Your top questions about Airbnb Search

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Your top questions about Airbnb Search

Search

 

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



 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?

Read more

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?

Read more

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?

Read more
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?

Read more

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?

Read more
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?

Read more
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?

Read more
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?

Read more
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?

Read more

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?

Read more
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?

Read more

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?

Read more
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?

Read more
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?

Read more
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?

Read more
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.


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

424 Replies 424

you should not bother of what airbnb makes. See if instant book helps you

Paul685
Level 2
British Columbia, Canada

Hello Kishore,

 

      Exactly what we did and it works very well for us. You have ststed it very sensibly! Thank you.  Paul

Paul685
Level 2
British Columbia, Canada

Kudos ma'am!

 

       Utterly agree! Don't really mind if the lads at AIRBNB get a point extra though, they do in fact give you surety and certainly more guests in our case. My only niggling feeling is that sooner or later there may be multiple instant books by a guest, who can then cherry pick at leisure for what they think is the most desirable fit for them. I don't know if airbnb has a method to track this or not.

 

                                     Paul

I 100% agree with you Jann!!

Well said Jann

Instant book is totally contrary to the orginal Airbnb ethos of a personal relationship with hosts .

The fact that guests communicate with me before booking gives me the opportunity to give a friendly and helpful impression . By the time guests arrive here they already have a positive feeling and feel welcome . On my side I also have a good idea of what the guest is like and it already feels like friends comming to stay . It also gives me the opportunity to advise guests that this may not be the best place for them to stay based on their plans .Instant book is impersonal and it fosters the attitude of " the rental " as opposed to the respectful attitude most of my guests have . It does appear that someone in Airbnb has decided on this policy as Kat says that it is about increasing revenue , it is odd that though airbnb's revenue is threatnened worldwide that it pursues this policy of de-personalising the experience. They know that this does not make good press as airbnb is always carefully promoted in the media as a community , I never notice a mention of instant book .

I totally agree with a little "getting to know each other a little" before welcoming guests into the space that you have prepared so carefully and spent so much time to make sure they have a lovely stay.

I still communicate quite effectively with 'Instant Book' reservations and send an email immediately upon receiving the booking asking them questions; needs, allergies, space needed etc.  The only problem I have with the IB is by people who do not have any travel reviews and a few have been a real problem.  I also agree that AirBnB needs to make it clear to guests that they are NOT checking into a Fodors 5 star hotel.  Some of the expectations of guests have been ridiculous based on that model.  This is my home - its lovely, clean and cozy.  I go out of my way to make people feel at home - however, I don't make beds up every day LoL.  Some people are just silly. 

I agree with the instant book and I also have interesting conversation with my guests before they arrive.I do however have guests in at the moment who obviously had not even read the listing before they booked,which means that I assumed they had agreed to my house rules etc.There is no problem with these people but there could have been.

 

Hi Andrea,

I am with you, using IB, and following up with an email welcoming them, and pointing out the disadvantages to the apt that are in the listing (which most guests don't seem to read).  I do feel Airbnb could do a better job of educating guests about expectations and what this model is about (and to read the listing!!!).  Some guests do seem to forget at review time how very little they have paid for a nice space comparable to the market; obviously we should not be held to the same lux standards of experience of a top hotel.

All the best, Sheila

I never had a problem with instant booking since I set it up just to accept guests that are registerd and also received good reviews.  I rarely take the chance to receive someone with 0 reviews, although once I followed my guts and accepted a family that were new on Airbnb, they ended up being my bests airbnb guest so far, but you never know. I'd recommend you set those conditions in order to accept instant bookings if you want to avoid surprises.

 

I completely agree with you about people thinking they're going to a hotel, I have a chalet and I don't make the beds because some people prefer to bring their own sheets/pillows, I do have clean sheets waiting for them in case they don't bring their own... my place is cozy, clean and tidy before they arrive, everything is there but is not a hotel. I got complaints saying that the beds weren't made when they arrive. I feel my place is a real bargain for the price they're paying, try to get the same kind of space + the beds made in an hotel for the same price... I guess some people doesn't realize this before they book, we're sharing our homes for a really good price, if they're looking for more services then they're looking in the wrong place

Thanks all. I totally agree. I live in a residential area in a seaside town. I have to carefully vet who stays here. My neighbors are nervous do I can never do instant book and it's important to establish a connection before they arrive.

Deb..I too live in a seaside community that is not 100% on board with my Airbnb. I appreciate that someone booking my space provides me an opportunity to educate them to the area and find out what they expect when they arrive.

Well said.

The reason they started instant book was a way of resolving discrimation issues. They just couldn't figure out another way to take discrimation off the table. It also allows them to compete with other booking sites like Hotels. com

Petra158
Level 5
London, United Kingdom

I couldn't agree more with Jan.  I am extremely upset with the instant book function.  Please see my comments posted on Air BNB below.   It entirely goes against the whole reason why Air BNB was set up, basically as a portal to connect people.  I have been a very successful Air BNB host for over 3 years with excellent reviews but now bookings have dried up due to the fact that I don't use instant book.    The whole idea for Air BNB is that you find out and connect with people.  What is the point of reviewing guests, if future guests can book without you knowing anything about them ?  I am sharing my home, I would like to know who with !  Also, I may have had a problem with a previous guest who I would prefer not to rehost (maybe just for a minor reason / a personality clash for example) but they could still instantly book if they wanted to stay again and I would be penalised and have my calender blocked if I then cancelled them.  Also, guests could instantly book at the last minute on the day and I might not be home / the room not ready etc and again I would be penalised.  A guest could instantly book for one day over half term or Christmas or New Year, times when I hope that I might be able to get better and longer bookings.  Again, with the instant book function, if someone books for just one or two nights, again this would interfere with better longer bookings.   Robert Crampton in The Times wrote a column the other day in which the whole reviewing system was farcical which I totally agree with.  Obviously, everybody is going to say nice thing as hosts want good reviews as do guests.  However, the hosts are the ones who are now penalised as they are the ones whose reviews are initially seen before booking.  You can't afford to have a bad review.  For example recent guests of mine, although perfectly pleasant, various things, a glass, a bowl, the tap were broken without them telling me and they also didn't adhere to the house rules.  I didn't want to say anything for fear of being a "nag" - I am very tidy ! and then getting a bad review.   I have had nothing but praise for Air BNB but sadly it has moved on too far and is now just  another booking platform.  I am a single girl living alone, friends would ask "aren't you worried about having strangers in your house" and I would always reply "not at all" as you will have seen a bit about them, know if they are male or female, age, why they are coming to London, had an e mail exchange so you feel comfortable.  With instant book, all you are doing is doing a couple of checks but not relating to who the people actually are and whether you would want to share your home with them which again defeats the whole premise of Air BNB or connecting people.  NOT HAPPY