”;
• “Villa with pool and BBQ area for large companies”.

If you want to learn more about writing proper titles and descriptions for your apartments, you should read our article on this topic.

Don’t skimp on quality photos

Guests look at photos first; if they are of poor quality, there is almost no chance of booking. High-quality photos are a guarantee of trust. Hire a professional photographer or use good lighting and a wide angle. Be sure to add photos of:

• Main photo – the most attractive angle of the room;
• Living room – if there is one, show its coziness;
• Bedroom – show the bed, bedding;
• Kitchen – if there is a coffee maker or microwave – show it;
• Bathroom – clean, with fresh towels;
• View from the window or balcony – if there is one.

Airbnb provides free professional photography services in some cities – check to see if this option is available for you!

If you want to learn more about Airbnb listing photos and what the requirements are, you might want to check out our article.

2. Set a competitive price

One of the main reasons guests choose a listing without reviews is because of the price. Here’s how to set it right to get your first reservations faster and avoid losing out on future Airbnb profits.

Pricing strategies for new Airbnb hosts

Strategy	Details	Pros	Cons
Competitive pricing	Set your initial price lower than similar listings in your area to attract first guests.	– Increases visibility in search results. – Helps get first reviews faster.	– Lower income at the start. – May attract bargain-seekers.
Smart pricing tool	Use Airbnb’s automatic pricing tool that adjusts rates based on demand.	– Saves time. – Adjusts dynamically based on trends.	– May set prices too low in high season. – Less control over pricing.
Discount for first guests	Offer a limited-time discount for your first few guests to build momentum.	– Encourages bookings. – Increases chances of getting early reviews.	– Initial revenue may be lower. – Needs to be timed.
Weekend vs. weekday rates	Charge higher rates for weekends and adjust for lower demand on weekdays.	– Maximizes earnings on peak days. – Attracts budget travelers on off-peak days.	– Requires market research. – May deter long-term bookings.
Longer Stay discounts	Offer lower nightly rates for weekly or monthly stays.	– Attracts digital nomads & business travelers. – Reduces turnover and cleaning costs.	– Lower flexibility for short-term bookings. – Can lead to lower profits per night.
Peak season changes	Raise prices during holidays and high-demand seasons.	– Maximizes earnings during peak times. – Takes advantage of tourist influx.	– Requires checking trends. – High prices can lead to vacant days.

Do market research: how much does housing cost in your area?

Before setting a price, you need to figure out what the average rates are in your area. How to do this?

• Search on Airbnb – enter the parameters of your accommodation (number of rooms, area, amenities) and see the prices of competitors.
• Filter “Superhost” – see how much similar accommodation costs from top hosts.
• Pay attention to the load – if most of the ads are free, the prices may be inflated, and if they are booked – you can slightly increase your rate.

Considering the points above, your price = average price of similar accommodation minus 10-20%. For example, if the average price of accommodation in your area is $50/night, then set $40-45/night at the start.

Don’t hesitate to use Airbnb discounts

Airbnb offers several ways to attract guests with discounts:

• The “First-time Guest Discount” is an automatic 20% discount for your first three guests. It makes your listing more visible in search. Guests see a special “first-time guest discount” badge, which increases trust.
• Weekly and monthly discounts. If you have long-term guests in your city (freelancers, students, business travelers), set a 10-15% discount per week and a 20-30% discount per month. It will help Airbnb show your listing more often in search for those looking for long-term rentals.

Tip: If you see on Airbnb that there are few reservations in your area, temporarily lower the price – this way, you can get your first guests faster.

Apply dynamic price adjustment at the beginning

You can gradually increase the price after receiving the first bookings. The increase scheme is:

• 1-3 bookings – the price is 20% lower than the average.
• 4-7 bookings – the price is 10% lower than the average.
• 8+ bookings + good reviews – you raise the price to the market price or slightly above.

Why does this work? After a few positive reviews, your listing will be higher in the ranking and you will be able to set a more competitive price.

3. Set flexible cancellation policies

It’s important to make your listing as attractive as possible to potential guests from the start. One of the most effective ways to do this is by offering flexible booking terms that reduce risk for guests and simplify the booking process.

• Set a flexible cancellation policy;
• Minimum stay – 1 night (gives you a better chance of getting a reservation);
• Automatic booking confirmation (“Instant booking”).

You can always change your cancellation policy later, once you get your first bookings and a rating. And after a few positive reviews, you can increase the minimum rental period to avoid frequent guest turnover and reduce cleaning costs. Remember, if you want to get your first booking as soon as possible, make your listing convenient, accessible, and flexible – and guests will choose you!

