Welcome to The Airbnb Tips Blog

Tips for Airbnb travelers and hosts

This Airbnb Blog is an unofficial Airbnb blog run by a group of experienced and dedicated Airbnb hosts and vacation rental owners wanting to share our tips and experiences with others.

Our most popular articles:

COVID-19 - Seven tips on reopening your Vacation Re ntal Business

Airbnb instagram marketing - the complete guide

Get your own professional vacation rental website, start for free

Top software to automate your Airbnb / Vacatio rental business - complete guide

Coping with COVID-19 as an Airbnb host

Airbnb hosts - get a free prom otion

20 better alternatives to Airbnb

We have a real passion for hosting and would also like to get in touch with other dedicated hosts, vacation rental owners and homeowners renting their properties on Airbnb, Flipkey, Tripsadvisor and similar sites. We're also glad to help those who'd like to get started.

The Airbnb Blog - contribute to our blog

Would you like to contribute to our Airbnb blog? Drop us a line and we'll get back to you shortly.

We're also providing useful tips for Airbnb travellers and for those who'd like to try this genious concept.

Spanish version

Vote for Airbnb of the week

We're featuring the most unique and beautiful Airbnbs, vacation rentals and hotels worldwide.

Congratulations to Geodesic Dome, Chile for becoming Airbnb of the Week.

Vote for your favorite here or add your own listing to the competition

News: Hotelscombined now includes apartments in their search

World leading hotel search engine Hotelscombined now includes apartments in their search. Airbnb hosts and Vacation Rental Owners may add their properties at no cost.

Get your own professional vacation rental website

Get your own professional vacation rental website, a powerful channel manager and the possibility to take direct bookings and avoid fees. Choose among 100's of beautiful templates It's fast, free and easy to get started.

Tired of Airbnb fees?

Airbnb takes up to 20% of your profit. What if there is a way to avoid the fees and take the full profit? Read how to avoid Airbnb fees here

Airbnb instagram marketing

If your property matches our style, we’ll add it to our website, and may feature it across our social media channels as well — all free of charge. See more here: Airbnb instagram marketing tips

Learning Hub Resources on Coping with COVID-19

With the international traveling restrictions that have been imposed and travelers canceling trips, you might feel worried about what lies ahead for your business. To help you ease your anxiety and support your business growth in these hard times, we’ve put together useful resources and checklists.

For Airbnb hosts: Free vacation rental software for up to 4 listings + $30 credit

Airbnb hosts will now be able to manage up to four listings at iGMS at zero cost. This Airbnb software enables you to control all your guest communication, bookings and the daily tasks linked with running your business + exclusive features to help hosts grow their short-term rental business and take it to new extraordinary heights. Read more here

How to cancel a guest reservation in Your Vacation Rental

When you have to cancel a booking, there are a few things you can do to avoid a negative review and still keep the guest happy. Read more here

Boost your Airbnb ranking

Boost your Airbnb ranking and get more bookings with Airbnb SEO tips from our most successful Airbnb hosts

Airbnb alternatives

Increase your booking by listing your vacation rental on popular sites such as Tripadvisor, Booking.com homestays or Apartmentscombined. See the full list of the most popular and trusted Airbnb alternatives and Airbnb competitor sites here.

How to become an Airbnb Superhost

After a quarter with lots of hard work, we once again earned the Airbnb Superhost Badge. In 2018 we hosted 267 guests, earned 5 star reviews 85% of the time with no cancellations. See our top tips for keeping our Airbnb guests happy here: How to become an Airbnb superhost

Airbnb phone numbers by contry

Airbnb brags about their 24/7 open customer service, but numbers are well hidden on their website. So, we're making it easy for you and providing all Airbnb local phone numbers by country.

