Your Flatmates tools
Getting the most from your Insights dashboard
The Insights dashboard holds more genuinely useful information than most hosts ever actually use, tracking views, enquiries, booking conversion, and earnings in one place. Knowing exactly what each section actually shows you, and how to read it properly, turns it from a page you glance at occasionally into a real tool for growing your hosting business.
Start with the overview panel for your headline numbers
The overview panel gives you views, enquiries, and bookings at a glance for your selected time period, which is the fastest way to get a general sense of how your listing is trending before diving into any more detailed section.
Understand the difference between views, enquiries, and bookings
Views count anyone who saw your listing in search, enquiries count anyone who reached out or started a booking, and bookings count actual confirmed stays - tracking how these numbers narrow at each stage tells you exactly where potential guests are dropping off.
Use the date range selector to compare different periods
Rather than only looking at your current numbers in isolation, use the date range selector to compare this month against last month, or the same month a year ago, which reveals trends a single snapshot simply can't show you on its own.
Check the earnings section for a clear financial picture
The earnings section breaks down confirmed income by period, giving you a genuine financial view separate from the booking-volume metrics elsewhere on the dashboard, useful for both your own planning and broader financial tracking.
Pay attention to your search ranking indicators where shown
Some sections of Insights hint at how your listing is performing in search ranking specifically, through impression and click-through data, which is worth checking periodically rather than only focusing on booking numbers alone.
Filter by stay type if you list both rent and shortlet
If you offer both rent and shortlet, use the available filters to view performance separately for each, since blending the two together in one combined view can obscure meaningful differences in how each is actually performing.
Set a regular, recurring time to actually review the dashboard
Insights only delivers real value if you're actually looking at it consistently - block out a specific, recurring time each week or month to review it properly, rather than checking sporadically whenever you happen to remember.
Use the comparison view against similar listings where available
Some sections of Insights offer anonymised comparison data against similar listings in your area, giving you a useful, real benchmark for whether your specific numbers are genuinely strong or have real room for improvement.
Export or screenshot key data for your own longer-term records
Since dashboard views typically only cover a limited historical window, periodically saving or exporting key figures gives you a longer-term record to track your own progress across years, not just the most recent few months.
Don't let dashboard-checking become a source of anxiety
It's easy to develop a habit of checking Insights too obsessively, reading too much into every small fluctuation - use it as a genuine tool for informed decisions, not as a source of daily stress over numbers that naturally vary.
Combine what you see here with your own on-the-ground context
Insights tells you what's happening, but you're the one who knows why, a local event, a seasonal shift, a recent listing change - combining the data with your own context produces far better decisions than the numbers alone.
Learn to read the dashboard on mobile as well as desktop
Since you're likely to check Insights from your phone more often than from a desktop browser, take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with how the mobile view presents the same information, since a slightly different layout can otherwise cause you to miss a section you'd normally rely on when checking from a computer.
Bookmark or pin the sections you check most frequently
If the dashboard allows customising which panels appear first or are most prominent, set it up around the specific metrics you personally check most often, saving yourself the small but real friction of navigating to the same section repeatedly every time you open the dashboard.
New hosts should expect the data to look thin at first, and that's fine
With only a handful of bookings so far, don't expect Insights to reveal dramatic patterns yet - the dashboard becomes considerably more useful once you have a genuine volume of bookings and views behind you, so treat early data as a starting point rather than a definitive verdict on how your listing performs.
Revisit the dashboard's help or tooltip explanations occasionally
Most dashboards include brief explanatory tooltips next to less obvious metrics, and it's worth actually reading these occasionally rather than assuming you already know exactly what every figure means, since a misunderstood metric can lead to a genuinely misguided decision.
Understand that some metrics naturally lag behind real-time activity
A handful of figures on the dashboard update with a slight delay rather than instantly, so if a very recent booking or message doesn't yet appear reflected in the numbers, that's normal processing lag rather than a genuine error worth troubleshooting or reporting.
Use Insights before, not just after, making a significant listing change
Check your current baseline numbers deliberately before making a significant change, a price adjustment, new photos, so you have a genuine, clear before-and-after comparison to actually evaluate whether the change had the effect you were hoping for.
Share relevant screenshots with a co-manager rather than assuming they've seen them
If someone else helps with your listing but doesn't have direct dashboard access, periodically sharing a quick screenshot or summary keeps them meaningfully informed without requiring you to grant full account access purely for visibility purposes.
Treat mastering this dashboard as an ongoing skill, not a one-time task
Like most tools, your ability to read and act on Insights data improves the more consistently you use it, so treat learning to interpret it well as an ongoing skill you're continuing to build, not something you either already fully know or don't.
Look for an option to set custom alerts tied to specific metrics
Some dashboards let you configure a custom alert for a metric crossing a specific threshold, a conversion rate dropping below a certain level, for instance, which gives you a genuinely proactive early warning rather than only discovering an issue the next time you happen to check manually.
Cross-reference Insights data with your own booking calendar directly
Viewing your Insights figures alongside your actual calendar for the same period can reveal useful context, whether a strong booking month happened to align with a specific pricing decision or simply a naturally busier stretch worth understanding on its own separate terms.
A well-understood dashboard makes onboarding a co-manager considerably easier
If you eventually bring on a co-manager with dashboard access, your own solid understanding of how to read it means you can actually explain it clearly to them, rather than both of you learning the same tool separately and potentially inconsistently.
A final habit worth adopting
Pair every dashboard review with one small, concrete action, even a minor one, so the habit stays genuinely useful rather than becoming a passive ritual of scrolling through numbers without ever actually acting on what they show.
