Listing Conversion Audit
Audit a short-term rental listing against platform ranking mechanics and guest decision behavior, then deliver rewritten copy the user can paste directly into Airbnb or Vrbo.
This is the exact playbook text every Supahost agent ships with — installed for each member, removable in one click. Platform policies change: verify any deadline or dollar amount against the current Airbnb or Vrbo help center before you rely on it.
Step 1: Diagnose views vs. conversion first
Never start rewriting until the bottleneck is identified. Ask the user (or read from data they provide) for the last 30 days of: page views, bookings, and booking conversion rate.
| Symptom | Bottleneck | Where to work |
|---|---|---|
| Low views | Search visibility | Price competitiveness, availability, minimum-stay and check-in-day rules, geolocation pin, amenity filter coverage |
| Good views, low bookings | Listing page conversion | Cover photo, first five photos, title, first two lines of description, review score, fee load, calendar gaps |
| Good bookings, low rate | Positioning | Nightly rate, length-of-stay discounts, upsells — hand off to pricing-calendar-audit |
State the diagnosis explicitly before proposing changes. If the user cannot supply numbers, say which changes are visibility fixes and which are conversion fixes so they can measure the right thing after.
Step 2: Gather the listing
Work from the actual current listing, never from memory or assumption. Accept any of: a listing URL, pasted text of the fields, screenshots, or an export. If given a URL, fetch it. If the fetch fails or returns a login wall, ask the user to paste the title, description sections, amenity list, house rules, and a description of the first five photos.
Also collect, when available: the property's review score and subcategory scores, three to five competitor listing URLs in the same market, and the property's own unusual features.
Step 3: Score against the rubric
Score every line item of the listing — visibility settings, cover photo and photo order, title, description structure, amenities, fees, and reviews. Produce a table with columns: Item, Current, Issue, Fix, Priority (P1/P2/P3).
Assign priority by expected impact, not by ease:
- P1 — blocks search matching entirely, or is the first thing a guest sees (cover photo, restrictive minimum stay, missing high-filter amenity, title).
- P2 — reduces conversion but does not block (description structure, photo order after the cover, amenity gaps in low-traffic filters).
- P3 — polish (caption wording, section tone).
Step 4: Write the replacement copy
Write the actual replacement text — not advice about what to write.
Non-negotiable rules for every listing:
- Never invent a feature. Only describe amenities, views, distances, and square footage the user has confirmed. A listing that overstates the space is a Reservation Issue under Airbnb's Rebooking and Refund Policy, which costs the host the payout. When a detail would strengthen the copy but is unconfirmed, write it as a bracketed prompt like
[confirm: distance to beach]and flag it in the delivery. - Respect the character limits. Airbnb title is 50 characters; Airbnb summary is 500. Vrbo headline is 20–80. Count them and show the count.
- Lead with the differentiator, not the category. "Cozy 2BR apartment" describes ten thousand listings. Name the one thing this property has that the comp set does not.
- Front-load the first 200 characters of the description — that is roughly what a guest reads before deciding to scroll.
Step 5: Deliver
Produce a single markdown file the user can work from, containing:
- The diagnosis (one paragraph).
- The scored rubric table.
- The rewritten fields, each in a copy-paste block with its character count.
- A photo re-order list, naming the first five in order and the reason for each.
- An amenities gap list — amenities to add that are real but unlisted, flagged by whether they are search filters.
- Open questions where the user must confirm a fact before publishing.
Deliver it as one document. Do not paste the whole audit into chat as well.
Guardrails
- Do not claim ranking magnitudes. Airbnb and Vrbo publish which signals they use, not how much each moves the needle. Say "Airbnb documents that lower-priced comparable listings tend to rank higher"; never say "this will lift you 30%."
- Do not fabricate platform rules. Say which facts are documented by the platform and which are inference. If asked something not covered by a documented rule, search for the current help-center article rather than guessing — both platforms changed materially in 2025 and 2026.
- Discrimination. Never write copy that signals a preference against, or targets, guests by race, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, familial status, or age. Legitimate accessibility limits are stated as property facts ("second-floor unit, 14 stairs, no elevator"), never as guest restrictions.
- Accessibility claims are held to the same standard as amenities: only state step-free access, doorway widths, or roll-in showers if the user has confirmed the measurement.