Booking now allows Airbnb properties on their site

Now Airbnb hosts and vacation rental owners can add their properties to the worlds biggest search engine, Booking.com. It's fast, free and easy. Use this link to get 5 commission free bookings

In this article we'll give advice on how to build a strong profile on booking.com and how to integrate Airbnb and Booking.com to avoid manual updates and double bookings: Airbnb + Booking.com integration

Get more Airbnb bookings with these simple steps

Don't disappear behind 100's of other listings in your area. We'll show you how to get more Airbnb bookings with only a few simple steps. This is the ultimate guide to get more bookings from Airbnb

Join our community

Facebook: community Happy Vacation Rental Owners Community

Misterb&b - gay friendly vacation rentals - growing rapidly

The "gay friendly Airbnb" site Misterb&b now features more than 1M listings in 200 countries. They include hotels and apartments all over the world, in addition to exclusive and valued community of hosts with private rooms. Try Misterb&b here

Beginners guide to Airbnb

What are Airbnb service fees

The Airbnb service fee is a percentage of each confirmed booking charged by Airbnb to provide services like 24/7 customer support and credit card processing. The Airbnb service fee consits of 2 parts: The Airbnb host service fee The Airbnb Guest service fee In addition comes Fees for...
Airbnb amenities that should be provided to guests

Here are our top tips of items you should always provide your Airbnb guests, room by room: GENERAL: A house manual. Print out a brief guide to how all the things in your home work. Include info on the check out procedure, nearby places to eat, interesting things to see, shops, etc A guest...
How to become a member of Airbnb

1) Sign up with Airbnb. It’s fast and easy to sign up with Airbnb. You can connect with your Facebook profile or your email. For travellers: Use this link and get $50 / €45 off your first trip For property owners: If you’re a property owner, use this link. See also: How do I get my house...
How do I get my house on Airbnb

Many people ask us “How do I get my house on Airbnb?”. By following the simple steps below you’ll have your property listed in minutes. We’ll also tell you how to avoid the most common pitfalls for new hosts. Sign up with Airbnb. It’s fast and easy to sign up with Airbnb. You can connect with your...

Airbnb tips blog

06/21/2020 09:00

Learn how to find the best cleaning company for your vacationrental

Improving cleaning efficiency is at the forefront of the mind of any host now. Are you thinking about hiring a professional cleaning service to take cleanings to a new level? Learn how to find the best cleaning company for your vacationrental
03/18/2020 21:41

Hospitality Expert Tips: Designing the Ideal Bed for your Guests

Author bio: Guest post contributed by the Downlite Bedding team. Downlite designs, manufactures, and markets comfort bedding for major hotel chains, airbnb hosts, and consumers. The family-owned business is an industry leader with three generations of product-knowledge and...
03/04/2020 19:20

How to give your Airbnb guests a great check-in experience

The check-in is probably the most important part of a guest’s stay. The impression that they have when they first arrive will affect how they view the rest of their stay - and any problems checking in could lead to unhappy guests and negative feedback. On the Airbnb Tips Blog this week, we've...
02/02/2020 06:32

How landlords can use AirBnB to beef up their second property income

As profit margins on AirBnB rentals are higher than with longer term lets, many landlords are becoming interested in replacing standard letting arrangements with a series of AirBnB rentals on buy-to-let properties. Given the recency of this trend, mortgage providers and legislators have not set out...
01/31/2020 13:49

How to provide the right pillows as an Airbnb host

As an Airbnb host you have a lot of responsibilities; don’t overlook an important one - providing the right pillows for your guests. Pillows are an indispensable accessory for your rental home Your guests will likely be tired after traveling and will find immediate comfort on the correct...
11/21/2019 12:24

10 tips for being a top Airbnb host

An increasing number of people are renting accommodation for flexible rentals and short term rather than spending time in hostels and hotels, meaning that the property management industry is growing at a fast pace. All hosts should be aware of this, especially if they plan to rent their...
09/07/2019 14:07

What are the Airbnb superhost benefits (updated September 2019)

Many people ask us what the Airbnb superhost benefits are. Here's a complete overview of the Airbnb superhost benefits and superhost requirements, updated September 2019. Airbnb launched their Superhost program in 2016 to reward their most devoted hosts with a special VIP status. The creation...
09/06/2019 01:00

