How to write a good AirBnB listing description (plus real life example)

Sites like AirBnb, HomeAway, and VRBO all sell vacation properties.

Whether you’re pimping out your spare bedroom to budget travelers, or renting an entire estate to corporate events, your AirBnB page is essentially a sales page!

There’s literally just 3 steps to making a great AirBnB description, and it can be boiled down to this:

Step 1.) Write a description for each room (or feature) of the property.

Step 2.) Attract the kind of guests you want.

Step 3.) Slap all those different sections together.

That’s it!

 

Step 1.) Write a description for each room (or feature) of the property:

Got 3 different bedrooms? Describe each of them:

Guests want to know deeper descriptions of each room. Imagine a group of friends renting an AirBnB together, and they want to know the sleeping arrangements beforehand.

----

Example:

Room 1: This is the master bedroom. It has a king sized bed, it’s own bathroom, giant walk-in closet, TV with cable, and balcony that overlooks the estate.Room 2: This is large bedroom with 2 queen sized beds, it’s own bathroom, and a small Juliet balcony that overlooks the mountains.

Room 3: This is a small bedroom with 2 twin-sized beds, it shares a hallway full bathroom, is great for sleeping 2 people. Kids will love sleepovers in this room.

----

Got an amazing kitchen area? List everything inside it!

You need to let people know all the things (or LACK of things) included in their rental.

----

Example:

This is a fully stocked kitchen, with everything you need to cook even the largest of meals!Comes with:

– Plenty of Pots/Pans/Platters for large meals.

– Serving utensils.

– Grilling tongs.

– Full set of Henkel chef knives.

– 2 ovens, 1 grill, 1 dishwasher.

– Almost any condiment you need! We keep the fridge and pantry stocked with olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, hot sauce, BBQ sauce, mustard, ketchup, mayo, spices etc.

----

Have something like a pool or hot tub? Make sure to write about that too!

 

 

Step 2.) Attract the kind of guests you want:

Want to attract quite guests to rent out a small side room?

Write something like:

“This room is perfect for responsible guests on a budget who are traveling by themselves!”

Want to attract corporate events? 

Write something like:

“60% of the rentals at Rockin Y’ Ranch are team retreats and other corporate events. This is our specialty as the home sleeps 18 people, and has multiple venues on the property to hold events.”

Want to attract insane bachelor parties?

Write something like:

“We have a sick 3 bedroom condo on the world-famous 6th St. Make noise all night long, downstairs are 300 bars, and you can stumble home!”

You get the point. Based on how you “position” your rental, you will attract those kinds of clients.

 

 

Step 3.) Slap all those different sections together!

Simply take all the descriptions you made from Section 1 and 2, slap them together, and BAM! You have a nice AirBnB description ready to go :-)

 

 

Let’s do a real life example:

This is the Rockin’ Y Ranch is a 30 acre ranch just outside Austin, Texas:

Here’s some links to the listings on HomeAway, AirBnB, and their personal website:

HomeAway Listing: Rockin’ Y Ranch Oasis Near Downtown Austin

AirBnB Listing: Rockin’ Y Private 30 Acre Ranch

Website: Rockin’ Y Ranch

Renting out the Rockin Y Ranch has been exceptionally easy for the family who owns it, However in 2017 something changed and reservations went down.

It was still booked up every weekend, but on weekdays it would sometimes just sit empty.

We speculate it was caused by a few things:

• More and more people started renting out their homes in the area, and natural market competition crept up.
• The lake rose 40+ feet in 2017, giving many lake houses their waterfront back (Austin went through a long drought, and a lot of “lake houses” literally had no lake in front of them anymore.
• More hotels sprang up in the area, giving people more location options for holding corporate retreats or family reunions.

So we at KopywritingKourse took a glance at the listing for Rockin’ Y Ranch, and figured out how we could improve it.

 

Previous Rockin’ Y Ranch Description:

Here’s what the original listing looked like:

For a giant property with tons of different features, attractions, and cool amenities, this listing is NOT really selling it well!

The Rockin’ Y Ranch is an unbelievably cool property, but this descriptions don’t do it justice AT ALL!!

So how can we improve this listing to make it way more awesome, and attract more of the people they want?

Let’s follow our 3-Step process for improving an AirBnB description:

Step 1.) Write a description for each room (or feature) of the property.

Step 2.) Attract the kind of guests you want.

