Views data.

[Susan990]

Anyone noticing any movement or improvement in their views count numbers? The zeros listings- are they coming back?

Just asking.  One of mine has suddenly moved from zero to 70 today- over a one week period. Does that mean they are

fixing the platform?

[Richard531]

@Gillian166 @Huma0 @Helen744   I'm just trying my best to help!  I hope that's happened somewhat here.  

I don't have an AirDNA account (I'm way too cheap for that!).  I just know that there's a top 1% in every market.  And if you're booked every single day (365, not 364, but 365) and you maintain decent pricing power most days, you're a 4.99, then you're a top-1%.  Every market has a 1%.  Make it be you.  

Also, to be perfectly clear, I'm aware that guests don't care about 4.70, 4.80, 4.90 or even 4.99.  We're talking about the algorithm here.  And when  I'm encouraging people to strive to certain metrics, it's not for the guests!  It's for the algorithm.  And, it's my firm belief, that it's at the .00 level that you get more of a bump when being presented to travelers more often.  4.99s get on the first page most often.  4.98 and lower get put to page 2, 3, 4 more often.  It's not hard and fast.  That's why it's an "algorithm" and not an "equation." 

Nevertheless, being a 4.99 will get you viewed (and booked) more often.  That's why you worry about it.  Not because it will turn off a guest if you're a 4.80, but because if you're not a 4.99, those guests may not see you in the first place.  

Does that make sense?  

[Huma0]

@Richard531 

It does make sense, but I'm not sure it's true. Do you have some data that shows that having the highest ratings places you higher in the search results? That isn't what I have seen when searching as a guest. Also, as I mentioned before (not sure if it was here or on another thread), some experienced hosts on the CC did an experiment a while back with the searches and found that the top results were mostly very low ranking listings. I mean mostly below 4.7* and many of the top results were 3.something stars...

[Gillian166]

@Richard531  it does make sense, and i guess the "lucky" part about being in a smaller market is that there's really only a dozen competitors here, and i'm always on the first page of search, usually in the top spot. We only have 2 other true competitors who offer farm stay in an older style home, and there's plenty of room for us all so they aren't really competition. 

"I don't have an AirDNA account (I'm way too cheap for that!)." 
haha, same. I have that other chrome plug-in Air Review, which i mostly use as an easy way to see reviews a guest left, but you also get 5 free analysis per month on any listing. 

[Richard531]

@Gillian166 I'm so embarrassed that I had never even considered this reality for some markets.  I (ignorantly) figured there would be a 100 listings in pretty much all locales.  I didn't think for a second that you'd potentially be the only game in town!  And if there's only 10-20 listings in a particular area, dang.  That's a strange perspective (to me) and now my advice kinda falls apart on that!  I feel so dumb/silly.  

So for that reason, if you're already the top-1% (and you might be!) then the only thing you can get frustrated with is lack of travelers.  Cause if they were headed your way (at all) they'd most certainly be staying with you!    

Embarrassingly, I never even considered that in any way.  My mistake!

Also, I heard that AirReview was possibly damaging and also extremely inaccurate.  So I got rid of it a few months ago even though I also used it for a time. . . I know when I AirReview'd myself, it wasn't even close. . .  

[Gillian166]

@Richard531  put it down to your American experience, I know it's just your "normal" that you don't quite imagine there's a country out there with a population density of 2 people per sq km!  I did comment in another thread how amazing it is to be in Europe with 700M people. my state as only 2M people, and it's bigger than Texas..... We are in a wine region (arguably the best, if not the most famous) so we get some interstate visitors (would love to be able to get metrics on that, instead of me trying to keep track of it manually), but I mostly rely on Adelaide city people (1M people). So whilst we don't have a huge amount of competition we also don't have a huge population, it's a different set of challenges. Either way, your advice is always excellent and I can tailor it to our situation. 

I sell stock photography online so i've been trained to keyword for the algo, and also to try to "own" a niche category, and this same idea can be applied to airbnb. I look for gaps in the market, see what everyone else is doing, and try to offer something different, but still the same or better quality. the goal is to be 1 of 1 in a search, but in our case even being in the top 12 is easy, and I have 5 listings on our farm - 3 are the same venue split into different options, so we often end up as one of the top 6 listings (and I have a photo in all the listings showing the others). 

