How to List a Bed and Breakfast on Airbnb

As you already know, listing your existing property as a Vacation Rental is one of the quickest ways to make some extra cash and to utilize your property to its full worth. As much as there are many key players in the industry, Airbnb is a preliminary choice among property managers.

Did you also know that there are multiple ways to list your property on Airbnb. Well.. let me break it down real quick for you. Depending on the size and quality of your property you could list it as a Boutique Hotel, Serviced Apartment, Tent Cabin, a Hostel or simply as a “Bed & Breakfast” on the platform.

This article in particular, focuses on things that should be within your focus when listing your property as a “Bed & Breakfast” on Airbnb, possibly the most popular listing on Airbnb, after all, it’s in the name.

What Type of Properties are Qualified as Bed and Breakfast?

You can list an entire home, or a room as a B&B. A typical Airbnb will have a kitchen, sometimes stocked with coffee and tea, but rarely, if ever, will a host prepare a full breakfast.You could greet your guests on site, or offer self check-in; the choice is entirely yours.

Properties should have a unique, independent environment and style (for example, boutique or lifestyle hotels, not mass-market chains). Some of the qualities that make these properties a particularly good fit for Airbnb include:

• Vibrant common gathering spaces and/or events
• Guest rooms with personal touches that are individually unique and/or local in design
• High-quality photos on the listing page that showcase the design of the property and what guests can expect
• Accessibility features that are helpful to guests with limited mobility

Along with our basic requirements for hosts, these standards for hotels and unique spaces help ensure that we’re meeting guests’ expectations.

What are Airbnb's Basic Requirements for Hosts?

In order to ensure that each Airbnb Bed and Breakfast stay is reliable, comfortable and a great experience for all its Clients, Airbnb requires hosts to meet the following criteria as basic requirements.

• Being responsive: Hosts are required to respond to booking inquiries and reservation requests within 24 hours.
• Accepting reservation requests: Hosts are expected to to accept reservation requests to the best of their ability.
• Avoiding cancellations: Hosts are requested to avoid cancelling on guests to the best of their ability as guest’s travel plans depend on their accommodation.
• Maintaining good ratings: Hosts are required to maintain high levels of rating on customer reviews and experience.

Airbnb allows hosts to regularly monitor their Performance and tracks ratings against average levels of performance of all hosts. Listings that consistently fall below average could be subject to penalties.

Airbnb strongly encourages hosts to provide essential amenities such as toilet paper, hand and body soap, towels, linens, and pillow; in all their Bed and Breakfast listings, which are considered essential for a comfortable stay.

How to list your Bed & Breakfast Airbnb?

Step 1 - Getting Started

Listing on Airbnb is pretty straightforward and can be initiated after creating an account and then selecting the ‘add listing’ option in the top right corner of the homepage. You’ll be directed to a form prompting you to fill in the most general criteria of your Bed and Breakfast Unit.

Step 2 - Setting the Scene

Once the basic information has been filled out, you will be prompted to upload photos of your Bed and Breakfast and to write a brief description of the property including informing potential guests how available you’ll be throughout their stay, what they can expect of the neighborhood and how they can get around the city.

Photos

If you did not already know this, regardless of how many pictures you upload, the first 3 photos frame the window into your listing before users make the decision to click into the post. Hence, it is recommended to use bigger photos for better resolution (1024 x 683px). Make sure you use this opportunity to show off amenities, quirky rooms, or other features unique to your property.

If you need more guidance, vacation rental photography will definitely come in handy, to offer standout and high-quality pictures.

Description

The trick here is to offer a great summary covering the major features of your listing in 250 characters or less. People like a bit of personality, so give your listing a name explaining exactly what it is that makes your place unique.

Think of the title as your first impression. Make those 35 characters engaging enough to capture attention and unique enough to accurately depict your place. Try using descriptive and pleasant adjectives to cushion your title. Too much writing looks daunting, so try to break it up; Bullet points and short sentences can go a long way.

Bonus: Add a photo of yourself to give guests an idea of who will be hosting them.

Step 3 - Getting Ready to Welcome Guests

This final section is broken into three parts: Booking Settings, Calendar and Price.

Booking Settings

In this section, you’ll review Airbnb’s basic guest requirements and can opt to make additional requirements such as the provision of a government-issued ID and/or recommendations from other hosts and zero negative reviews.

You’ll then set your house rules and provide important details about your home, like whether guests will have to climb stairs or find their own parking.

Calendar

To get started, indicate how often you’d like to have guests on your property, how much notice you’ll require before your guests arrive, how far in advance they can book your place and how long they can stay.

Afterwards, you’ll be able to manually flip through your calendar and block or unblock specific dates or even entire months. The specific dates available for rental should be inserted as soon as you publish your listing and should be updated regularly.

Pricing

• You will be given the option of utilizing Airbnb’s Smart Pricing tool, which will automatically update your prices according to the fluctuations of demand in your area.
• You will then be required to set a base price, for which Airbnb will suggest a price based on the information that you’ve provided thus far as well as on trends currently shaping the local rental market, such as holidays, increased tourism, and more.
• You should also factor in the cost of utilities, taxes, or cleaning ahead of time – Airbnb even gives you the option to add an additional cleaning fee to the price.
• Next, you’ll set a minimum price, a maximum price and the currency in which you’d like to charge your guests.
• It’s important to remain relevant and competitive, so be sure to compare prices of similar Bed and Breakfast listings in your area.

Whilst you cannot include penalties for late check-outs or other situational variables that you plan on charging guests on a base rate, they should be communicated before a booking is secured.

• The last step in the pricing section will be to opt for or against certain promotions, like a 20% discount for your first 3 guests to help you attract travelers and get some initial reviews for your listing or weekly or monthly discounts for guests booking longer stays.

Step 4 - Publishing Your Airbnb Listing

When you’ve completed all the steps and are content with your listing, you’re ready to publish your Bed and Breakfast on Airbnb. Whilst you should provide accurate and true information to the best of your ability, spin all of the features of your place in as positive a light as possible.

You could also refer to 5 easy steps to starting an airbnb for bonus points.

Then go ahead and publish!