Step 3.) Slap all those different sections together!

 

Step 1.) Write a description for each room (or feature) of the property.

Let’s tell the customers about all the sweet stuff at the Rockin’ Y Ranch. For example, there’s an awesome “Party Barn” which is great for large amounts of people to horse around in and have a good time.

This is one of the coolest parts of the house, yet it was just “casually mentioned” in the original description.

SO by asking the owners a bunch of questions, I was able to pull out all this awesome information about this cool party barn:

---

THE PARTY BARN:

This is the part of the house people say “WHOA!!” when they see it! While the house has 8 bedrooms and a great family environment, guests can rock out in the Party Barn!

The Party Barn is far enough where you won’t disturb anyone in the house, so you can have a Rockin’ Ranch Party, and still have people sleeping in the main house.

The Party Barn has:

–Full size pool table with balls and cues.

–Ping pong table with plenty of paddles and balls.

–Foosball table.

–Full bar with giant windows to serve drinks/food from inside AND outside.

–Bar has full sized commercial refrigerator. Can hold 200+ beverages.

–Has a full sized commercial sink.

–Has a deep freezer outside the barn.

–Full 2,500 sqft dance floor has space for up to 100 people (although we can’t allow you to have that many people at the Ranch) ;-) Kids and adults love horsing around on the dance floor.

–The dance floor and party barn is designed to be relatively break-proof so adults and kids don’t have to worry about breaking stuff.

–Full sound system. Just plugin your phone or computer. Super easy to use.

–Has a 55” flat screen TV. Has all the channels and cable. Throw your favorite sports game on a play some pool and foosball at the same time!

–Has 4 bathrooms JUST in the Party Barn alone! Great for when you’re drinking beers with the friends and don’t want to miss the fun!

–Barn has WiFi all over.

–Lots of seating inside and outside The Party Barn, plenty of places to sit!!

OUTSIDE The Party Barn there are:

–2 full regulation Horseshoes sets already setup.

–2 full regulation Washer sets already setup.

–3 hammocks underneath a grove of trees. The hammocks are all in a circle so you and friends can drink some beverages and hangout while relaxing under the shade!

–Big open space to hang out by the Fire Pit and watch the sunset. Your personal groundskeeper will even set the fire for you, so you just sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself.

–Hiking Trails on 23+ acres for the adventurous. Beautiful and natural trails to hike while watching the sunset.

–Huge open field area outside the barn for playing games (football, soccer, kickball, frisbee, or general horsing around).

–Miniature Donkeys! Your personal groundskeeper takes care of the donkeys, and will let you play and pet with them. The donkeys are fenced off, so if you don’t like donkeys you don’t have to interact with them. However most kids and adults loovvvee the donkeys!

---

See how all we did was list out the cool features of The Party Barn?

Most parties probably don’t care about each individual point on there, but they might care about a few. For example, if I was renting the Rockin Y’ Ranch for a bachelor party, it would be GREAT to know The Party Barn has a fridge that can hold 200 beverages, has a big TV, and WiFi all around.

Now let’s repeat this process for other parts of the house! I personally think it’s especially important to list out the stuff the kitchen has. This is because when you rent an AirBnB for a home-style environment with your friends and family, FOOD is a big part of the experience. And you can’t cook up a storm without the proper equipment.

So let’s list out everything in the Rockin’ Y Ranch kitchen:

---

Fully stocked kitchen:

40% of events held at Rockin’ Y Ranch are family reunions, and people love to cook up a storm. So we make sure to have all the cooking basics you need to make a great meal!

Just bring your own food, and we’ll provide the rest:

— “Dream Kitchen” to cook in and entertain and bring everyone together.

— 2 regular ovens.

— 2 commercial convection oven

— Comes completely stocked with cooking needs, including a huge selection of pots, pans, serving dishes, platters, cookie trays and more.

— Plenty of cooking knives for the chef’s in the family.

— Enough Forks/Spoons/Knives/Plates for everyone in the family (the house sleeps 18 people, and we’ve never had anyone run out of utensils).

— 2 coffee pots, including coffee filters, coffee beans and a coffee grinder. Enjoy an early morning sunrise with fresh ground coffee on the front porch rocking chairs and swing (a family favorite).

— Full sized dishwasher, including dishwasher soap

— Outdoor propane grill, complete with full tank of propane (with extra tanks so you can endlessly grill and be fine).

