You have just published your listing on Airbnb and nobody is booking? The “new listing” promotion is the tool designed to land your first bookings and, above all, your first reviews. It has just changed, or rather Airbnb now describes it in two different ways depending on the page: that is the point to understand before you turn it on.
This article relies on the official Airbnb pages read for the occasion: the help page “How discounts are applied”, the promotional page “New Listing Promotion”, the “Host Discount Policy”, the help page “Why promotions may be removed”, the page “When custom promotions aren't available for listings” and the service-public.gouv.fr page on price display. The Airbnb pages are in English: the statements are our own paraphrases.
Last verification of sources: 28 October 2026. This is not personalised advice: check in your Airbnb account and, for pricing rules, according to your situation.
What is the “new listing” promotion?
It is a 20% discount that the host applies to the nightly price of a recent listing. According to Airbnb’s promotional page, it is optional: it applies automatically once activated, and appears in the price breakdown, in the emails sent to guests, and as a crossed-out price in search results and on the listing (the crossed-out display may vary by country). There is no commitment: you can stop it whenever you want.
To be eligible, the promotional page states that the listing must have fewer than 3 bookings and that Smart Pricing, Airbnb’s automatic pricing tool, must be turned off.
How long does it last: 3 bookings, or 3 reviews and 10 bookings?
The official pages do not say the same thing, and it is the help page that gives the broader rule. Here is what we read on 28 October 2026:
| Official Airbnb source | What it says about the duration |
|---|---|
| Help page “How discounts are applied” | 20% discount that applies until the listing receives 3 guest reviews or 10 bookings, whichever comes first |
| Promotional page “New Listing Promotion” | 20% discount on the next 3 bookings after activation |
The help page also specifies that any booking made with this discount stays discounted, even if the listing receives its third review before the stay begins. Specialist sites, such as the Elloha blog, report a change on 27 October 2026 with the same limit of 3 reviews or 10 bookings, and an application to stays scheduled within 180 days of the promotion being created. We did not find this 180-day window on the Airbnb pages we read: do not take it for granted. The safest approach is to read the conditions shown in your calendar, under “Discounts”, when you activate it.
Can it be combined with other promotions?
No: on a single booking, only one of these offers applies. The help page lists what applies only once per booking: the new listing promotion, the custom promotion, longer-stay discounts, early-bird discounts and last-minute discounts. The promotional page adds that, if several discounts are possible for the same stay, the new listing promotion takes priority and is not added to any other offer.
One exception exists: the “highly rated guest” discount (guests rated 4.8 or higher, with at least 3 host reviews) can be combined with one of the discounts above, according to the help page.
Airbnb’s first figures: how much are they worth?
Airbnb states that listings published in 2025 with the promotion received, over their first three months, more than 70% more bookings, nearly 65% more booked nights and about 40% more revenue than those without the promotion. It adds that more than 50% of these listings received at least one review, against about 35% for the others. These figures are Airbnb’s internal data, calculated on new listings from 2025 worldwide (up to March 2026 where applicable), with the note “results may vary by listing, location and market conditions”. This is not an independent study: take them as an argument from the platform, not as a promise for your property.
A fictional example to measure the cost
In a fictional example, 10 stays of 3 nights at 100 € per night cost 600 € in discounts. The calculation is as follows (Majordia calculation, for illustration):
| Per stay | Over 10 bookings | |
|---|---|---|
| Price without discount (3 nights at 100 €) | 300 € | 3,000 € |
| 20% discount | 60 € | 600 € |
| Price paid excluding fees | 240 € | 2,400 € |
The discount applies to the nightly price, excluding cleaning and service fees, according to Airbnb’s Host Discount Policy. What you buy with these 600 € is bookings that might not have happened and, above all, reviews: without reviews, a listing is less reassuring. It is up to you to compare this cost with what an empty calendar for a month would cost you.
What starting price before the discount?
The price before the discount must be the real price: a discount is only valid if it starts from the price you actually charge. Airbnb’s Host Discount Policy asks for a “real discount”: the discounted price must be lower than the usual price for that date, the starting price must be the actual price guests would pay, it must not be created or adjusted to give the appearance of a discount, and the discount must be temporary. Airbnb can check, remove the display of discounts, limit your ability to add them, or even suspend the listing. The page “Why promotions may be removed” gives an example: a host who raises their price just before applying a promotion, or while it is running, risks having the promotion removed.
