Ten tips to receive more bookings (and earn back your gear)!
If you are new to Gearbooker, then welcome to the community! If you already have been a part of the community, then welcome back!
If you’re eager to get more bookings of your gear (and who wouldn’t like that?), then this blog post is for you. Below we will share 10 tips and tricks on how to receive more bookings and get a head start on Gearbooker as a creator!
Tip 1: Be responsive and act quick!
This is especially important for gear owners. Basically, it comes down to this:
“The quicker you respond, the higher your listings will be in the search results.”
Easy as that…
But also: the quicker you respond to messages and booking requests, the more of a responsive and attractive rental party you become. Especially, as your average response time is visible on your public profile and your listing pages. Think of it this way – nobody likes being ghosted or waiting for a reply for multiple days! First impressions are called first impressions for a reason!
Tip 2: Make it personal!
A profile that has been personalized and includes a good quality picture of yourself is guaranteed to increase your chance of more successful booking. After all, this is the first thing others see when visiting your profile. If you are a business account, we advise that you choose to upload a photo of yourself rather than a company logo. This way it feels more personal and less of a transaction between users.
Tip 3: Review and be reviewed!
This brings us to the next point. At the core of the platform is building trust between users. How can our community know whether to trust each other? By looking at the reviews left on their public profile pages. After each completed booking/transaction, you will receive a request via email asking you to leave a review on the profile of your rental partner. Just to illustrate the importance of reviews to you, by looking at the image below, would you be more likely to rent out gear from the person with no profile photo and 0 reviews or a person with a good quality photo and good reviews?
The more transactions, the more reviews, the more attractive your profile becomes to other users! This will help boost your listings in the search results even higher!
Tip 4: Be reliable in the eyes of others!
We are a community that thrives the best when users know who they are dealing with. By filling in all the necessary fieldsi in your personal profile, it immediately becomes more reliable in the eyes of other users.
Tip 5: The devil is in the details
Be accurate and try to avoid making mistakes when it comes to listing your gear. Not only is it important to list your gear in the right category, it is also important to make sure it has been given the correct title.
So, as a rule of thumb make sure that the brand, type, and product name are correctly stated here but don’t make it overly long.
When you search for gear on the platform, the search algorithm looks for specific keywords in your search phrase. If the titles of two listings contain the exact same set of keywords, the search algorithm will rank the listing with the shorter title higher in the search results.
Keep it short and sweet! Try to avoid lengthy titles for your gear! This way it is easier for other users to find your gear and not get overwhelmed by information!
Also be accurate when it comes to your rental prices: as equipment gets older and new successors enter the market, it may be that the prices are becoming too unattractive. Hence, we suggest that you as a gear owner check the current prices of the gear a few times per year! Just to make sure the rental prices are still fair and attractive!
Tip 6: More than just specs!
When writing up a description for a listing, try to say something more than just a copy-paste of the specifics from the manufacturer or retailer website. To give you some examples, you could mention what setting the equipment is best to use in and for what setting you would or would not recommend it for. Maybe you can also mention what you normally use the equipment for and why you like using the specific equipment!
Bonus tip here: on each of your listing pages, you can add frequently asked questions below your item! This will save you a lot of questions from people interested in booking your gear and will make you more attractive to rent from!
Add some FAQs below each of your listings. Your renter will love it! 🙂
How to add FAQs: open your listing page as if you were a potential renter. Scroll down to the section underneath the location map where you’ll see the FAQ header. Place there a question. Immediately thereafter, you can also post the answer. Both the question and the answer will become visible on your listing page!
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Tip 7: Best of both!
A good quality photo of yourself is one thing, yet that in combination with a good photo of your equipment allows you to stand out and make the product you are renting more attractive for others. Even though Gearbooker automatically provides you with suggestions for product photos, you are more than welcome to use your own images as well!
Another tip – you can add some YouTube videos about the product too! Like a video link to a review or a tutorial you’ve created yourself? Others are definitely going to appreciate such a personal approach to renting gear.
Tip 8: Share with friends… (and receive rental credit)
Another great way of increasing your booking numbers is sharing your Gearbooker “public profile” within your network. There is a high chance that this will lead to extra bookings.
Plus, each user also gets a personal login link they can share with friends and every new user that registers on Gearbooker via this link, will receive free rental credit at the start! You can find this link by going to your Gearbooker account and clicking on “Discount coupons”.
Tip 9: Embed on your own site!
Would you like to receive more bookings? Use the rental button widget on your website to attract more renters to your personal rental list on Gearbooker! You can do this by going to Rental widgets within your Gearbooker account. All you need to do is copy the line of code from the box and paste it between the <body> and <body> elements on your own site!
Tip 10: Lastly, be yourself!
The main tip we have for you is to just be yourself. Try to represent yourself in the most accurate and organic manner you can and let your creative vision shine through your Gearbooker account!
For more tips, you can check out the Gearbooker house rules !