— Grilling utensils included.

— Outdoor charcoal smoker.

— Includes plenty of paper towels, sponges, wipes, and various other kitchen utensils.

*Fun fact = The company California Pizza Kitchen actually rented out the Rockin’ Y Ranch for a corporate event and cooked here!

 

Step 3.) Attract the kind of clients you want.

The Rockin’ Y Ranch loves 3 main type of events:

• Family reunions.
• Corporate events.
• Chill bachelor parties.

Since they want more of these, they need to specifically attract those events by describing previous successful events of the same type.

For example, since they want to get more corporate events during the weekdays, they can describe WHY the Rockin’ Y Ranch is perfect for corporate events, and EXAMPLES of corporate events they’ve held:

---

Great for Corporate Events:

We are experienced at hosting amazing and unique corporate events. In fact we have a huge list of corporate retreats and events that have been hosted at The Rockin Y’ Ranch:

— HomeAway Team Retreat.

— WholeFoods Executive Training Retreat.

— Facebook Team Strategy Weekend.

— 37 Signals Team Work Retreat.

— Live Nation Executive Team Building.

— HomeSlice Annual Company Party (4 years in a row).

— California Pizza Kitchen Sales Team Building.

— WPP Executive Team Retreat.

Need any additional requests? We are also experienced at fully handling all catering and event coordination if you need. We can also happy to help your event planner find local vendors and unique activities.

— We’ve brought in a bluegrass brand and dance instructor for a fun team activity.

— Bring in fresh BBQ from the iconic Saltlick BBQ House (rated top 10 BBQ in the world)!

— Have extra banquet chairs and tables on site.

— Can get large projectors and screens.

Contact us if you have more questions about corporate events, we are happy to help make your experience amazing.

“Rockin’ Y Ranch was the best venue we’ve ever used!” – Birds Barbershop Team Retreat

“We recommend this place to any company looking to wow their guests.” – WPP

“We had plenty of space for our team, and allowed us to hold our 2 day meeting.” – WholeFoods

 --

S-tep 3.) Slap all those different sections together.

So for the Rockin’ Y Ranch we’ve listed out all the amenities, and let people know the ranch is great for family reunions, bachelor parties, and corporate events…..so now let’s smash all those individual sections together, and put together a great “Sales Pitch” for the Rockin’ Y Ranch!!

Here’s what the entire listing will read like:

THE HOUSE:

The house is a beautiful hilltop home just 15 minutes from Downtown Austin. Perfect for gatherings. Here’s some details on this beautiful getaway:

— On 30 acres of land, so you have plenty of privacy.

— 8 bedrooms.

— 4 ½ bathrooms.

— 4,000 sqft of indoor living space.

— 2 separate living rooms with TV’s, cable, couches, chairs.

— Internet-enabled TV’s so can login to your NetFlix account.

— Have a Pack & Play and high chair for families with babies.

— Decorated in Southern Hospitality Style.

— Whole house has WiFi throughout.

— Dogs allowed.

— Pool in the backyard, fully fenced off, patio chairs and table (with sun umbrella) right next to pool. Has full sound system near pool, just plugin your phone or computer to play music. Comes with pool and bath towels.

— ROOM 1: Downstairs Master Bedroom has a king bed, TV, large walk-in closet, it’s own bathroom, and French Doors that open out into a beautiful lawn.

— ROOM 2: Upstairs Master Bedroom has queen bed, full sized pull-out futon, it’s own bathroom, and has a balcony that overlooks the front lawn.

— ROOM 3: Downstairs with Queen bed. Has French Doors that open out to a beautiful pool view.

— ROOM 4: Upstairs room with full bed. Has a balcony overlooking front lawn. Shared restroom.

— ROOM 5: Downstairs room with Queen bed, with windows facing the front lawn. Shared restroom.

— ROOM 6: Upstairs room with Queen bed, with windows facing the pretty trees and the barn. Shared restroom.

— ROOM 7: Downstairs room with two twin-beds. Sleeps 2 people.

— ROOM 8: Upstairs small room with a twin-sized bunk bed. Sleeps 2 people.

 

GREAT FOR GROUPS OF FRIENDS:

The Rockin Y’ Ranch is a great place to host a group of friends!

— Jump in the pool right in the backyard.

— The Party Barn has everything you need to have a fun weekend (read more about it below).

