Online Listing

Your Ideal Airbnb Guests: Name Your Bullseye

How to stand out from the local Airbnb competition

Sound Familiar?

Pesky Problem

Your Airbnb listing blends in with the local competition.

And that’s definitely a problem because the competition is stiff. In many places, new Airbnbs are popping up left and right. As the supply side of the short term rental equation swells (and sometimes far exceeds local demand), the question of differentiation becomes key. Whether you’re attempting to launch a brand new place or simply trying to hold your established ground, every host should be asking themselves: How can I make my Airbnb stand out?

Let's Try This

Bite-Size Solution

Name your bullseye.

First, a quick story about how we booked our latest Airbnb trip. Here’s the context. We had an upcoming weekend earmarked on the calendar: three glorious nights away from home with generous grandma babysitting for our little munchkin. This trip was just for us.

Midwest winters (as many of you know) are notoriously unpredictable, so we thought our best bet was to head south. Other than that one preference, we opened the Airbnb app with an open mind. Fairly quickly, we stumbled upon a remarkably dense grouping of listings for luxury cabins near a state park in Oklahoma.

Minutes later, from the seemingly endless selection of cabins, we had plucked out our pick and made our reservation. How did we find the needle in this listing haystack so quickly? Easy. The host had named her bullseye.

How did we find the needle in this listing haystack so quickly? Easy. The host had named her bullseye.

Here’s what we mean. Picture a dart board. This represents all the potential guests you might be able to host. Near the rim are all the folks who aren’t a great fit for your space. For whatever reason, their needs and your Airbnb just aren’t a good match. But the closer you move to the middle of the dart board, the better you’re able to serve folks. And (you guessed it), when you get to the very middle—the bullseye—you’ve identified the guests who are the absolute perfect fit for your Airbnb.

Ok! Back to our host in Oklahoma. Kristin, a superhost in Broken Box, has a cabin nestled in the very back of a supersized subdivision of nothing but short term rentals. That’s right. It’s an entire neighborhood of Airbnbs. We have never seen competition like this. Dozens and dozens of luxury cabins, all for rent. And while each had their own unique names (puns were very popular here!), they all looked more or less the same.

Out of all the potential guests that might be interested in booking a cabin near Beavers Bend State Park (and there are many), Kristin explicitly named the individuals who would love her cabin the most: honeymooners. Her Airbnb title reads “Knotty and Nice: Modern Luxury Honeymoon Cabin!“

The moment we saw the word “honeymoon,” we were in. Sure, we weren’t actually going on our honeymoon. But we’d love to feel like we were. With such a specific bullseye defined, we could immediately self-identify as being pretty darn close to the center of this Airbnb’s dart board.

We wanted everything Kristin had to offer: the hot tub, the king size bed, the soaking tub, the fireplaces (yep, plural.) Her cabin is literally one big open room, ideal for couples looking to relax and connect. Bingo. We booked with confidence and adored every minute of our stay.

5 Minutes

Here's Your First Step

Be specific (and brave) enough to turn some guests away.

Now it’s your turn. As you start working to identify your own bullseye, the first step is often a paradigm shift. One of the most common roadblocks to getting specific about who you serve is worrying that your specificity will turn some potential guests away. And let us be the first to say, if done right, it will. But flip the script in your head: that’s a good thing, not bad.

Remember the old business adage: if you serve everyone, you serve no one. When you explicitly say who your ideal guests are, you help everyone considering your place evaluate where they are on that dart board. Maybe they’re on the edge and need to keep looking. Or maybe they’re just shy of the exact middle, and thinking, “This is it! This place was built for me!”

INSPIRED BY you

This week’s Big Heart Hosting post was inspired by Kristin, an Airbnb Superhost in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, USA. Just click here to explore the full listing.

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