When businesspeople seek to market a product or service, they tout the selling points of that service. What are the features and benefits of their product/service that their target market most desires? Those are points that get promoted and advertised The same is true for short-term rental (STR) hosts. Selling points must be at the […]

See all my articles about short-term rental listings. In the vast majority of Airbnb listing critiques I write for members of my Facebook group Critique My Airbnb Listing, I include this passage: “I recommend a narrative verbal tour that enables guests to envision themselves in the space – a key to attracting guests.” This passage […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description, and more. I’m about to take a big risk. I’m about to expose my biggest trade secret as a writer of short-term rental (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) listings. Of course, the secret is already out there – […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description, and more. Some members of my Facebook group Critique My Airbnb Listing had a disagreement recently over a host who is targeting remote workers and business travelers with his airport-adjacent rental unit. He even used “Work […]

I’ve been a student of short-term rental listings for a year now since I started my listing-writing service and even more so after I launched my Critique My Airbnb Listing Facebook group at the beginning of 2023. In the many listings I critique in the group, I see consistent mistakes. Here are 10 of them: […]

Fiction Where We Belong, by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This was the fifth book I’ve read by Hyde, an author I like for her old-school style and heartwarming subject matter (e.g., kids, dysfunctional families, animals, curmudgeons). In this one, 14-year-old Angie is the glue that keeps her struggling family – an immature mother who depends too […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description and more. Along with your photos and listing title/headline, your 500-word (Airbnb only) opening paragraph is one of the first pieces of content to draw prospective guests into your listing. It should be the “hook” that […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description, and more. In my work with the clients for whom I write listing descriptions, I’ve steered away from words like “renovated” because I believe they don’t have much meaning for guests since guests don’t know what […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description, and more. In my work as a writer of short-term rental listing descriptions, I’m amazed at how many short-term rental hosts fail to include photo captions in their listing descriptions. After all, photos will probably get […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description, and more. Along with your cover photo, the first aspect of your listing likely to catch a prospective guest’s attention is your title, also known as a headline. On Airbnb, this title is limited to 50 […]

See all my articles on short-term-rental listing writing, including on titles/headlines, photo captions, opening paragraphs, the full listing description, and more. Once a short-term rental property is physically ready to be listed on a platform such as Airbnb, VRBO, and perhaps others, the host faces two daunting tasks – getting enticing photos taken for the […]

My goal used to be 52 books a year, but after I read 75 last year, I decided to keep striving for that number. (This year I read 52+ in fiction alone.) I ended up with 77 books this year, squeezing the 77th in by finishing it on Dec. 31, after my final public release […]

As of Dec. 27, 2021 … I did something different this year; I wrote a review of each book as I finished reading it instead of waiting till the end of the year. One result is some reviews that are longer than what I’ve written in the past. The lists (fiction and nonfiction respectively) are […]

I started compiling this list in early November on a day when I had several projects to complete but felt the need to procrastinate with a project more fun than those looming over me. At that point, I was making excuses for the paltriness of the list, even though I nearly doubled last year’s puny […]

Few aspects of short-term rental (STR) hosting cause more stress than the quest for great reviews. Many hosts find the review systems on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO unfair and less-than-intelligent, while others refuse to succumb to the tyranny of reviews. For those hosts who care deeply about good reviews, this article offers tips on […]

I use Grammarly’s plagiarism checker because I’m an original and expect my students to be, too. If you fear or loathe writing assignments, this post will help you by providing strategies for effectively tackling a typical college writing assignment. For many students, writing is the most difficult part of attaining academic success. Some have little difficulty […]

In my continuing quest to establish myself as an online instructor, I’m doing as much as I can to learn about the nuances of this mode of teaching. Since January, I’ve belonged to a terrific networking group, ExclusiveEDU, based on Facebook. To further educate myself, I’m conducting occasional Q&As with members of the group, some […]