— Grilling, drinking, horseshoes, sun, hanging out by the pool, watching sports….Rockin’ Y has you covered.

Just a 15 minute drive to Lake Austin, and 20 minute drive to Lake Travis.

 

GREAT FOR CORPORATE EVENTS:

We are experienced at hosting amazing and unique corporate events. In fact we have a huge list of corporate retreats and events that have been hosted at The Rockin Y’ Ranch:

— HomeAway Team Retreat.

— WholeFoods Executive Training Retreat.

— Facebook Team Strategy Weekend.

— 37 Signals Team Work Retreat.

— Live Nation Executive Team Building.

— HomeSlice Annual Company Party (4 years in a row).

— California Pizza Kitchen Sales Team Building.

— WPP Executive Team Retreat.

Need any additional requests? We are also experienced at fully handling all catering and event coordination if you need. We can also happy to help your event planner find local vendors and unique activities.

— We’ve brought in a bluegrass brand and dance instructor for a fun team activity.

— Bring in fresh BBQ from the iconic Saltlick BBQ House (rated top 10 BBQ in the world)!

— Have extra banquet chairs and tables on site.

— Can get large projectors and screens.

Contact us if you have more questions about corporate events, we are happy to help make your experience amazing.

“It was the best venue we’ve ever used!” – Birds Barbershop Team Retreat

“We recommend this place to any company looking to wow their guests.” – WPP

“We had plenty of space for our team, and allowed us to hold our 2 day meeting.” – WholeFoods

 

GREAT FOR FAMILY REUNIONS:

Family reunions often have up to 4 generations of family, spanning from little babies to great grandparents. The Rockin’ Y Ranch is comfortable for all age ranges!

— Lots of spaces for people to eat together.

— Lots of spaces for people to gather together, hang out, sit, chat, have fun.

— Lots of fun for kids: They’re amazed by all the animals, roast s’mores for the first time, see the stars so well, go for a swim, pet the donkeys.

— Comfortably sleeps 18 people in beds.

— Also includes inflatable beds for kids who want to “camp out” in the living room.

— The “Dream Kitchen” is a perfect family environment where everybody wants to hang out, and flows into to the living room, and flows into the pool area for an “open flow” concept. Great for families!

“The kids have soooo much space to run around!” -Mary

“Our kids spent nearly the entire time playing with the donkeys!” -Jim

“I loved that the kids could all be supervised in the barn” – Bob

 

THE KITCHEN:

Food is a huge deal when getting together. All you need to bring is your food.

— “Dream Kitchen” to cook in and entertain and bring everyone together.

— 2 regular ovens.

— 2 commercial convection oven

— Comes completely stocked with cooking needs, including a huge selection of pots, pans, serving dishes, platters, cookie trays and more.

— Plenty of cooking knives for the chef’s in the family.

— Enough Forks/Spoons/Knives/Plates for everyone in the family (the house sleeps 18 people, and we’ve never had anyone run out of utensils).

— 2 coffee pots, including coffee filters, coffee beans and a coffee grinder. Enjoy an early morning sunrise with fresh ground coffee on the front porch rocking chairs and swing (a family favorite).

— Full sized dishwasher, including dishwasher soap

— Outdoor propane grill, complete with full tank of propane (with extra tanks so you can endlessly grill and be fine).

— Grilling utensils included.

— Outdoor charcoal smoker.

— Includes plenty of paper towels, sponges, wipes, and various other kitchen utensils.

 

THE GROUNDSKEEPER:

When you stay at the Rockin’ Y Ranch you get a personal groundskeeper that takes care of anything!

— You will not see the groundskeeper unless you call or text him. He’s there to help you out, but respects your privacy. Groundskeeper Dave lives about a 5 minute drive away from Rockin’ Y Ranch.

— The grounds keeper will start fire for you, and gather firewood.

— Can’t figure something out? Give Dave a call and he can be at your service in 5 minutes.

— Just call or text Groundskeeper Dave 24/7 to help you with anything.

— Takes the trash out for you.

— “Dave was amazing! He lit a fantastic fire for us at The Party Barn and showed the kids the donkeys which they loved!” –Mary P.

 

THE PARTY BARN:

This is the part of the house people say “WHOA!!” when they see it! While the house has 8 bedrooms and a great family environment, guests can rock out in the Party Barn!

The Party Barn is far enough where you won’t disturb anyone in the house, so you can have a Rockin Ranch Party, and still have people sleeping in the main house.