4. Try to respond to requests quickly

Guests value active hosts who respond quickly, so that to install the Airbnb mobile app to respond promptly with the purpose of getting more reservations will be the best solution to this issue.

You can also use automatic responses (for example, a welcome message after booking), but we don’t recommend it at the begging since you have to learn how to communicate with guests and be always near the phone to answer their questions. There are a lot of situations when, because of automatic messages, hosts miss very important ones from their guests and, as a result, get bad reviews.

5. Work especially hard to get first reviews

Reviews are one of the most important things for an Airbnb host. Most guests are guided by ratings and reviews, so getting them as quickly as possible is your top priority when you’re starting out. First reviews are the key to success. To get them faster:

• Be friendly, polite, and attentive;
• Leave reviews for guests – then they are likely to leave a review for you too;
• Offer small bonuses (like free early check-in or a bottle of water);
• Double-check that the bed linen and towels are clean, that there is soap, shampoo, toilet paper, and working Wi-Fi, and that household appliances (kettle, hairdryer, TV) are working properly.

What you shouldn’t do is ask for reviews in a pushy or repetitive manner. And never offer guests a discount in exchange for a review (this is a violation of Airbnb’s rules and you could get banned).

We have a big article about the importance of communication with guests, which includes advice on how to improve this skill, what is important to pay attention to, what barriers exist in communication, etc.

6. Make additional promotion

Airbnb gives new listings a temporary advantage in search results, but this effect only lasts for the first few weeks. If you want to get more bookings and stay at the top, you need to be proactive and promote your listings. Airbnb ranks new listings higher, but you can increase the effect:

• Share a link to your listing on social media – Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc;
• Invite acquaintances or friends to book your listing at a discounted price (this will give you the first reviews);
• Optimize your listings – full description, catchy headline, regular updates;
• Use discounts – Airbnb loves active listings;
• Be online – quick response = higher search rankings.

What not to do? 1. Don’t leave reviews yourself from your own accounts (fake reviews) – Airbnb may notice this and lower your rating. 2. Don’t ask friends to write false reviews – it can be harmful if real guests have a different experience.

If you still have doubts about how to start your Airbnb business and you simply don’t know what to do and what not to do, we advise you to read our 8-step checklist that will help you sort everything out.

How to Get More Reservations on Airbnb?

And now, let’s imagine that you have already got your first review and want to move on. At this stage, the first tip we can give you to increase your bookings on Airbnb is perhaps the most important: you must know what aspects the platform takes into account when determining your position in the search results. Or, put another way, you must know how the Airbnb algorithm works.

That’s right: Airbnb works through a mathematical formula that decides which ads guests should see when searching for accommodation. Therefore, if you want to get more bookings on Airbnb, our recommendation is that you burn into your memory the most important aspects for the algorithm. You can learn all about them in our article on how to improve your positioning on Airbnb.

However, it’s not all formulas and numbers. The human touch matters, and that’s why, in the next few paragraphs we will tell you what you can do personally so that everyone wants to stay at your accommodation.

1. Not yet booked? Consider the area

The best way to increase your Airbnb bookings is to plan things well from the beginning – and when we say from the beginning, we mean even before you buy the property you want to turn into a vacation rental!

Thoroughly research the demand in the different areas you are considering, and compare it to the suitability of the different properties for sale to best meet demand.

For example, in the Montaimont, a chalet with a fireplace and views will always be more attractive than an apartment in a block of flats. In Paris? Quite the opposite.

On the other hand, make sure you are very clear about the legality of holiday rentals in the area and the different regulations that your budding business will have to comply with. If the city council prohibits you from operating, you will hardly have a successful Airbnb.

2. Adjust the price based on the season

One of the best tricks to get reservations on Airbnb is, in our opinion, to have a good pricing strategy, and this involves changing them throughout the year and not leaving the same when demand may not be good.

• The classic modus operandi is to adjust prices by hand based on one’s own intuition, but nowadays, there are more and more tricks for owners who want to get more reservations on Airbnb through a good pricing strategy.
• One of those tricks? Airbnb’s Smart Pricing, which automatically changes a listing’s rates to optimize occupancy (and thus get more bookings), without the host having to do anything.

However, a superior alternative, in our opinion, are external tools such as Beyond Pricing or PriceLabs. The reason? Airbnb’s tool has been criticized for lowering prices too much, while these alternatives strive for a fairer balance between guest appeal and host profit.

3. Stand out with your services

Another of our top tips for success on Airbnb: take a look at the most rented properties in your area and make sure you offer better services.

Who is your typical guest? Tourists, business people? Couples, families with children? What behavior patterns do they follow? Do they leave in the morning and return at night or, on the contrary, do they spend most of their vacation in the accommodation?

