Think of the booking journey as a funnel; let's review:

The Guest Journey

It begins when someone plans a trip to Miami and decides to stay in a short-term vacation rental rather than a hotel. The chance that your place is the one a guest ultimately books is 1:23,893—be fair, it's closer to 1:15,065 if they are only looking at Airbnb.

However, since no guest will scroll through the 837 pages of search results, we looked at how to stand out on the first page by using the most appealing cover photo among the 18 listings. As 80-90% of Airbnb guests only look at the first page of search results, the likelihood of booking your listing is now around 1:28.8.

Once that click on your cover page happens, you only have the first five images to tell your listing's story—but you know this since we've gone through all these steps over the past three weeks.

Now, on to the last step in your guest's booking journey:

Search to Booking

Everything that happens from now on until a guest clicks that big red Reserve button is the most fragile part of the guest journey. They've decided to like your place enough to warrant a second look. Don't worry - all you can do from now until they book is screw that up, so no pressure.

Here's where the rest of your listing comes in—your photos and their captions, description, amenities, reviews, neighborhood, hosting status, house rules, and policies. I think that's most of it.

Photos

The images should guide guests through your property, helping them imagine themselves staying there. It's a delicate balance between showing 11 photos of the same couch from every possible angle and a single picture that shows the whole room.

Photos need to be professional-level, with great lighting and styling.

Description

The first sentence must make an emotional connection with your guest. Which introductory sentence do you like better:

• Welcome to the Miami Pool Oasis, a charming four-bedroom house with a big pool and many games.
• Welcome to The Oasis, a serene Miami retreat where exploration meets tranquility to restore your spirit.

Yeah, we like the second one better, too.

Remember, people are in a hurry and will not read a novel set in your listing. The shorter we keep our descriptions, the better they perform with our guests.

Strike a balance between mentioning all essential features, making it easy to scan, and avoiding boredom for the guest.

Groupings of features and bullet points work great.

 STYLISH & PET-FRIENDLY
• Plush pet bed, water bowls, and welcome treats
• Shaded outdoor space and nearby walking routes
• No sacrifice in design or cleanliness

BTW, you can take a look at how we write out descriptions here: www.airbnb.com/h/miamipooloasis

Amenities

List all the amenities you have. Add amenities your guests are looking for. Listen to your guests. In the beginning, we often heard, "We loved staying here, but it would be great if this place had a _________________." And then, we made sure it would be there for the next guest. Don't be afraid to ask your guests. We do.

Knowing who your guest persona is or having an avatar is helpful here.

Pet-friendly listings have about 5-10% higher occupancy and can command higher nightly rates. If your building doesn't allow pets, you don't need to add pet-focused amenities. If you do, you should charge a pet fee and have written pet policies. You can make pet parents ecstatic by providing snacks and a water bowl.
 

Reviews

What others say about your listing may be the most important factor guests consider when booking your home. It's called social proof, and all you can do is be an unbelievable host with an incredible listing. Don't be afraid to ask guests for reviews; usually, they are happy to leave over-the-moon reviews when they've had a great experience. We have an automatic message sent to all our guests a few days after their stay, asking for a review, unless they wrote one, in which case the message is not sent.

Here's our favorite recent review (well, the private message to us): "You guys are freaking awesome!!!"
 

Neighborhood

Your home can be the perfect fit, and the price may be out of this world, but if it's too far from where the guests need to be, they will look elsewhere.

Ensure you set the guests' expectations so they aren't disappointed when they arrive. It's better to mention the construction site next door now than get bad ratings and reviews because you didn't.
 

Hosting Status

Guest favorite, Superhost status, your response rate, etc, will build trust with potential guests. If they see that it takes you a week to respond or you only respond 70% of the time, that's not good.

Work on becoming a Superhost, being a Guest Favorite, and having a quick response rate (the last one is the easiest). These metrics play a big part in the search algorithm, so you should know the steps Airbnb requires.

You can keep track of where you are on your Superhost journey here: https://www.airbnb.com/performance/superhost

House Rules

Nobody reads the house rules. However, your house rules must be there if you want Airbnb to help enforce your expectations. Don't make them so short that you leave out some critical points, but not so long that no one can read them, even if they want to.

The language should sound polite and friendly, not like a lawyer drew them up and you're just waiting to pounce on a guest for any violation. We lost bookings when our house rules were too long. We had them shortened 15 minutes after we got that comment.

Policies

Cancellation policies and safety equipment must be completed correctly. Your cancellation policy should be as lenient as you can stomach. (We always look at our direct competition and make our policy match or less strict.)

Click the button!

Once you have all these steps dialed in, you should have no problem getting your guests to click that nice, big, red "reserve" button.

And you're done!

Well, not so fast. You've finished the guest booking journey, but now the real guest journey begins. We'll dive into it over the next few weeks on #MarketingMonday.