Your top questions about Airbnb Search

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

One of the most popular discussion topics here in the Community Center is on how Airbnb Search works. We brought your most-asked questions to the Airbnb Search team and have gathered the answers for you.

I really hope you find the responses helpful. To read the responses to each question, please click on the 'Read more' buttons! 🙂

Lizzie

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 Answers to your top Search questions

You’ve created and published a fabulous listing and now your friends and family want to check it out. How do they find it? And among all the listings out there, how does the Airbnb algorithm decide which ones to show a traveler searching in your area? As we hear questions from hosts, two basic categories of questions emerge: What affects a listing’s ranking, and how can I find my listing online? So we took your most asked questions to the Airbnb Search team and have gathered the answers for you. Let’s dive in.

1. On search ranking, and how to improve yours:

What factors affect my listing’s placement in search results?

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That’s a great question. We have an algorithm that looks at over 100 signals to decide how to order listings in search results.  Most of those signals have to do with things that guests care about, like positive reviews and great photos. If you think guests might care about it, it probably factors into your ranking! The reason is this: you’re most likely to get a booking request (or be instantly booked) if a traveler finds the type of place they’re looking for right away. We get a lot of information from the traveler about what they want for then show them listings that match their needs most closely.

Not every signal is weighed equally, and you don’t need to have a perfect listing or an unbeatable location for your listing to rank well. But there are some really influential signals that make a difference. Some of those include: how often guests click on your listing in search results, how often guests attempt to contact you from your listing page, how many booking requests you accept, if you use Instant Book, and how competitive your listing price is.

Why are listings with Instant Book prioritised ahead of other listings in the search results?

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The main goal of the search algorithm is to facilitate bookings. And if a guest has an excellent experience booking and traveling on Airbnb they’re highly likely to use Airbnb again in the future. This helps travelers and hosts alike. We’ve seen for many years that—all other things being equal—travelers prefer to use Instant Book because they can book quickly, skip the wait time for hosts to respond, and avoid possibly being rejected. Because of the high booking success for hosts and guests, Instant Book gives your listing a boost in searches.

That said, many of you have amazing listings and use a Request to Book approach to hosting. It’s important that you know Instant Book is only one of more than a hundred factors in your listing search ranking. You can absolutely rank really well in searches without being an Instant Book host.

If I’m a Superhost, will my listing get a boost in search results?

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Although we don't give an explicit boost to Superhosts in search, the factors required to become a Superhost do help your listing rank higher. Moreover, we give guests the option to filter their search results to only display Superhosts and occasionally showcase Superhosts on the results page.

How can I improve my listing ranking in search results? Are there any settings I can adopt to help my ranking?

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The best way to immediately improve performance in Search is to enable Instant Book. Our research shows that guests prefer the booking experience that Instant Book provides. Even when they don’t filter for Instant Book listings, they often choose them over others because booking a place to stay quickly means they can get on with planning the rest of their trip. Other ways to quickly boost your ranking:

• Make a fabulous first impression. Make sure that your first photo is a bright, attractive, high quality, horizontal image of your listing. The more clicks you get from curious travelers, the higher you’ll rank in search results over time. An enticing and realistic photo is the very best way to show off your space in an instant.
• Price your listing competitively. Travelers are frequently looking for a great value for their trip, and by using tools like Smart Pricing, or setting your own competitive price, you can get the benefit of well informed pricing recommendations.

Is it true that if guests add my listing to their wishlists, my listing will get a little boost in the search results?

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Yes! When travelers add your listing to their wishlist, it does indeed help your search ranking! One individual wishlist may not make a visible difference but over several months, if many guests love your listing and choose to wishlist it, it will rank higher. We also use listings that guests wishlist to better personalize their search experience, so they’ll be likely to see your listing again in future searches.

Is it true that editing and tweaking my listing every day will help boost my listing in Search?

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Repeatedly changing or tweaking your listing will neither help nor hurt your Search Ranking. If you’re happy with your photos, price, and description, feel free to leave it as is and wait for booking requests to arrive!

