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 

[Sandra126]

@Sarah977 , that's how I used to feel. Press it again with determination, and just to test it out, open email, in body of text press control v and see if the screenshot doesn't appear. 

[Ann72]

I find all the results returned very democratic, with their mix of listing types and price ranges.

Similarly, the fact that there was so much overlap across all searches, which were conducted from 7 countries and from different devices and different levels of Airbnb use (in that some searchers were logged into Airbnb accounts and some weren't) also struck me as democratic for an opening search.

I imagine that once a guest starts drilling down and clicking through or favoriting items from the first search, the next set of results would be different for each of us.

@Ute42 is of course right that Superhosts don't necessarily occupy the first 5 search positions.  Based on what I've learned about the 100 factors that go into the ranking algos, more important factors are clicks, responsiveness, and listing freshness.

We can't control the clicks and that's frustrating.  But we can control responsiveness and listing freshness:

*One of the Superhost metrics is responsiveness.  So even if your stars get tanked by a few vengeful guests over the years and you lose your Superhost status, your responsiveness probably hasn't tanked. 

*Getting a booking or a review, making changes to your calendar, changing just one word in your listing description, or adding new photos refreshes the listing.

Many of you may have seen this article by a South African host who examined a larger sampling of data than we did.  It's at least three or four years old but has many interesting points:  https://medium.com/@childnick/hacking-airbnbs-search-rank-algorithm-8007a097382d

@Emilia42 @Sandra126 @Sarah977 @Debra300 @Anna9170 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Katrina79 

[Debra300]

One theory that I want to propose is that some of the low-rated listings appear high in the search results, because people frequently click on the listing just to see why the reason for the low ratings.  I will go read the article now to see the findings of data driven research.

@Ann72 @Emilia42 @Sandra126 @Sarah977 @Debra300 @Anna9170 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Katrina79 @Ute42 

[Ute42]

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@Ann72  

Here's an airbnb document from 2017:

Your top questions about Airbnb Search

Some of the statements they are making are true, some aren't. Pls read the document.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Your-top-questions-about-Airbnb-Search/m-p/509644

As You can see, airbnb themselfes state:

• Although we don't give an explicit boost to Superhosts in search ….........

As I have said before, being a superhost has no impact on Your positioning in search rsults. The main factor for becoming a superhost is a high average rating. As superhost has no impact on searchresults, consequentely a high average rating also has no impact on searchresults.

Don't be afraid of low star reviews, they don't hurt You at all.

I'll be writing more on this issue in the upcoming days.

cc: @Sandra126 @Sarah977 @Sarah977 @Debra300 @Anna9170 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Katrina79 

[Ann72]

@Ute42  You are most welcome.

[Katrina79]

So we can agree that super host has no bearing on page placement in search. @Ann72 @has good points that quick response time, clicks, and listing freshness help bump up your listings. However, I still think that an increase in revenue being fully booked and a price per night increase can catapult your listing without clicks or views, and not just one listing, but all listings under your profile. Although it’s almost impossible to manage getting fully booked at higher prices per night in average without getting the views. 

[Ann72]

@Katrina79  My experience has been identical to yours - each time I raise my rates, I actually see a surge in bookings.  And for every person who doesn't want to pay the higher rate there is another who books without question and leaves a 5 for value.  Some 4s for value mean that I'm not underpricing.  At least half of the 4s for value have come from guests who've gotten an off-season discount.  They would mark anyone down no matter what the price because that's how discount-seekers operate.

Regarding being fully booked:  I'd rather have 20 nights of the month booked at $200 a night than 30 nights booked at $100 a night.  More income, less wear and tear.

[Kelly149]

@Ann72 10000000 thumbs up for this if I could. 

occupancy is always the wrong metric. $/night is the important one. Even more so than total revenue

[Ann72]

@Kelly149  Yes!  So often I feel like the only person who believes this.  Hosts love to write "We are always fully booked" - but if that is true, I have a hard time believing they're charging enough to cover the wear and tear their property is getting.

[Sarah977]

@Katrina79  So even though Airbnb is always urging us to lower our prices, upping your price boosts you in search? Maybe part of Airbnb search algorithm is when your price goes up that means they'd get more service fees, so that's why?

[Katrina79]

@Sarah977 @Yes I think so, that’s how it appeared to me. My revenue went up because I changed my pricing to add more per night per guest after 2 guests where it used to be after 4 guests. I ended up with a month long stay for a family of five. So my vacancy rate rate dropped to 0 and my price per night went up. Both of those stats are reported on by Airbnb. I’m guessing they use those stats to track an increase or decrease in your revenue...and ultimately their revenue. Perhaps it’s a percentage increase in revenue that boosts your listing. 

[Ute42]

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Hi @Ann72 

I'm back from my preaching against the wall vacation.

I just did a search for London. The first 5 out of 300+ listings showing up in search results have an average average rating of 4.50*.

Oh boy, this is pretty low key. And none of them is a superhost-listing. 😊

cc: @Sarah977 @Kelly149 @Katrina79 @Sandra126 @Debra300 @Anna9170 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Robin4    

[Anna9170]

@Ute42  Ha, this is really interesting! ( same dates and number of guests)

[Ute42]

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@Anna9170 

😂  Good bye high ratings being importat. That's a fairy tale. 😂

[Ann72]

My exact same London search was 4.72 @Ute42, but I didn't get anything called "luxurious" or "elegant."  All I got was "beautiful," "lovely," "chic," and "cozy."  🤔