Airbnb Automatically Changing My Cover Photo in Search Results

[Karen4131]

Hi everyone,

I've recently noticed a significant drop in my listing's click-through rate.

https://www.airbnb.dk/rooms/43741420

I used to have around an 80% click-through rate, but after Airbnb started displaying a different photo as the cover photo in search results (even though my original cover photo is still marked as the cover in my listing), my click-through rate has dropped to around 40%.

I haven't made any changes myself, so I suspect this might be due to Airbnb’s algorithm automatically choosing a different photo based on their internal data. However, I believe my original photo better represents my property and usually attracts more clicks.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Do you have any tips on how to encourage Airbnb to use my preferred cover photo, or how to best handle this situation? Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Best regards,

Karen

[Andrea6232 · Accepted solution]

Ciao @Karen4131 

It happens to me when you do a search by category. You can delete the photo that appears as the cover and then insert it again but it is only a temporary solution because then the system continues to change it 😟

Andrea

https://airbnb.com/h/la-casa-sul-canale-con-piscina-jacuzzi-in-giardino

[Karen4131]

Hi @Andrea6232 

Thanks for answering and for the tip. I’ll try that. - What a nice place you have in Venice 🙌

Best,

Karen

[Sam7649]

@Andrea6232 There is a bug in their photo tour setup. Deleting the picture doesn't solve the problem, as you mentioned, as the setup will pick up another random photo as the cover. It's frustrating that you can't manually select the pictures in your preferred order. I hope they fix this issue soon. For me, this is a critical issue, but their team hasn't prioritized this fix yet. 

[Andrea6232]

@Sam7649 , as matter of fact this is not the only bug ... 😂