5 tips for a listing that actually gets booked

1. Take the photo in decent light, straight on. A dim, angled phone photo taken in a cupboard reads as "this person doesn't really want to lend this." Two minutes near a window fixes that.

2. Write what it's actually good for, not just what it's called. "Cordless drill, good for shelf brackets and flat-pack furniture, comes with 3 bits" tells a borrower more in one line than "Drill" ever will.

3. Price it like you'd want to pay for it. Look at what's already listed in your society for similar items before picking a number — pricing well above the going rate is the single most common reason a listing sits with zero requests.

4. Set a deposit that matches the item's real value — see our piece on how deposits and refunds work for why this protects everyone, not just you.

5. Keep it marked available when it's actually available. A listing that says available but gets rejected twice teaches borrowers to stop checking it.