What To Do When You’re a Brand New Listing With No Reviews

As a new Airbnb listing with no reviews, you’ve probably run into this reality: you have a beautiful space, great amenities, and a strong desire to succeed, but no one is booking. The number one reason? You have no reviews yet.

Guests don’t want to book a place without reviews, but you can’t get reviews until someone books. Thankfully, there are proven tactics that can help you break through this early friction and start getting bookings, even as a brand-new listing. In this article, we’ll walk you through what steps to take, focusing on how pricing tactics (especially with tools like PriceLabs) can accelerate your early success.

Bonus Read: 7 Proven Tips for Hosts to Get More Bookings on Airbnb

Why Reviews Matter So Much (And Why It’s Okay That You Don’t Have Them Yet)

Guest reviews are a form of social proof—they show potential guests that others have stayed at your property and had a good experience. Platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo also prioritize listings with strong reviews in search results, giving those hosts an algorithmic edge even if you’re a new Airbnb listing with no reviews.

But everyone starts somewhere. Every Superhost once had zero reviews. And the good news is that guests will book new listings—you just have to sweeten the deal a bit to build trust in other ways.

1. Nail Your Listing Presentation: Photos and Copy Matter More Than Ever

With a new Airbnb listing with no reviews, your listing photos and description do the heavy lifting.

#1 Photos

1. Use natural light and show every room clearly.
2. Highlight unique features (a cozy reading nook, a stocked kitchen, a balcony with a view).
3. Avoid overediting—guests want to trust what they see.

You don’t need a professional photographer, but you do need well-composed and high-resolution Airbnb photos. If your phone has a good camera and you take the time to stage the space, that’s often good enough to start.

#2 Description

Follow these guidelines for Airbnb descriptions & Title:

1. Be detailed and friendly.
2. Anticipate questions: Is there free parking? Is the kitchen fully equipped? Is check-in contactless?
3. Emphasize that the listing is new and you’re offering an introductory price to build reviews.

And yes, you can literally include a sentence like: “We’re new to the platform and excited to welcome our first guests! That’s why we’re offering a special discounted rate this month.”

STRings: Airbnb Description Generator is a powerful tool that employs Artificial Intelligence to generate compelling, relevant, and best Airbnb descriptions for your listing within seconds.

Our Airbnb description generator does the following:

1. Instant Creation: STRings uses AI, specifically ChatGPT, to create personalized, engaging, and the best Airbnb descriptions.
2. Boost Bookings: Crafting a well-crafted Airbnb description is crucial for attracting more guests, improving your booking rate, and making your listings stand out in the crowded Airbnb marketplace.
3. First Impression: Your title and description are often the first things potential guests see. They play a pivotal role in their decision to book your property, making it essential to have an attention-grabbing and informative description.
4. User-Friendly: Whether you’re a seasoned host or new to Airbnb, STRings makes it easy to generate captivating content that can significantly impact your property’s booking success.

It’s important to note that this is an exploratory project. While the generated content is AI-powered, it’s recommended that you proofread and fine-tune the final titles and descriptions to ensure they align perfectly with your property’s unique features and offerings. If you want to go deeper, here’s a full breakdown on how to optimize your Airbnb listing content for better performance.

2. Optimize for Stay Length and Booking Window

You want to maximize your chances of getting those first few bookings as a new Airbnb listing with no reviews. One often-overlooked strategy is to reduce friction around booking behavior.

#1 Encourage Shorter Stays

While longer bookings might be more profitable in the long run, short stays help you:

• Increase booking frequency.
• Accumulate reviews faster.
• Reach more types of guests (business travelers, staycationers, etc.).

With PriceLabs’ dynamic Minimum Stay settings, you can allow 1-night or 2-night stays only under specific conditions:

Minimum Stay Settings

• For the first 30 days after the listing goes live.
• During orphan gaps (e.g., 1-2 day gaps between longer bookings).
• On low-demand weekdays or slower seasons.

This is done through PriceLabs’ Minimum Stay Profiles, which let you define rules based on lead time, day of the week, and booking window. For example, you can set a rule where if a date is within 7 days and has low occupancy, the minimum stay is reduced to 1 night.

Minimum Stay Profiles

This flexibility increases calendar utilization without sacrificing revenue during higher-demand periods.

#2 Target Last-Minute Travelers

People booking last-minute are more willing to take a chance on a listing without reviews. You can target them using PriceLabs in two key ways:

Last-minute booking minimum stay setting

1. Last-Minute Pricing Adjustments: Automatically reduce nightly booking rates 0-3 or 0-7 days out. This is a powerful nudge for spontaneous bookers.
2. Shorter Minimum Stays for Last-Minute: Combine last-minute discounts with shorter stay lengths. A solo traveler looking to book for tonight is far more likely to convert if they can stay just one night.

