‘What property type should I choose?’

What is a property type? Well, Airbnb gives us 14 options to choose from. Home as a property type is as simple as it gets, with things like houseboat and hut on the other end of the spectrum. No, I have never stayed in a hut on airbnb before, but I would!

Why is this important? Well . . . a few iterations ago airbnb made one of their big ‘Winter Updates’. During this update, they brought in a bunch of different categories across the top that guests could choose from. Think huts and houseboats, or cabins to keep it simple. This was a lot of fun for guests looking for experiential travel, but what airbnb missed here is that the majority of their guests just like to stay in a simple, safe, clean house. Into the weeds for a second. Airbnb tracks conversions across their listings, or how many potential guests look at a place before committing to a booking. My hunch is that when they made this big ‘Winter Update’ that they thought was going to send everyone into vacation la la land, they saw conversions drop off a cliff, and quickly reverted back to their normal listing search platform.

All that said, if your house is a cabin, choose the cabin category. If you’ve actually got a houseboat, choose houseboat. If you’ve got a simple, safe, clean house, choose home as your property type, and if you’ve done the rest correctly, you will still get plenty of bookings.

As promised, value in under a minute.

If you’re interested in our services for your own Short Term Rental, we’re taking on new clients until April 1, 2026. Hit the link below to set up an intro call.

- Jaryn