Airbnb sustainable hosting

With the news that we are headed for a major climate disaster, eco-friendly products should be on everyone’s mind. So we switch out our plastic straws for reusable ones, conserve water while we brush our teeth, but what about hotel bedding for our airbnb guests? Look for products...
09/04/2019 18:19

The strangest Airbnb listings in the world

Looking for something uniqe and different? This is simply a collection of the strangest, weirdest, most unique, cheapest or most expensive Airbnb's in the world:
08/07/2019 17:59

The most expensive Airbnbs in the world

If you're willing to pay up to $10 000 for an overnight stay at an Airbnb, you should consider the following listings:
07/31/2019 21:37

What are the airbnb superhost requirements - and how to reach them

The airbnb superhost requirements explained the easy way: (updated October 2019) Hosted at least 10 trips You must have a 90% response rate or higher Received a 5-star review at least 80% of the time you’ve been reviewed, as long as at least half of the guests who stayed with you...
07/29/2019 08:29

Airbnb SEO tips and strategies

Airbnb SEO tips and strategies - the ultimate guide. Updated August 2019 Do you want more bookings from Airbnb? It’s easier than you think. In this article I’ll show you how to get more bookings from Airbnb by optimizing your Airbnb listing for search, also called Airbnb SEO...
07/17/2019 10:44

The 2019-2020 Guide to Vacation rental Marketing

The 2019-2020 Guide to Vacation rental Marketing is now out. More than 1,000 hosts have already put these tips into action and are seeing real results. Tons of tips to increase your revenue and marketing strategies. Read the practical manual here.
06/07/2019 10:25

Top Airbnb blogs to follow - updated August 2019

Airbnb blogs are a great source to knowledge. Learn from experienced hosts and stay updated on what's going on in therapidly changing vacation rental industry. The Airbnb Tips blog presents a list of the most follow-worhty blogs, updated August 2019 Top Airbnb blogs we recommend to...
10/08/2018 18:17

Join the coFounder Club of FullyBooked.world

You’re passionate about the vacation rental industry and understand that it can be a very lucrative space to play. Who doesn’t enjoy,residual income. And as a zealous traveler you have a knack and keen eye for what people want. NOW discover a fantastic opportunity with coFounder Club...
10/08/2018 14:08

5-Star Quality Sleep At Your Airbnb

We’ve all experienced the phenomena before. You spend some time in a hotel and come away feeling like you’ve slept better during your stay than you ever have in your own bed. You’re rested, relaxed, more zen and you’d like to keep it going. So you take a picture of your pillow tag, you talk...
07/22/2018 00:01

Airbnb keyword search

The Airbnb Keyword Search is gone. Airbnb wants people to view more properties which is good for analytics and good for generating serendipitous sales because people get incentivised with different locations rather than solely relying on features. Security and/or privacy could...
05/17/2018 11:09

What will Airbnb guests expect from my property?

What will Airbnb guests expect from my property? If you are looking to be a great Airbnb host and ensure your guests have a comfortable stay, there are a few key things that you should try to provide for them. Although some of the things in this list may appear obvious, it is...
04/25/2018 09:28

The more you know: hotel bedding

Author bio: Guest post contributed by the Downlite Bedding team. Downlite designs, manufactures, and markets comfort bedding for major hotel chains, airbnb hosts, and consumers. The family-owned business is an industry leader with three generations of product-knowledge and experience. After...
04/05/2018 19:44

Prepare your Airbnb property to wow your guests

Perfect your Airbnb listing One of the key factors in becoming a successful host is attracting enough guests to your property. You also want these guests to be the sort that will treat your home as their own and leave it in a good clean condition when they vacate. Therefore, you need to make...
02/10/2018 14:49

3 ways hosting on Airbnb changed my life

Back in 2013 I had decided that I wanted to leave The Netherlands, the country where I was born and raised. Both my parents are from the Cape Verde islands, and I felt that for me, that was where I needed to be. I wanted to get to know the country better, spend much more time with my...
02/08/2018 20:08

the meth breaker

The Meth Breaker - The Real Time Methamphetamine Detection Alarm Here at Global Meth Solutions, our number one priority is to ensure your investment is protected against the use and manufacture of methamphetamine (ice). Give your guests the confidence that their health and safety is not at...
01/10/2018 10:37

