Ranking and Views dropping due to poor inquiries and declines

[Corey183]

Hi Community - Ranting and raging a bit so bear with us.

We had instant-book on since the start of our listing and recently getting really poor inquiries. We're talking about people who openly wanted to use our place for parties, fake profiles (confirmed) and worse. After 3 of these in a row, which we declined, we received an automated note from AirBnB that we'd be suspended due to a low acceptance rate.  So we called them, explained them all, send them all the proof and it was "investigated" 

They told us in order for it not to hurt us (which by this point we lost half our views after these 3 declines), they said to call them if this happens again and it won't hurt us since they'll remove the inquiry for us. Our traffic has been extremely low since then, and barely getting any views. FINALLY, we get an inquiry and even though we state our place is for 2 adults only, this couple wanted to bring their family.

We unfortunately cannot accommodate, as it's a small , 1bed separated guest room, with no room for a cot or anything like that. They understood and said they removed their request, but it didn't happen. So I contacted AirBnB as they required, explained it to them, and they removed the inquiry. THAT DAY our traffic fell to half of even what it was then and hasn't increased since!  

To put into perspective, we were getting, on average, 80-100+ views/day on a weekday (88% 1st page), and now we're getting 10-15 views on a weekend (21% 1st page)! We have not idea what we can do and AirBnB support is less than helpful. They offer nothing and tell us to just "work on improving our listing"

We just started in June, and have a 4.97 rating. Local/similar listings are getting fully booked at similar prices, with fewer amenities and this is 100% correlated to traffic. 

We're open for any advice on what we can do, as this is so heartbreaking. We've worked so hard getting our property created and listed only for an algorithm to ruin us for things out of our control --- fake profiles, partiers, etc wanting to book our place and we're forced to decline the inquiries. 

[Corey183]

@Brian2036 It's possible - a bit inauthentic, but thank you for contributing an idea here 🙂 

If you do change the price, you have to keep it for some time, then you can offer a promotion. Promos of 20% or higher are then based on an avg 60-day booking price, and sent out via email, etc. You just need to book at higher rates, and that's where I'm stuck - getting any traffic now that i got bombed with 3 booking reqs in 24hrs that we're either fake or partiers. Declining them (even after asking them to withdraw) knocked me down. Hard. 

[Sarah977]

@Corey183  Do you live on this property in another building? I get the sense from a couple things you mention in your listing, that you do. 

If so, you should play this up more in your description. Make it really clear that you are on-site hosts. This will help to fend off requests from those with intentions to party, bring pets, kids or sneak in extra guests.

[Corey183]

Just to Update: Since Sunday, our views continue to drop. We've had a total of 2 views. Avg for the area/similar listings is 38 per day!   Yes, you read that correct...2 views in a 72 hour period. Our avg was 80-100+/day the day before the fake booking requests were declined. We're stumped...

[Colleen253]

@Corey183Maybe you'll find something useful in this interesting piece,

https://medium.com/@childnick/hacking-airbnbs-search-rank-algorithm-8007a097382d

Whether it helps with your current issue or not, it's interesting reading.

Perhaps your declines coincided with the end of your new listing boost. Have you tried putting a promotion on to grab some bookings to get some momentum going again?

[Corey183]

Thank you @Colleen253 There are some good nuggets in this article. Yes, we're running some promotions here and there, but don't want to sacrifice too much, otherwise our daily average price goes way down. Appreciate you sharing this article! 

[Brian2036]

@Corey183 

That’s extraordinary. The list on the link @Colleen253 kindly provided is very interesting but, as it’s derived from empirical data, there may be other factors we don’t know about.

Cancellations are apparently a strong factor but we don’t know how strong.

I’m really surprised about the “word count” correlation because it appears that most guests don’t bother to read anything.

[Corey183]

There is a lot of conjecture and correlation vs. causation.

That said, the ratio of reviews to guests and cancellations seem to be driving factors for us.

The last month or so, guests haven't been motivated to review like previous months, so that appears to seem as though we're not doing something well.

The cancellations/declines from us is another beast, which has been out of our control. It's sad how much it weighs you down when fake profiles and party goers attempt to book -- it shouldn't hurt a host as much as it's hurt us. We've had 9 views total in 7 days, dropping from an average of 80-100+ per day due to that alone. 

Also recognize this study is dated a couple of years, and as learning algorithms go, that's almost a dinosaur. I was surprised about the work area/desk weighting...