And how dumb am I, I never even bothered to airreview myself, i'll do that now and see if it's correct. 

[Stephanie365]

Except that's not how it works. 

I pulled up stays in Washington DC for Sept 23-26. No other parameters.
Listing #1 is New, no ratings.
Listing #2 is 4.95
Listing #3 is 5.0
Listing #4 is 4.9
Listing #5 is 4.5
Listing #6 is New, no ratings
Listing #7 is New, no ratings
Listing #8 is 4.93
Listing #9 is 4.91
Listing #10 is 4.89
Continuing on...
4.92, New, 4.90, New, 4.69, New, 4.79, 4.81, 4.84, 4.86, 4.88, 4.85, 4.90, 4.59, 4.38, 4.68, 4.94, 4.93, New, 4.95, New, 4.93, 4.48, 4.88, 4.69, 5.0, New, 4.88

As you can see there are folks with 5.0* ratings buried behind people with a 4.38, a 4.48, etc.
It's all BS.

I, myself am a 4.95*. My bookings have dried up. My calendar has NO bookings and I've only had 2 in the past 30 days. My location precludes me from being booked 99% of the time; my location caters to weekend passers through, but starting in May through October, my weekends are always 100% booked.

Not this year.  Although I closed from February-July 2020 due to COVID, once I opened up my bookings were hot. I made more money last year than in the prior 4. 

This year I've made less money than any other year. And I typically find myself on page 4 or 5 behind dive motels, hosts with 4.5* ratings, people who are in completely different geographic areas, etc.

[Helen744]

@Stephanie365 Truly Stephanie I think the answer , to at least part of the conundrum is writ large in your data." New". in our somewhat small market we have been experiencing a load of 'new' listings 'curated by Dom or Lacy' with, I kid you not ,'themes '.You will not necessarily see these homes or newbies until they have been operational for a few months. which magic land they live in while garnering bookings and somehow not being seen , as in your area , I do not know.Then suddenly they will pop up and you can see , easily that the lady or man who had one listing , all of a sudden has six and you have had these competitors all along. @20 per cent off all new bookings ? Can you compete with that? Is there a magic button where 'new bookings ' are boosted. Yes there is . Is this 'churn' ? Yes it is .Are these new hosts being 'conned ' by the 'home reno , put it on airbnb, make a fortune gang '?the answer is Yes. Are we being washed out with the socks ? Yes. Can we fight back ? Probably only during peak season . H

[Huma0]

@Helen744 

It is well known that new listings get an initial boost in the search results. Airbnb openly admits to this and, fair enough. I certainly did not mind it when I started out. So, of course you are going to find a lot of new listings high in the search results in any area where there re plenty of airbnbs. Add to that, as you said, there are the extra discounts for the first few stays.

Despite this, @Stephanie365 still has a point in that there are listings with 5.0* showing below listings with 4.38* that are not new. I have seen this many times in searches so I simply don't believe that listings with high ratings are automatically given a higher position. 

[Helen744]

@Huma0 absolutely , but if looking for a recent reason for loss of bookings then thats not it , because it has always done that. I think it also reflects filters and amenities and some other things causing the shuffle effect , because it does not always look the same either.Some houses in my area though consistently came out on top because it appeared to be price . That is not the whole picture though because the other booking agency shuffles hosts to the bottom if they start to fall below the total booking number, in other words its the number of available days and filled days ,so if you start to get more bookings with another agency then it registers as a bad thing for Airbnb and you get a lower spot on the wheel .So they are pushing at the same time ,lower prices to increase bookings ,and  more available days , with hints to open that blocked day . It has nothing to do with local conditions or peoples ability to offer good accomodation , its churn .H

[Huma0]

@Helen744 

That's interesting. I am not listed with other booking sites as the other major players here do not cate to homestays, so I did not know that.

What I had noticed in past was that, the more bookings I got, the higher in the results I would show = more bookings. However, who knows if that is still the case. It's impossible to tell when you are getting no bookings at all!