How to become an Airbnb Superhost

In 2018 we hosted 267 guests, earned 5 star reviews 85% of the time with no cancellations. In january 2019 we earned the Airbnb Superhost badge. Apart from the usual Airbnb Superhost Requirements, this is our top tips for becoming an Airbnb superhost. See also: 20 Airbnb...
01/08/2018 22:18

The Most Expensive Airbnb’s in America’s Top Destinations

Having a well kept, smartly advertise Airbnb listing is imperative if you want to make money renting your property. As you probably know, people will pay more for luxury, or even perceived luxury, if marketed correctly. That being said, our friends at Simply Self Storage recently compiled a...
12/31/2017 13:07

How Airbnb hosts can protect themselves using background searches

How Airbnb hosts can protect themselves using background searches We all love easy and affordable places to stay, it makes travelling that much more easier. That’s why we all love Airbnb. You get what you need for what you can afford, with virtually no hassle. It lets you let out your spare...
08/26/2017 10:49

Supplement Your Retirement Income With An Airbnb

Supplement Your Retirement Income With An Airbnb © Judy Helm Wright—Author/Blogger/Intuitive Wise Woman Are you finding that you are coming up a little short each month? Many of our friends and colleagues are in that scary position. The pension or social security is not as...
08/03/2017 22:37

How to contact Airbnb by phone

Airbnb brags about their 24/7 open customer service, but the Airbnb phone numbers are well hidden on their website. So, we're making it easy for you and providing all Airbnb local phone numbers: Canada 1-855-424-7262 Taiwan 0800 868 313 United Kingdom +44 203 318...
07/25/2017 09:38

Keep calm and keep on sharing

Keep calm and keep on sharing (while being properly insured) By Humphrey Bowles, co-founder of www.guardhog.com, insurance for the sharing economy. Despite the popularity of home-sharing, it is clear that many hosts are still unknowingly compromising their home insurance, resulting in people...
07/11/2017 09:01

Airbnb house rules - best practice guide

Airbnb house rules are important. But how do you best approach them? No vacation rental host wants to come off as an oppressive dictator or compulsive clean freak: you want your guests to feel comfortable and at-home, after all! But being too relaxed can also come back to bite you. Thankfully,...
12/21/2016 20:40

SEO guide to optimize your vacation rental website

For the search engine ranks, you are required to optimize the entire site instead of a single page. Before the optimization, you need to take care of the points like, the subject matter of the site, the purpose of optimization and the level of commitment from your side to improve the ranks. Once...
09/08/2016 20:37

Who is the biggest Airbnb competitor?

We tought it would be interesting to provide a list of Airbnb competitors in different countries. If you know any further companies that should be on the list, contact us here. See our list of Airbnb competitors here. Who is the biggest Airbnb competitor? August 2015. We tought it...
08/04/2016 20:30

10 ways to boost your Airbnb listing London style

Airbnb is becoming increasingly popular in the city of London. With the number of hosts and guests increasing every year, it only makes sense to capitalise on this facet of the sharing economy while it’s hot. We want to share some quick tips with you on how to maximise your...
07/06/2016 20:36

10 things I love about Airbnb

I’ve used Airbnb since more than 5 years, both as a host and a traveler. Here’s 10 things I love about Airbnb: The opportunity to meet great people from all over the world. I’ve hardly had any negative experiences and the cultural exchange has given me so much and is an inspiration to continue...