Can I pay to advertise my listing so it appears on more search results?

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Airbnb does not offer pay-for-placement in Search. This allows us to generate impartial search results for the best matches between hosts and guests. But you can advertise, if you like. We’ve made it easy for you to find, copy, and paste the information needed to embed your listing on social media and your personal blog or website: On your listing page, you’ll see “Share” on the right hand side of the screen. Underneath that, you’ll see the embed icon. It looks like this: </>. If you click that icon, you’ll see the information you need to easily copy and paste your listings code on your personal blog or website.

Why am I on the last page on search? This way no one will ever book my listing?

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It’s important to know that some searches, for example city-level with no dates, are not highly representative of how a traveler looking to book uses the website. Some of those searches can capture many tens of thousands of listings. Travelers that book tend to use specific dates, zoom in on the map, or look for certain amenities using filters. So there will be far fewer listings in the search results than with a general search with no preferences or filters.

If I have to decline a booking because a guest doesn’t meet my House Rules, does this impact my search ranking?

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Because being rejected for a booking is one of the worst experiences for our guests, we do factor this into Search Ranking. However, we understand that sometimes you legitimately need to decline a traveler, and we take that into account. We’re most interested in how you compare to other hosts, rather than just counting your rejections.

A single rejection will not significantly hurt your ranking, but over time, rejecting more guests than other hosts in your market will lower your ranking. We find that a large majority of our hosts are able to accept most booking requests, and our best Request-to-Book hosts accept almost all of them. You can help travelers know if they should try to book your space by writing clear, detailed House Rules and keeping your calendar up to date. Make sure your settings and amenities lists also set accurate expectations.

2. On finding your listing online

I just created my listing and it appears as published on my profile, but when I search for it I can't find it. If other people search for it, they can't find it either. Why is that?

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There is usually a delay of around 6 hours between the time you publish a listing and when it shows up in search results. This gives you time to make final changes to your listing settings before receiving your first booking request. It also gives Airbnb time to ensure every new listing is suitable for the marketplace. If you don’t see your listing within 24 hours, you can contact customer support to find out why.

I haven't received a new booking in awhile, so I searched for my listing and asked a friend to search for it too. Neither of us could find it, and it’s not showing up even when I add specific details and filters. What can I do?

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If your listing is in a popular market with numerous listings, it may be necessary to apply several filters to show your listing. Don’t worry, this is how travelers search and they’ll be able to find your listing too! We recommend using dates on your search, and checking that they match your calendar availability and minimum nights settings.

A common reason Instant Book hosts (or their friends) may not see their listing is that they’ve chosen to require a guest have positive reviews in order to make a book their space. If you’ve chosen this requirement, it means your listing will show up as a Request to Book, not an Instant Book, listing for logged out users or new guests if the Instant Book filter is applied. This is because a logged out or new traveler will not be eligible to instantly book your place.

I can’t find my listing. Does it make a difference if I’m logged in or logged out?

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Most listings on Airbnb should show up in searches regardless of whether you’re logged in or not, although the ranking may appear different. This is because Airbnb search is personalized, and when a traveler logs in we have more information to better match them with listings. One exception to this is for hosts who allow Instant Book but have chosen to require that guests have positive reviews. In this case, if the Instant Book filter is applied, your listing would not show up to travelers who are logged out. This is because we can’t tell if a logged out visitor to the site has reviews.

I can see the listing appearing on the map in the Airbnb app, but when I go to view the same listing (with the same filters) in the desktop version, it isn't appearing. Why is this?

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Airbnb Search is personalized to help travelers find the best listings for their trip. Part of that involves looking at the device and location they’re searching from. This means that you may experience a different ranking of listings on different devices.

I have Instant Book activated, but my listing doesn't come up in the results. Isn't Instant Book supposed to boost my listing on search results?

