Critique my listing in West Virginia

[Eric5317]

I feel I am doing something wrong here. I get a lot of views, but somehow not that many bookings. Is there anything obvious that I am missing? 

thank you in advance!!

https://airbnb.com/h/bearwv

Eric

[Fred13 · Accepted solution]

Jeesh @Eric5317 You sure have some smashing places. You are batting 4.99 as is, hard to go up from there!

Three silly things: On the Rental Unit, a picture of the outside would be helpful so visitors can out the place in perspective.

On the condo, any chance of replacing the outside picture of the building but without the shutters down as if you are expecting a hurricane any moment or decided to shut it down for good? 😀

In the case of the cabin, what a setting! Perhaps eliminate the picture of that mass of potential 'trespassers' that give the impression they are just outside of your lovely cabin. The nerve of them!

Lovely places and you really are on top of the world with them. This is a very tricky year when it comes to bookings, I get the impression there is a subconscious undercurrent on the part of travelers not to commit too early; we are just beginning to fill 2024 when normally we would be 1-2 years booked ahead, as the past 8 years. 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Eric5317 ,

Fred has given some really nice insights for your listing!

Did you make any changes to your listing based on the feedback?

Did you have any luck with bookings since the time you posted? We would love to hear more of it!
 

[Kristen-and-Mike0]

Hi there @Fred13 !

Your place looks amazing. Love the suggestions so far. When you search your City/area do you show up in the list as you used to? We noticed our bookings and views are way way down and our place has almost 80 five star reviews. Cabins that are 50 miles alway we no reviews or bad reviews are coming up first?? We’ve been on Airbnb for four years and this is the first Summer we’ve had this algorithm problem. Airbnb was zero help so far. 

If you are in the list where you think you should be I would go with the suggestions of the others. 

good luck!

[Eric5317]

Thank you! I made some changes to my listing. Mostly replaced one do the bunk beds with a king bed. I feel before it was suited for a couple with kids. Here I will have 3 king beds and a full on full bunk. Lets see what happens. I will need a new photographer. 

[Fred13]

@Kristen-and-Mike0  Funny you should bring this up. Our case illuminates how capricious the present algorithm can be. This I have already brought up direct with some of the powers-that-be in Airbnb.

Back in May 2022 we placed first or second on any generic 'island' category search in Airbnb, since however we been bumped down as low as 48th and slowly crawled up to 13th (now).

Yet to this day, even at 13th, in front of us are islands upon islands that do not have a single (not 1) Airbnb review (we have 236/8 years) and in those first 12 before us are some that appear more than once because they are still listed as existing at 2-3 different locations ; i.e. Placencia Village, Belize City and/or just Placencia. Another few appear 2x because they are listed at different prices.

They did eliminated another flaw with this release (places listed as 'New' yet been listed like that for years without reviews) and it is a matter of time before cleaning up the above. It's a process and patience is a virtue.

[Kristen-and-Mike0]

I spent a few hours working on trying to beat the algorithm yesterday. I researched most popular keywords for our region and adds those within our listing, lowered our prices by $10 🤷🏼‍♀️, changed some photos, and some

other things that the internet and Airbnb said would help in regards to the algorithm. We went from like #75 to #1 in the search list for both cities that we are in and next to.  It’s extremely hard to believe but we just booked THREE reservations in under 24 hours 😂. I’m sure this won’t be the last time it’ll happen but at least I think I know how to temporarily fix.  Very annoying. My only complaint is that Airbnb needs to list the cabins actually IN the City first. Pretty simple request IMO. 

[Eric5317]

How did u find the proper keywords?  and did u use them in the over description or in photos description? 

Thanks!

[Fred13]

Very clever @Kristen-and-Mike0 . Every time we add something we listed via a photo and script, and it influences our position.