A must read for every vacation rental owner:

07/05/2020 08:59

How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Airbnb Listing

Pinterest is one of the most underutilized but most powerful tools to promote your vacation rental outside of Airbnb. See our tips about how to use Pinterest to promote listings from Maeva Cifuentes, Head of Content at Get Paid For Your Pad: If you’re like a lot of Airbnb hosts, you’re...
02/10/2020 11:37

Airbnb host? Get a free promotion

Would you like a free promotion of your Airbnb listing? If your listing fits our taste, we'll feature your listing across our social media profiles on Instagram, Twitter and our website. It does not cost anything.
10/12/2019 19:50

Avoid Airbnb fees - the ultimate guide

Avoid Airbnb fees. Airbnb takes up to 20% of your profit. What if there was a simple way to keep those money? With these simple steps you can keep more of your hard earned money. Get your own vacation rental website The first thing you must do to avoid Airbnb fees is to create your own professional...
12/18/2018 22:06

Top 20 Vacation Rental Software

Here are some of the widely used vacation rental tools and software you can take a look at. They'll help you manage your vacation rental business, such as syncing bookings from different channels, taking online bookings, reservation management, website builders and much more. You can...
08/03/2017 22:36

Airbnb phone numbers by contry

Airbnb brags about their 24/7 open customer service, but numbers are well hidden on their website. So, we're making it easy for you and providing all Airbnb local phone numbers: Canada 1-855-424-7262 Taiwan 0800 868 313 United Kingdom +44 203 318 1111 United States...
02/25/2017 00:28

We'll help you list your vacation rental

Do you own a vacation rental? We'll help you list your vacation rental at all the biggest and most trusted vacation rental sites worldwide. These includes: Flipkey by Tripadvisor / Holidaylettings Booking Airbnb Homeaway Roomorama VRBO Sailo (for boat owners). Get a $100 coupon if signing...
01/16/2017 21:50

Advertise boats on Airbnb

Did you know you can advertise boats and yachts on Airbnb? If you've got a boat and people can spend the night in it, earn some good extra money by putting it on Airbnb. Other sites to advertise your boats on are Tripadvisor and Sailo (the Airbnb for boats)

Questions or comments?

The Airbnb blog - about

This Airbnb blog is written by experienced Airbnb hosts with a real passion for hosting. We write about a wide range of topics, from how to style your vacation rental to Airbnb marketing tips. We'll also serve you news and updates from the vacation rental industry.

This blog was started by Jan, Airbnb host since 2011. When he first put his spare room on the Airbnb platform, there were 45 properties for rent in his area. Now, 8 years later, in 2019, there are more than 7500 properties for rent in the same area.

This unofficial Airbnb blog is run by dedicated Airbnb hosts, for Airbnb hosts. We believe the Airbnb host community should support eachother and learn from eachother. If you'd like to contribute to our blog, please drop us a line.

Other Airbnb blogs worth following:

The Best Airbnb Blogs from thousands of Airbnb blogs on the web using search and social metrics. Subscribe to these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information. Check out the Top Airbnb Blogs - updated August 2019

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Vacation rental and Airbnb news

The Art of Airbnb Messaging: 8 Proven Ways to Enhance the Guest Experience

Airbnb messaging strategy is one of the key points for getting new reservations. Guests always appreciate fast and smooth messaging with the host before, during and even after their stay. Check our Airbnb messaging tips, which will help to exceed guests' expectations and save your valuable...
Sleep like Dracula @ Airbnb

Halloween nights don’t get much spookier than this. You can now sleep like Dracula at a Castle in Transylvania, Romania. Earlier this month, Airbnb announced that Bran Castle in Romania, also known as “Dracula’s Castle”, would be listed on its website for the night of October...
New app to check your Airbnb's ranking position

Yourporter has just launched a new app checking your Airbnb's ranking position in search. See also: 10 Airbnb SEO tips to improve your Airbnb ranking position The app was recently launced and you can get a detailed report on your Airbnb's ranking position on a daily or weekly...
Airbnb can no longer protect horrible listings

Regulators have forced Airbnb to rectify a major flaw in its customer review system which meant that until now some of the worst listings have escaped bad reviews. Currently, guests who decide to cancel their stay or leave early because the apartment or house is a bit of a dump cannot automatically...
Airbnb explains what star rating means

