By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Set up an Airbnb listing by finishing and staging the property first, then photographing it professionally with the most impressive room leading; write a title stating property type, location and strongest feature; describe practical details honestly, including downsides; and set minimum stay, discounts, advance notice and cancellation policy before launching — early reviews set the trajectory.
Photographs decide almost everything
A guest sees a thumbnail, a price and a rating. The photograph is doing nearly all the work, and it is the one part of a listing where money reliably converts into bookings.
Shoot after the property is finished and staged, not before. Beds made, blinds open, lights on, surfaces clear, nothing personal in shot. Professional photography is worth it here in a way it rarely is elsewhere, because a good photographer will move a lamp and open a curtain and change what the property is worth per night.
Order matters as much as quality. Lead with the most impressive room — usually the living space, sometimes the bedroom. Then a logical walk through the property. Bathroom mid-set, never first. End with anything distinctive: a view, a garden, a workspace.
The title is a search result, not a name
Guests scan titles at speed alongside a dozen others. A title should say what the property is and what makes it worth clicking, in the space available before it truncates.
What works: the property type, the location a guest actually recognises, and the single strongest feature. "Bright 2-bed near the station, fast wifi, free parking" outperforms "The Hideaway" every time, however much you like the name.
What does not: cute names, exclamation marks, capital letters, and anything the photograph already shows.
Write the description for someone deciding, not browsing
By the time someone reads the description they are already interested. They are now looking for reasons to book or reasons not to, and the second list is what you should be answering.
Lead with the practical: how many can sleep there and in what configuration, what the beds actually are, how far it is to the thing they came for, parking, and the wifi. Be specific — "ten minutes' walk to the station" beats "conveniently located".
Then be honest about the awkward parts. Second-floor with no lift, a shared entrance, a busy road, a small kitchen. Saying so filters out the guests who would have arrived disappointed and left the review that costs you the next five bookings.
The settings most owners leave wrong
The listing text gets all the attention; the settings do more of the work.
- Minimum stay, varied by season rather than fixed all year
- Weekly and monthly discounts — a long stay costs one changeover instead of ten, and the pricing should reflect that
- Advance notice and preparation time, so a same-day booking cannot land while the cleaner is booked elsewhere
- Booking window — how far ahead the calendar is open, with a higher floor rate on far-future dates
- Cancellation policy, which affects both conversion and how often you get cancelled on
- Instant Book, which helps ranking but needs sensible requirements attached
Do not launch it half-finished
A listing's early reviews set its trajectory and are very hard to correct. Going live to catch a season with the furnishing incomplete buys a cheap first booking and a mediocre first review, and both persist for a year.
Finish, photograph, price sensibly for the first month, then launch and watch it closely. Our onboarding does this in roughly five to seven days from collecting the keys, and the sequence is deliberately compliance, then furnishing, then photography, then listing.
One more thing worth doing before you publish: read the listing on a phone. That is where it will actually be seen.