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Key Takeaways
Photos are king, but the description closes the booking: Nobody books off copy alone — bad photos sink a listing no matter how beautiful the writing. But once the photos have done their job, a well-structured description is what tips an interested guest over the edge. Conrad’s data shows conversion rates tick up when the description is done right, especially on direct booking sites where guests need more reasons to trust you.
Write for skimmers with real sections: Guests don’t read the whole description — they hunt for the section that matters to them. A seven-bedroom luxury house needs every inch of a long, structured writeup, because the guest who cares about the chef’s kitchen and the two fridges will skip everything else, find that paragraph, and book. Leave it out and you lose them. Walls of text lose everyone.
Don’t waste headline characters on bedroom counts: You get roughly 32 characters on Airbnb, so every word has to earn it. Lead with what’s unique — the view, the hot tub, the location — because bedrooms, bathrooms, and sleeps are already displayed on the listing. Skip the emojis too: top-ranked listings rarely use them anymore. On your own website, use the property name instead; you’re not competing for the click there.
Build the short description from your reviews: The three-to-four-sentence summary is the most-read text on the listing. Open with the property and host name so would-be direct bookers can find you off-platform, then hit the three to five things guests actually praise in reviews — fast Wi-Fi, chef’s kitchen, hot tub, private pool. Key amenities, not the washer and dryer.
Describe each room like a walkthrough tour: The space section is your written 3D tour: king bed, large windows facing the ocean, en suite with rainfall showerhead. Name brands — Sub-Zero, Keurig, Sony, PS4 — because brand allegiance is real and photos can’t show a TV’s size or which console sits under it. Somebody’s 13-year-old sees the PS4 mention and the family books. Three to five hundred words is normal for a big property.
Disclose the negatives before guests discover them: Road noise, a neighboring cabin 250 feet away, anything a photo can conveniently crop out — put it in an other-things-to-note section and frame it constructively: complimentary earplugs are in the welcome kit. One manager’s tightly framed photos hid the cabin next door and earned negative reviews from guests who felt misled. Honest beats rosy, and it takes the legs out of bad reviews later.
Sell the location, not just the property: Distances and insider tips justify choosing your place over the identical condo a block away. You’re a two-minute walk from the train; the best chicken parm in town is a left down Cooper Street. Add a short getting-there section — nearest airport, the turn your GPS gets wrong — and echo all of it in blog content on your own site with internal links.
Put a human in the About the Host section: People want to know there’s a person behind the stay. Share why you fell in love with the area and that you’re excited to host — and if you’re a company, name names: you’ll hear from Alyssa, John, or Mark on our team. One bio carries across every listing, so there’s no excuse for leaving it empty or robotic.
Spell out access and your hosting style: Tell guests exactly how they’ll get in — we send your door code three days before arrival — and how much interaction to expect, whether that’s fully remote with keyless entry or an on-site team a call away. Comprehensive answers let guests self-serve instead of emailing your reservation team, which speeds up both your staff and the booking.
What We Cover In This Episode
Conrad and Paul walk through their complete property description template section by section — headlines, the short description, room-by-room detail, disclosing negatives, location copy, host bios, and guest access — and explain what each piece does to conversion.