The Party Barn has:

— Full size pool table with balls and cues.

— Ping pong table with plenty of paddles and balls.

— Foosball table.

— Full bar with giant windows to serve drinks/food from inside AND outside.

— Bar has full sized commercial refrigerator. Can hold 200+ beverages.

— Has a full sized commercial sink.

— Has a deep freezer outside the barn.

— Full 2,500sqft dance floor has space for up to 100 people (although we can’t allow you to have that many people at the Ranch) ;-) Kids and adults love horsing around on the dance floor.

— The dance floor and party barn is designed to be relatively break-proof so adults and kids don’t have to worry about breaking stuff.

— Full sound system. Just plugin your phone or computer. Super easy to use.

— Has a 55” flat screen TV. Has all the channels and cable. Throw your favorite sports game on a play some pool and foosball at the same time!

— Has 4 bathrooms JUST in the Party Barn alone! Great for when you’re drinking beers with the friends and don’t want to miss the fun!

— Barn has WiFi all over.

— Lots of seating inside and outside The Party Barn, plenty of places to sit!!

That’s just the INSIDE of the barn, OUTSIDE The Party Barn there are:

— 2 full regulation Horseshoes sets already setup.

— 2 full regulation Washer sets already setup.

— 3 hammocks underneath a grove of trees. The hammocks are all in a circle so you and friends can drink some beverages and hangout while relaxing under the shade!

— Big open space to hang out by the Fire Pit and watch the sunset. Your personal groundskeeper will even set the fire for you, so you just sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself.

— Hiking Trails on 23+ acres for the adventurous. Beautiful and natural trails to hike while watching the sunset.

— Huge open field area outside the barn for playing games (football, soccer, kickball, frisbee, or general horsing around).

— Miniature Donkeys! Your personal groundskeeper takes care of the donkeys, and will let you play and pet with them. The donkeys are fenced off, so if you don’t like donkeys you don’t have to interact with them. However most kids and adults loovvvee the donkeys!

 

LOCATION:

Even though we’re on 30 acres, we’re actually surprisingly close to everything! We are easily accessible by Uber (takes about 5 minutes for an Uber to show up).

Almost everything is within a short drive of Rockin’ Y Ranch:

1 minute to local dining, groceries, and retail (Jack Allen’s Kitchen, HEB Grocery Store, Liquor Store).

10 minutes to Whole Foods.

15 minutes to downtown Austin.

15 minutes to Lake Austin.

20 minutes to Austin airport.

20 minutes to Lake Travis.

 

CONTACT:

We would love to host your party, corporate event, or family gathering. We love entertaining and making our guests super happy, so if you have any further questions, feel free to contact us!

Sincerely,

The Yerkovich Family

---

All we did was take several sections of the house, write descriptions for them individually, and then smash them together in our 3-Step process:

Step 1.) Write a description for each room (or feature) of the property.

Step 2.) Attract the kind of guests you want.

Step 3.) Slap all those different sections together.

 

Bonus Brownie Points if you put pictures WITH descriptions!

Want some extra brownie points on your listing? Make images with descriptions on top of them. This instills the descriptions in someone’s head quicker than plain copy!

*NOTE* Some rental sites will not allow text on images. They DEFINITELY don’t allow you to put contact info or logos on them.

Here’s some examples of descriptive text over images:

Conclusion:

Writing a great AirBnB description is not about adding fancy words or exaggerating how great your property is. It’s all about showcasing all the positive aspects of a home, listing out everything that’s included in the hone, and setting their expectations correctly:

Setting guests expectations correctly is the best way to get 5-Star reviews in the long run:

If you paint a picture of a fancy AirBnB that’s really nice, but then when the guest gets there, it’s really crappy….you will eventually develop a very poor rating.

As you can see it’s relatively simple to write a great AirBnB listing description using our simple 3-step process:

Step 1.) Write a description for each room (or feature) of the property.

Step 2.) Attract the kind of guests you want.

Step 3.) Slap all those different sections together.

Hopefully this simple 3-step process helps some of you AirBnB’ers write better descriptions and provide your guests with more information for a happy trip :-)

Sincerely,

Neville N. Medhora – Kopywriter Staying In An AirBnB As I Write This

P.S. Do you have an AirBnb (or other vacation rental) listing? Post a link to it on the original post!

….you might get a comment back with some feedback ;-)