In France, the service-public.gouv.fr page on price display states, for products, that any announcement of a reduction must show the reduction and a reference price, that is, the price charged for at least 30 days before the reduction. That page covers products rather than nightly stays, and it is dated July 2024: we did not find a page dedicated to holiday rental prices. Keep the logic in mind, do not inflate the price before the discount, and check what applies to you with an advisor, according to your situation.
How to set your price for the first guests?
Start from the price you plan to charge afterwards, not from an inflated price. If you hesitate, see our article on pricing for a small portfolio. The 20% discount applies to that price: the more realistic it is, the more honest and useful the promotion remains.
And after the promotion?
When the promotion ends, other discounts take over, but with conditions. According to Airbnb’s help page, the custom promotion requires at least 3 bookings on the listing, including at least one in the last 365 days; the dates must be unblocked at the time of activation and available for at least 28 days; only 50% of the nights in a month can be promoted; it does not apply if you already have standard weekly or monthly discounts on the listing; and a night cannot be more expensive than your highest booked price of the past year. Weekly discounts (7 nights or more) and monthly discounts (28 nights or more) remain possible: according to another help page, discounts of 10% or more appear in search results.
How to turn these first bookings into good reviews?
The promotion brings the first guests; it is the welcome and the stay that produce the reviews. Three simple steps:
- A clear welcome message before arrival: see our templates for scheduled messages.
- A property that matches the listing, with what a guest expects to find: see our guide to mistakes and getting started on Airbnb.
- A review request on Airbnb only: do not send your guests to another site to rate their stay, as Airbnb’s policy for bookings made from 20 November 2026 forbids it (see our article on contracts, ID documents and apps). For the approach and 5-star reviews, see our article on reviews.
Majordia can help with the welcome: a free welcome book with no sign-up, accessible through a QR code, automatically translated into 6 languages, with Wi-Fi, access and contacts. It does not replace your price or your promotion, it simply avoids the questions on the evening of arrival.
Key takeaways
Information
- Promotion: 20% off the nightly price for a recent listing; optional, no commitment, Smart Pricing turned off; fewer than 3 bookings to qualify (Airbnb promotional page).
- Duration: the help page says “until 3 reviews or 10 bookings, whichever comes first”; the promotional page still talks about the next 3 bookings. The 180-day window reported by the specialist press is not confirmed by the pages read.
- Stacking: only one promotion of this group per booking; the “highly rated guest” discount can be added to it.
- Airbnb figures: +70% bookings, +65% nights, +40% revenue over 3 months for 2025 listings, internal data, results vary.
- Price honesty: the price before the discount must be the real price; an inflated promotion can be removed.
- Not read: Booking conditions, a French page dedicated to nightly prices, details of the 180-day window: check in your account.
FAQ
Is the new listing promotion mandatory?
No, it is optional, with no commitment, and you can stop it at any time, according to Airbnb’s promotional page.
How long does it last?
The Airbnb help page read on 28 October 2026 talks about 3 reviews or 10 bookings, whichever comes first. The promotional page talks about the next 3 bookings. Look at the conditions shown in your calendar.
Can I combine it with a weekly or monthly discount?
No, according to the help page: only one of these offers applies per booking, and the new listing promotion takes priority. The “highly rated guest” discount is the only one that can be combined.
Do I have to turn off Smart Pricing?
Yes, according to Airbnb’s promotional page: the listing must have fewer than 3 bookings and Smart Pricing must be turned off.
Are cleaning fees discounted?
No: the discount applies to the nightly price, excluding cleaning and service fees, according to Airbnb’s Host Discount Policy.
Can I raise my price and then apply the promotion?
That is the textbook case of a misleading discount: according to Airbnb, the promotion can be removed if the price is raised just before it is applied or while it is running.
Activate, measure, then go back to the normal price
Activate the promotion if your listing does not yet have its first reviews, check the conditions shown in your calendar, and plan to return to the normal price afterwards. To prepare the welcome for your first guests, the welcome book generator in the Essential offer (free, add-ons à la carte) creates a welcome book and its QR code with no sign-up.
Image credits. Cover: photo “Three assorted-color tags” by Angèle Kamp, Unsplash, Unsplash license. In-text photos: “Two white towels folded into bow shapes on a bed with grey bedding” by engin akyurt, Unsplash, and “A neatly made bed with white linens in a bedroom” by ubeyonroad, Unsplash, Unsplash license.