Ask yourself these questions to better understand what services to offer.

Remember: Happy guests are not only more likely to leave positive reviews (which are very important for getting Airbnb bookings), but they are also much more likely to want to return to your property.

4. Get positive 5-star reviews

We were talking about positive reviews, right? Guest reviews are extremely important if you want to get more reservations and be successful on Airbnb, and what about if you’re aiming to get Superhost status?

The best way to start getting Airbnb bookings is to make sure your first few stays (i.e. the first few times you host guests) go smoothly. Positive reviews will boost your Airbnb rankings, and it’ll only get easier from there.

Keep in mind that someone who comes to Airbnb to look for accommodation will almost always prefer to book a property with a good trail of satisfied guests. After all, many people only have one holiday to go on at the last minute, and on that occasion, they want everything to go perfectly.

5. Upload professional-quality photos

A picture is worth a thousand words. It may be a cliché, but it’s totally true, especially in our industry.

Don’t get us wrong: titles and descriptions are important, but the vast majority of travelers will always look at the photos first, then take a closer look at the listing details.

• It’s worth (and a lot of) the cost of paying a professional photographer if you want to be successful and get bookings on Airbnb. Consider it an investment.
• Make sure your photos show both the inside and outside of the property, as well as each of the rooms. Oh, and don’t forget the bathroom! No one wants to have any doubts about its cleanliness and hygiene.
• Finally, if you make changes or renovations, don’t forget to update the pictures of the accommodation. Otherwise, you could look dishonest.

The better the photos, the more likely you are to get more reservations on Airbnb. It is also important to prepare the property before taking photos. You can read more about this in our article with 10 tips on it.

6. Enable the Instant Booking option

A few years ago, it might not have been such a big deal, but today, having the instant booking feature enabled is key to getting more bookings on Airbnb.

Airbnb Instant Booking is, as its name suggests, an option that allows guests to book without having to first send a booking request, thus wasting their time.

Some hosts are wary of this option for fear of losing control over who stays and who doesn’t at their property, but fortunately, Airbnb allows certain restrictions to be applied to avoid problems with disruptive guests.

7. Change to flexible cancellation policies

No one wants to be canceled at the last minute and be left with an empty property in the middle of peak season, but it’s also true that an overly strict cancellation policy can discourage travelers from booking your Airbnb.

Our recommendation is to try to find a balance between earning revenue on Airbnb and maximizing your occupancy rate.

One trick might be to enable a flexible cancellation policy, where you can cancel and get a partial or full refund based on the number of days in which you cancel.

8. Reduce the minimum length of stay

Don’t worry! We’re not saying you should do this in the middle of peak season, but if your property is experiencing slow periods, setting a minimum stay of two or even one day can be a good trick to get more bookings on Airbnb.

This strategy can be the key to attracting a different type of guest, who you might otherwise only get in peak season. Think of couples going away for a weekend somewhere romantic, or guests traveling for business who may only need to spend one night at your property.

9. Be active and proactive

There are quite a few travelers who contact several accommodations at once before deciding which one to book. This is your chance to show that you take your business seriously and that you respond to potential guests’ questions quickly and effectively.

Our recommendation for Airbnb is that you respond to their questions within one hour or less. Also, once the stay has begun, make sure you are available both by email and by phone. Not only is this a sign of a good host, but it is some kind of mandatory!

Think about it: if someone contacts you, it’s usually because they’re interested in your property. Don’t keep them waiting and you’ll get more reservations on Airbnb!

10. Hire a professional hospitality management company

Finally, we come to what is probably the ultimate trick to get more bookings on Airbnb: using a personal vacation rental assistant or a property management company.

If you’re not familiar with this kind of service yet, you should know that it is the choice for hosts and property owners to manage their vacation rental businesses by professionals.

Professionals will list your property on other platforms, such as Booking.com or Vrbo, thereby increasing the number of people who see it, bookings, and profits. Also, they will communicate with guests, optimize pricing, cancellation policies, cleaning services, all the issues resolution, etc. They will provide complete peace of mind to hosts.

Conclusions

By now, you’re probably pretty clear that success on Airbnb depends not only on the quality of your property, but also on how you manage it. Good planning, knowing how to adapt to market demands, and the use of specific tools for tourist accommodation are vital if you want to get more reservations on Airbnb, but they’re not the only things that matter.

Remember, in the competitive world of Airbnb, every little thing counts. Stay on top of trends, offer exceptional experiences, and build a solid reputation; only then will you achieve long-term success.

Frequently asked questions about
how to get more reservations on Airbnb

Updated on: 2025-02-28. Author: Mark Vasiliy Smetanin

Tags: Airbnb Airbnb management Airbnb Marketing