You can build these settings into your account using PriceLabs’ advanced customization, either as part of your Default Minimum Stay Profile or through specific date-specific overrides.

Date-Specific Overrides for Discounts

These guests often book emotionally, not analytically. A sharp-looking listing with a good deal will often win, especially when you remove unnecessary barriers.

3. Provide Competitive Discounts

Offering discounts when launching a new Airbnb listing with no reviews is a powerful way to attract bookings and gain those initial reviews.

Here’s how you can leverage PriceLabs to implement effective pricing strategies and special offers:

#1 Early Bird and Last-Minute Discounts

Offer a discount for advance bookings to encourage guests to commit, even without reviews. PriceLabs lets you set discounts for guests who book several days ahead.

Use last-minute discounts to attract spontaneous guests if your calendar isn’t filling up. PriceLabs allows dynamic discounts based on the booking window.

Last-minute prices

These discounts help your new listing stand out by offering an attractive price, even without reviews.

#2 Length-of-Stay Discounts

PriceLabs also lets you offer discounts for longer stays, such as 10% off for 7-night stays. This strategy works well for new listings, as guests are often less concerned with reviews for longer stays, especially when the price is right. Offering these discounts ensures higher occupancy rates and attracts price-conscious travelers.

#3 Seasonal and Event-Based Discounts

PriceLabs lets you adjust pricing for specific dates, making offering targeted discounts during peak seasons or local events easy. This can make your new listing more attractive to guests looking for accommodations during high-demand periods, even if you don’t yet have reviews.

You can create custom seasonal profiles for each season for which you want to set different prices.

Custom Seasonal Profile

4. Use Market Data to Stay Competitive

Market Dashboards give you a data-driven window into how your property stacks up against the competition.

Instead of guessing what your nightly rate should be or how long guests book in your area, you can access granular insights like:

PriceLabs Market Dashboard

1. Average nightly rates in your specific location
2. Occupancy trends by season or day of the week
3. Lead time (booking window) data, showing how far in advance guests typically book
4. Minimum stay patterns across comparable listings
5. Listing count and length of stay trends to gauge market saturation

But it goes deeper. Market Dashboards also show:

1. The distribution of rates across different bedroom counts and property types
2. Which amenities are commonly offered by top-performing listings
3. Future demand projections based on booking pick-up trends

How Does This Helps Your New Listing?

You can’t afford to price based on gut feeling when you’re a new Airbnb listing with no reviews.

You need:

1. Benchmarking: Understand where your pricing falls relative to the market. Is your launch discount meaningful? Are you underpricing too much?
2. Promo planning: Identify demand spikes (e.g., holidays, local events) to know when you can reduce your discount and maximize earnings.
3. Amenity differentiation: See what features are common or rare in your area. If only 10% of listings offer a workspace or hot tub and you have one, highlight that prominently.
4. Occupancy goals: Gauge realistic occupancy targets based on what similar listings are actually achieving month to month.

Read more: Bonus Read: The Ultimate Airbnb Listing Optimization Strategy: Rank Higher & Get More Bookings

By tailoring both your listing presentation and pricing strategy to actual local performance data, you dramatically increase your odds of landing those crucial first bookings.

5. Communicate Like A Superhost

Strong communication is key to securing bookings and earning trust as a new Airbnb listing with no reviews. Here’s how you can act like a Superhost right from the start:

1. Respond Quickly to Inquiries: Prompt replies show you’re a reliable host and help increase your chances of booking. Aim to respond within a few hours to any messages or booking requests.
2. Be Helpful and Clear: Provide clear, detailed information about check-in times, house rules, and property features. Be transparent and helpful, ensuring your guests feel confident about their booking.
3. Share Local Tips and Check-in Details: Give guests local recommendations for restaurants or attractions, and make check-in as smooth as possible by sending clear instructions ahead of time. You can also go beyond Airbnb and promote your listing externally to build early traction.
4. Send a Thoughtful Follow-Up After the Stay: Thank your guests for staying and politely ask for a review. A kind message after checkout helps leave a positive impression and encourages feedback.
5. Make Guests Feel Valued: Remember, your first guest is taking a chance on your new listing. Make sure they feel respected, valued, and appreciated throughout their stay to foster trust and encourage positive reviews.

Bonus Read: 10 Ways High-Quality Listing Content Boosts Vacation Rental Bookings

Wrapping Up

With the right approach, launching a short-term rental with no reviews doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. You can earn your first few bookings and generate momentum through strategic discounts, smart automation using PriceLabs, stellar listing presentation, and great communication.

Once you get those early reviews, it becomes a virtuous cycle: more trust leads to more bookings, which leads to more revenue. And it all starts with a few smart moves right out of the gate.