These property managers used Airbnb tools to boost occupancy

When husband-and-wife team Chris and Angie first began renovating and renting artist lofts in Paris to travelers, they struggled to attract guests. Despite listing with three online travel platforms and on their own website, occupancy rarely topped 50 percent.

But that changed in 2014, when they started listing their seven lofts in Paris on Airbnb. The platform’s global reach helped attract a steady stream of young, tech-savvy guests.

“Airbnb opened the hospitality market to new clients and new travelers,” Chris says. “It made the industry a model in terms of innovation, technology, and client experiences.”

For Hosts like Angie and Chris, Airbnb’s platform offered a medium for beautifully displaying photographs of their mini lofts, which are repurposed from old bakeries and fashion and artist studios.

A prominently displayed gallery allows them to showcase their aesthetic—art deco graphic posters, mid-century-modern chairs, and red checkerboard bedspreads. Airbnb also gives them a platform for sharing local tips with guests through custom guidebooks on where local Parisians shop, dine, and drink.

“We host because we love traveling,” Chris says. “We love traveling as locals, not as tourists. So we decided to host and help our guests live like locals when traveling.”

Prior to joining Airbnb, Chris and Angie struggled to manage their booking calendars across several platforms and their own reservation software. “It was a nightmare,” Chris says.

Airbnb has allowed them to sync all their calendars so that multiple guests don’t book the same dates. There are also Resource Center and Help Center articles that help them understand how to optimize their business on Airbnb. After reading a tip suggesting they decrease their minimum length-of-stay requirements, Angie and Chris quickly began attracting more guests.

The couple has also benefited from the platform’s automated pricing tools, which indicate optimized rates a full year in advance based on factors like seasonality, days of the week, and special events. “Airbnb has given anyone who is running a smaller business the tools of a hotelier,” Chris says.

Thanks to their success in Paris, Angie and Chris are now expanding to Portugal. Airbnb’s co-hosting tools enable them to hire someone who will help manage their property from afar. “I think the Co-Host has changed the way that people are running their businesses,” Chris says. “Airbnb is always into innovation and anticipation.”

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.