Listing Views

[Chris25282]

I'm looking for help from some experts that aren't Airbnb's support staff, who are misleading me.

Over the past few months, my co-host and I have been monitoring our listing's Views within Insights, following a decline in bookings. This feature is meant to provide the last 7 or 30 day views, and is roughly 3 days behind.

I'm on the Android app, my co-host is on the iPhone app, and of course there is the web/desktop version. Not a single one of these is consistent. I even had a two week period where I was seeing 0 30-day Views and my co-host saw 400+ Views.

When I challenged support in multiple support cases, they are telling me that Views cannot be viewed in the app (false!), that it differs across platforms (how...it's the same listing), and that it's based on the dates someone searches (huh??).

What's also confusing is I saw 0 Views for the entire county - which also makes no sense.

Please can someone help me understand the algorithm and logic behind Views?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Chris25282 I never found views to be reliable. It often showed zero views for times when we had a booking so clearly made no sense. How it works remains a mystery to me but I think the views are based on the dates searched for otherwise the number of views in the future would always be zero. 

[Joan2709]

@Chris25282 

I agree with @Mike-And-Jane0  about "Views". Here is something to keep in mind with Views. Its also is a 90-day preceding metric, so may be misleading to some Hosts who think its real time:

Views can give you an idea if there is something causing friction preventing a guest from booking once they click into the listing from the cover photo if views don't convert to bookings. 

Is it additional guest fees so the price goes up when they enter more guests?

Is it the pet fee is too high when they enter the number of pets (if you accept pets)?

Is it the photos are not good quality>

Is the listing description vague or inadequate?

Are the sleeping arrangements not clear?

However, once you start getting bookings, your views will naturally go down (less calendar availability) and this metric becomes less useful.

I find Wishlists to be a better barometer combined with views on Custom Promotions set on the calendar. This gives me a good idea of potential bookings. If Wishlists increase, this means guests are serious about booking. Custom Promotion views also give me an idea if I am about to get a booking. You get a feel for each property and how many Custom Promotions it takes before a booking will happen.

[Chris25282]

@Joan2709 This is the most informed response I've received to-date and makes so much sense the way you laid it out. I don't understand why it's so difficult for support to explain things so clearly!

It doesn't cover why the different platforms vary in stats, but I think I'll follow your lead  (and M&J's) and monitor:

1. Wishlist Adds

2. Next 30/60/90 day views (rather than last 7/30 days)

2. Promotion views (when in place). It's a shame you can't see views against long term stay discounts.

Thank you both for taking time to respond.