I just used Airbnb as a guest recently and one change I noticed is that when writing a review, Airbnb is explaining what each star means as follows: 1 star = Terrible 2 Star = Bad 3 Star = OK 4 Star = Good 5 Star = Great
Airbnb is about to launch a premium service to compete with luxury hotels

"Airbnb is close to launching a new service that will match guests with quality-inspected home and apartment rentals. The product is intended to attract higher-paying travellers who have yet to use Airbnb because they prefer the amenities guaranteed by fancy hotels, said three people familiar with...
Airbnb is introducing new rules for instant book:

Airbnb is introducing new rules for instant book: Improved calendaring — giving hosts with multiple listings (for example, a host with a listing for an entire home and a separate listing for a room inside that home) controls to link their Airbnb calendars and prevent double-bookings, as well...
NEWS: Misterb&b raises $8.5 million to build the Airbnb for the LGBTQ community

"Is there room for smaller, more focused Airbnb competitors? French startup Misterb&b thinks so as the startup just raised $8.5 million from Project A and Ventech to build an apartment renting platform focused on the LGBTQ community. As the name suggests, Misterb&b started with a focus on...
News: Airbnb is standardizing the check-in process to make it way less confusing

Airbnb is standardizing the check-in process to make it way less confusing "Airbnb is rolling out a new check-in instructions tool to streamline and improve guest arrivals. Now, guests of hosts who opt in to the new tool will receive clear, visual, in-app step-by-step guides on what to...
News: Airbnb increases fees and changes cancellation policies

Airbnb increases fees for hosts and changes it's cancellation policies. In short, what is going to happen is the following: The Moderate and Strict policies (less favourable to the guests), will be accompanied by an increase in host service fees, from 3% to respectively 4% and 5% to...

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Airbnb alternatives

Flipkey by Tripadisor

Tripadvisor is the largest travel site in the world with millions of users worldwide. Tripadvisor is a m u st join for any vacation rental owner wanting more bookings. Tripadvisor has just launced it's free-to-list program, making it possible for private and professional...
Hotelscombined

Hotel search engine with also a wide range of apartments offered. This site searches through all majord accommodation sites and always returns the best price. Hosts can add their properties for free, guests gets a price guarantee on bookings. After making your search, use the filter...
Booking.com Homestays

Booking.com, one of the largest hotel search engines in the world, has just lauched it's own Homestay section to compete with Airbnb and other similar concepts. It's free for vacation rental owners to add their properties and travelers can search among 10 000's of Homestays worldwide. Booking...
Homestay

Homestay.com is a worldwide booking platform where anyone can book a homestay including tourists, leisure travellers, students, interns, people relocating for work or those who simply want to experience local culture and meet local people when they travel.
VRBO / Homeaway

VRBO is on of the most popular vacation rental sites in the US with over more than 1 million listings. You can rent everything from cabins & condos to castles or villas.

Welcome to The Airbnb Tips Blog

The Airbnb Blog - contribute to our blog

Vote for Airbnb of the week

News: Hotelscombined now includes apartments in their search

Get your own professional vacation rental website

Tired of Airbnb fees?

Airbnb instagram marketing

Learning Hub Resources on Coping with COVID-19

For Airbnb hosts: Free vacation rental software for up to 4 listings + $30 credit

How to cancel a guest reservation in Your Vacation Rental

Top Airbnb articles 2020

What are the Airbnb superhost requirements?

Boost your Airbnb ranking

Airbnb alternatives

How to become an Airbnb Superhost

Airbnb phone numbers by contry

Booking now allows Airbnb properties on their site

Get more Airbnb bookings with these simple steps

Join our community

Misterb&b - gay friendly vacation rentals - growing rapidly

Top articles for Airbnb travelers:

Beginners guide to Airbnb

Airbnb tips blog

A must read for every vacation rental owner:

Questions or comments?

The Airbnb blog - about

Other Airbnb blogs worth following:

Top articles for vacation rental owners:

Sign up for our newsletter

Vacation rental and Airbnb news

Airbnb alternatives

Top Airbnb articles 2020