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Instant Book does give you a boost, but it sounds like there may be another reason you’re not seeing your listing in the results. Make sure that your search criteria match the settings and requirements you’ve established. Anything from minimum nights requirement to date range, number of guests or not having reviews can hinder you from seeing your listing in a search. And of course, if you require guests have previous ratings, then it may be that you haven’t traveled on Airbnb yourself or that you’re not logged in as a guest.

I can’t find my listing when I search for its title. Why doesn’t Airbnb have keyword search? Will it be implemented in the future?

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Keyword search, and especially free-text search, is extremely technically challenging, but an exciting product to build! Rest assured that we have an excellent team that is always investigating how to improve the search experience, and we hope that changes like these will make it into the product in coming years.

The most important thing is this: you’re a unique host who offers a one-of-a-kind experience, because you’re you and your space isn’t like any other. We hope these tips and answers help you understand the sometimes complicated nature of matching unique travelers with hosts. Focus on what you do best, play up your strengths, and don’t worry about showing up first in search.

[Jennifer679]

sometimes I get booking enquiries asking for alternative dates that are actually already booked so I may decline the request and I have just read that this can negatively impact on where my listing places in search results, surely this isn't right....

[Wendy40]

What is a level next to hosts name??

What does it mean??

[Simone288]

Yes, indeed. What is level 1 and who is on level 10? Probably you have to dream to get to level 10 and stay slush in front of your guests. 

[Jann3]

@Simone288,

Basically, every level is a certain number of post to the community forums... I THINK it is every 10 posts you go up one level, but don't quote me on that.

...and "stay slush"? (I googled it but didn't find it in the urban dictionary.. heh!

Jann

[Simone288]

Ha, ha... I considered a level is something related to  the quality of my services. And "slush" is a Ty Boo Buddy Slush Dog . It's a sweet toy. You can find it in Amazon. 

But you are right. OK, we need to understand the Airbnb 

[Jann3]

OMG @Simone288 THIS? OMG! I think I'm gonna be sick... 🙂 

[Simone288]

Jann, please , don't ...

But I adore the fact you take me seriously . At least we both finally know what a"level" is. I really had no idea. 

[Helga0]

@Jennifer679, you can refuse such a request on the website, with the option that you refuse for wrong dates. 

If it's only an information request, yo can always pre-approuve for the false dates and write that the real dates are not free. 

When you do that, you are asked, if the pre-approuval should block your calender or not block it. Click on Not 

[Roger138]

Hi, I have requested a $500 security deposit. How does this work and where is the money held?

[Jann3]

EASY: It's NOT!

A security deposit is a threat...that's all. It's almost impossible to claim any of that deposit should anything happen.

Raise your room rate to get the "deposit" over time, put it in an account where you'll use it if you need it. That's what I did...

Also, that's known as hi-jacking a thread. This question should've been posted in it's own thread...better yet, search for "security deposit" from the top of the page ("Search the Community") will come up with the answer...

[John878]

hmmm

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your comments here on this thread, it is fantastic to return back from my holiday to find such a huge number of replies and new community members joining and sharing your thoughts!

On this point above, I would like to give a warm welcome to all of you who joined the Community Center over the weekend and the last few days. This conversation was featured on the Host Newsletter and I imagine most of you, who commented here, probably reached us via the link on the Newsletter. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better and also having a chat around other topics soon.

I am really pleased to hear that so many of you have found this information around How Search Works useful. I have to say this wasn’t a simple piece of content to put together as we had to circle back information to various teams inside of Airbnb, but as this is such a popular topic here, we really wanted to provide you with some more information directly from the Search team. We intend to do more content pieces like this one here on the CC, so it is great to hear your are finding this helpful.

I have noticed there are quite a few comments around Instant Book. Along with How Search Works, Instant Book is one of the most active discussion topics here in the Community Center. In August, we created a similar thread to this one where we asked the top questions on how Instant Book works to the IB Team and shared their responses here in the Community Center (take a look at the post here). I’d like to encourage you to have a look as there is quite a lot of information and a good discussion going on and please continue to provide your feedback. Airbnb continuously works together with both Hosts and Guests to make sure that the platform works as well as possible for everyone, therefore, the questions you raise and the ideas and feedback you give are certainly looked at, discussed and are really important to the whole team. 

