Hi @Airbnb,
Well there you go, you have just proven yourself wrong!
"we look at what guests click before and after visiting your listing. Sometimes you’d be surprised (and we are too) at what guests perceive as comparable".
Your assumption is wrong! Maybe guests do not perceive a listing as comparable, but they are just curious!
Did you even once analyze how many people clicked the first listing shown and the last listing shown – on any given search? The human brain is almost always running in economy-mode. So it is just much easier to click on the first item, than on the last one.
In ‘our’ town, there is a listing of a studio. Nothing much special, and actually a bit expensive for what’s on offer. But it pops up literally everywhere. And sticks to everybody else’s listings, like chewing gum under a shoe. Why: Most likely, because it simply has about the highest number of reviews in town (this host did start pretty early on Airbnb – as well).
My assumption: Highest or a very high number of reviews does seem to attract the Airbnb search engine.
No matter during what time of the year, when you look at this listing. You will always see the message: This listing is on people’s mind, as it has been viewed more than 500 times this week (listings in our town, that show this message - all year round, are really very rare).
Again, why? Well, you just simply can’t miss it, when you’re looking at other listings.
So when guests are searching for a place to stay. And after having looked at a few listings. They just get curious about this particular listing. As it constantly pops up! So simply out of curiosity, they will click this listing!
And as this listing is being viewed that many times, and because some people just cannot bring up the patience to look for another place to stay. They may as well just book this listing, when it seems to suit their needs.
Actually this listing is also part of my own “10-competitor” comparison view in the calendar. And I guess it will be present in that same view for about any other host in our town.
Now let’s have a look at a couple of differences:
Accommodation type:
- Ours: a 2-bedroom apartment, including air-conditioning and 2 large swimming pools on premise, Max guests: 5 persons
- Theirs: a studio, Max guests: 4 persons (real cozy!)
Area/Location: Completely different parts of town, attracting a completely different type of audience. Distance: 2,7 Kms!
Ratings:
- Ours: >4.9 (Superhost)
- Theirs: ±7 and scoring average (± 4.5) on: Value and Check-In
This host can’t be blamed for some overpricing of the listing. Simply knowing it is being found, that often among guests.
My point: You are simply drawing the wrong conclusion! By analyzing what potential guests click on.
Possible guests don’t always perceive another listing as comparable, they are just getting curious!
With no real intention to book that other listing.
It is my impression, the referenced listings (at the bottom of each listing), are a very powerful means for drawing guest’s attention. We’ve already had quite a bit of confirmed bookings from guests, that actually did build up pretty large wishlists of listings in our town, whilst our listing was not in there. Despite this, they ended up booking with us!
When I look at this, it is just a simple matter of self-fulfilling prophecy.
And my advice, would therefore be: Get away from your screens for a while and look at the real world outside. Or maybe add some members to the team, with a psychology or sociology background (experts in human behavior). The world cannot be modelled by just statistics and math. Or by analyzing data and mouse-clicks.
For 1 host to be able to charge an uplift of some 10%. And a 1,000 others are being told to lower their prices, does not sound like a very rigid business model.