Visibility of Properties on Airbnb Platform

[Reza26]

After over five years of collaborating with Airbnb in Toronto's North York area, I've decided to transition my bookings from short-term to longer stays, such as 28 days or more. However, individuals searching for accommodations solely based on location and the number of guests may not find my properties listed.

I strongly believe that this needs to change. Every property listed on the platform should be visible in search results. This issue unfairly reduces the chances of my place getting booked. What are your thoughts? Has anyone else encountered a similar problem?

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Reza26 

Yes…this is a problem. Many Hosts are forced to only offer 30day stays due to local restrictions on STRs and as a result, it is difficult to be seen in search results. Guests do have the ability to search for monthly stays, but most aren’t aware of that feature:

If you are voluntarily moving to 28+night stays, you could consider:

- Turn off Instant Book

- Leave wording about Monthly Stays Only in Title/Description

- Set Your Default Min Stay to 2 nights on your Calendar Availability

This will allow your listing to appear in more search results, but you might end up declining a lot of Requests to Book as guests don’t read. This will of course hurt you in the algorithm. Additionally, I’m not aware if the algorithm understands that of course your bookings will be less frequent and not sure it doesn’t penalize you for not having a lot of bookings. It’s a no-win scenario. At this point, I would just provide feedback to Airbnb to address this issue, as it will only continue to escalate with more and more jurisdictions adding 30day restrictions to STRs.

[Reza26]

Thank you for your response and feedback to Airbnb. Regrettably, I'm unable to adjust my minimum stay to two days due to regulatory changes and the process of registration in my city. Additionally, as you pointed out, accommodating such requests would result in numerous rejections. However, I fail to see the distinction between guests seeking stays of varying lengths—whether two weeks, five days, or one month—all properties should be visible on the platform.

[Joan2709]

@Reza26 

I agree. Unfortunately, most guests do search using specific dates and Airbnb uses that as a primary search feature. Perhaps Airbnb will come up with a solution?