Going back to Search more specifically, please do continue to share more of your comments regarding information I have shared here, it really is great to hear. Plus, if you have any ideas on how you would like the process it to be improved, it would be fantastic to hear from you and perhaps we can also discuss this more here in the Community Center. 🙂

Thanks again and speak to you soon.

Lizzie

[Jann3]

@Lizzie,

As you can see here, the majority of hosts here are unhappy with how Instant Book affects search results - not necessarily because it brings your listing up higher (which - as some have said here - is not fair when hosts that DON'T use it STILL respond w/in an hour or less) - but mostly beause it is often AUTOMATICALLY enabled for guests. Speed of host response - especially when hosts have 4.8 or above rating - should be taken into account.

I would be much less unhappy with AirBnB - as a whole - if they didn't enable Instant Book as a default on so many searches...

Jann

[Lizzie]

Thanks for your response @Jann3, it is really nice to speak with you. I hope your new life as an Airbnb host is going well 🙂

Instant Book is certainly a feature that hosts feel very strongly about, in both ways and I am really pleased that you and the rest of the community are sharing your thoughts on this (not just in this thread, but elsewhere on the CC). I want to make sure our voices and opinions on how Airbnb products and how features work are heard within the team and I am happy to say this is exactly what is happening.

In general though, my aim in sharing this information here is so we can make sure top unanswered questions are answered by the team working on it and hopefully clear up any confusion points, plus in general so we can learn more about the features we talk about so regularly here in the CC. We can also then have a good discussion about it all and potentially suggest ideas to improve, which could then benefit the whole community!

I thank you again for your comments Jann, your feedback is really helpful and I will certainly pass it back to the team. I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with how IB works with search results, but hopefully you feel a little more informed now.

I wonder, based on you specific comment, aside from disabling this completely do you think there are any other ways this could be perhaps improved?

Thanks for your time.

Lizzie

[Jann3]

@Lizzie, I hope your holiday was great!

To answer your question: my life as a host was going great the first month due to the "placement push" new hosts get in search results... (no one can deny this: the "stats" page proves it; more displays by FAR than the next month or this month.) I would agree with others that bookings are seasonal, however high season here is Oct & Nov...and (before the fire here) that's when bookings stalled.

You asked how you could improve Search/IB; the #1 way is to tier how search results are affect by response times. You guys keep reminding us of the 24-hour window. Pushes are done to the device, emails are sent and "threats" are made if hosts don't respond...The 24-hour response windows for Reservation Requests are fine, but when I (or ANYone) responds anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes (on average) I believe penalizing hosts with lower result placement is misguided. The quicker the response time for reservations, the higher we should get in search results (above other hosts that have slower response times.) That one is a no-brainer.

As for Instant Book; I understand why AirBnB wants Instant Book. Far more fees are charged over-and-above other booking styles. Let's not mince words; AirBnB keeps fees of those guests OR hosts that EITHER don't use Instant Book correctly or those hosts that cancel too many bookings via Instant Book or Res. Req.'s. They add penalty fees to hosts that don't understand they turned it on or didn't know how it worked. Instant Book also is a quick "no thought" booking method so many of the people that want to cancel later (depending on cancellation policy) do not get their fees back...So, that equals more money. A quicker booking is a "less thought about future ramifications" booking.

However, there are other ways to make money from your users that doesn't tick off both sides. I also find it upsetting that so many extra "how good is this guest" features (IB hosts only seeing guest ratings, for instance) are given to people that turn on IB when you don't take those bonuses away for hosts that cancel IB guests often. AirBnB actually SAYS "if you are uncomfortable w/a guest, you can cancel penatly free." If AirBnB doesn't think EVERY SINGLE HOST is gonna use that reason, they're crazy, so - then WHY have host penalties at ALL?

That is just my two cent's worth (2 p's worth? heh)

Jann