Let's talk about search

[Ann72]

Some of us got off-topic on another thread, but I wanted to talk about it some more, so I'm starting this.

I'm SO curious about how guests use the filters when they search but I know that as @Ute42 said we will never be told.  I have heard that the algorithm uses something like 100 factors to rank our listings.  But how do guests search and how are the results impacted by what filters they use?

It might be interesting for 4 or 5 of us to conduct the exact same search with an incognito window.  We can decide on a place, dates, and number of guests and then screenshot what we find.  I don't know if this will actually tell us anything, but that's the nature of experiments.

Would love to hear what you've all observed.  Full disclosure - I have no idea how people find my places, since the location part of the algo is so very, very strange.  I'm sometimes more likely to show up in a search for a town an hour's drive away than I am for a search in my town.

@Ute42 @Sarah977 @Katrina79 @Robin4 @Emilia42 @Debra300 @Kelly149 @Anonymous @Colleen253 @Anna9170 

[Ann72]

@Katrina79  I looked too fast from my own phone when I was walking the dog 🤣 That is funny about the possible flagging!

[Ann72]

Search performed in Chrome incognito window on MacOS Catalina 10.15.4

@Anna9170 @Katrina79 @Emilia42 

[Emilia42]

Here are the first 9 results . . . The biggest thing that I take away here is, if you look at the map, many listings on the first pages are far away from "Vancouver" so I would think many guests would be zooming in closer to where they think they want to be.

[Ann72]

@Emilia42  Interesting that we both had the same one first.  I had not zoomed in at all.

My main takeaway is that they throw a variety of places at you because they're not sure if you're going to go in the direction of vintage charm or high-rise sleek, over $100 or under $100 a night, or what.  I thought they might base results somewhat on previous trips and searches, too.

[Debra300]

@Ann72 @Katrina79 @Emilia42 @Anna9170 @Emiel1 @Ute42 

I did a search in an Edge private window on a Dell XPS with my NordVPN logged onto an Atlanta IP. 

I closed the results map.  The search results remained in the same order, and went from left to right in descending order.

[Debra300]

@Ann72 @Katrina79 @Emilia42 @Anna9170 @Emiel1 @Ute42 

I did another search with the VPN turned off, and now with a St. Lucia IP.  The results were a little different than the first search with a US IP on Edge.

I closed the search results map, and the order of the results changed.

[Ann72]

@Debra300  Fascinating!!  I'm beginning to draw some conclusions and they're not negative.  I think I'll print out the results and look at them together and try to catalogue similarities and differences.  

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

I just realized that the results from the first search with a US IP did change in order a little bit after I closed the search results map.

[Ute42]

.

@Ann72   

I also did a search:

Win Laptop No1 (airbnb knows this computer, I have 3 laptops)

IP enabled

all coockies enabled

search done from Germany

Destination: Vancouver

no zoom in

2 people,

entire place

no price range

May 1-5 2021

2 cappuccino

1 cigarette

Dear fellowhost, pls sit well back and relax. (drumroll): The No. 1 listing showing up in my search has an average rating o 4.68* (47 reviews) and it's not a superhost-listing.

And the No. 8 listing in Debra's search has a 4.42* average rating (186 reviews), no superhost listing either.

Pls everybody out there understand: The average rating or being a superhost has no impact at all on Your positioning in search results. You can be perfectly successful renting on airbnb with a 4.5* listing.

So next time You get a 1* review don't get excited: Thank You, next guest pls.

cc: @Debra300 @Katrina79 @Emilia42 @Anna9170 

[Ann72]

@Ute42  This is fascinating and of course underscores what you've been telling us:

Don't stress the occasional low-star bad review.

I'll get more results together later today.

[Ute42]

.

Ann72

And @Katrina79  's No 1 in search results is a listing that has no average rating at all, it's a brandnew listing with zero reviews.

That's what the airbnb-algorythm does: It pushes new listings up in search results, then this listing gets many bookings and within 3 or 6 months the host of this place becomes superhost.

Now this host is totally excited over the badge and does everything in his or her power not to lose the superhost-status. This host will now please please please the guests and get on a „Yes Sir, Yes Ma'am“ one way street.

This, dear Ann, is the purpose of the superhost program, nothing else.

I'm preaching this now for more than a year, but noone understands me.

[Anna9170]

@Ann72 

[Anna9170]

@Ute42   
"

That's what the airbnb-algorythm does: It pushes new listings up in search results, then this listing gets many bookings and within 3 or 6 months the host of this place becomes superhost.

Now this host is totally excited over the badge and does everything in his or her power not to lose the superhost-status. This host will now please please please the guests and get on a „Yes Sir, Yes Ma'am“ one way street." (C)
Yes, absolutely brilliant, nothing to add!😎

Before buying and renting out my apartments, and controlling this process completely, I worked as a guest Manager for other hosts. This algorithm works exactly like that, and it's a drug that airbnb gets hooked on. Or there is another side of the coin, there are hosts (I know, because I worked with this one) who don't give a **bleep** about all the guests and reviews, and there are terrible living conditions and a rating of 4.2* but this object is in the top 10 in my region.😆@Ann72  @Debra300  @Katrina79  @Emilia42 

[Ann72]

@Anna9170 @Ute42 @Debra300 @Katrina79 @Emilia42  Results are in.

Top 5 search results averaged across 7 different searches had an average star rating of 4.4.  There were three 0-star listings because they are new, and therefore appear higher in search.

83% of the results were hosted by a SuperHost.  We don't know if Vancouver hosts are more likely to be SuperHosts than other locales.  Because I love Canadians I am assuming this to be the case 😂😂😂

Note on price:  Searches from US computers returned lower prices.  The higher prices for searches conducted from other countries could be due to online currency exchange data that I used today.  Otherwise I don't know how to account for something that looks punitive.

I only used price, star, and SH status data.  If anyone has suggestions for adding more data I'm happy to go farther.

[Anna9170]

@Ann72 
I'm russian live and work in Spain, and my laptop and browser are in russian language,  it's more convenient for me ))) geolocation is enabled for the real current location - Catalonia. 
if you want, I can go to airbnb Spain and do this search from there, so that the experiment is complete.😎