[Huma0]

@Stephanie365 

My listings with 4.91* and 4.97* are not getting any bookings either, other than from repeat guests. I mean not a single booking from a new guest since the Summer Release. The only listing that has received a booking from a new guest has a lower rating than the other two...

So, again, I think hosts that think that simply maintaining a high rating is going to keep them at the top of the searches is kidding themselves. Some may still be up there, but I bet there are other factors involved.

[Richard531]

@Huma0 I have no proof of this/data.  I also am not sure what to say of the experiment you mentioned above (do 3.XX listings even exist?).   Gadzooks, do you sleep in a trash can in those listings?  Oy. . . 

I deduced my position above this based on the following:

1. I'm a top-1%, booked 365, 4.99, fairly priced listing; I'm almost always on page one (many times the very first listing in the top-row) when I do my incognito searches of various days/parameters/amenity filters
2. It simply makes more sense that top-1%, 365, 4.99, fairly priced listings would be pushed to guests
   1. These are the best hosts, best listings, most availability, best track record
   2. Most of all, these listings offer the highest probability that a guest will have a good experience (therefore making Airbnb look good, making Airbnb shareholders more money)
3. It simply makes less sense that part time STRs, at <4.8, that aren't fairly priced would be pushed to guests
   1. But it can absolutely happen, (it's my position that these these lower-tier listings have their "turn" to hit the first page - which comes every now and then) 
   2. However, the top-1%, 365, 4.99, fairly priced listings are almost always on the first page (and remember, there's only a few of them!
4. Run your test again in the same market; run the search with different days, different trip lengths, different months, and slice and dice it.  There's going to be 2-3 listings (top-1%, 365, 4.99, fairly priced) in your market that seem to always be on page one when you do a search (assuming the dates aren't already booked); that's the listing you want to be

I'm also trying to encourage this board to do their best and hold themselves to greatness.  We shouldn't be in a world where we sit here and say "it's OK to not strive for excellence" or "it's someone else's fault" or "there's nothing we can do" or "COVID-19" or "inflation."  ~~~Yawn~~~

Strive for excellence, work for excellence, and achieve excellence.

[Huma0]

@Richard531 

I don't disagree with anything you say. The way you describe it is how I would expect it to be and how I would want it to be. I am just not sure that's the way Airbnb do it. 

I tried to find that thread about the search results (I wasn't a participant, I just happened to come across it a few weeks ago while searching for something else and found it interesting) but couldn't locate it again. I will certainly post it if I do find it. I remember that Ute (who is no longer on the CC) did quite a bit of research into this too. It was surprising to see how many listings with low ratings appeared high in searches. And yes, despite Airbnb's supposed 4.7* minimum requirement, there are plenty of listings with ratings below this operating on the platform.

I was not particularly worried about my position in search results prior to the Summer Release. My listings always came up very high (usually on the first page, sometimes on the second, when I search for long stays for one guest, which is what I offer) and guests confirmed they found me easily. I didn't bother to check often as I had all the bookings I needed. 

After the Summer Release, my views plummeted, but I mean REALLY dived. Now, others are saying that the views are meaningless and inaccurate anyway. However, this dive in views does correspond to bookings stopping almost entirely, so I'm not sure...

What I do know is that after the Summer Release, my position in the search results was not the same. And, for some reason, one of my rooms was showing much higher than the other two and it was NOT the room with the highest rating. That room currently has a rating of 4.91* and was showing much higher than the room with 4.97* and getting more views. Now, one could say it was down to availability, but at the time, all my rooms had availability from around the same dates.

Of course, we should strive for excellence, but there is something else going on here and I don't think it's to do with ratings...

[Susan990]

@Huma0  Yes there is something else going on and I think it is linked to the curious change in the Super Host program that came with the Summer Release. The change was the removal of the previously much lauded benefit/reward of achieving Super Host was the superior  placement of your Listings in search results as first page listings which in turn stimulated  occupancy rates-- a win/win reward system.

With the promise of that reward removed ABB is now free to accelerate any property in search results it wants to based upon what ever criteria it wants to promote.

I suspect and am theorizing here that ABB pushes the Instant Book listings to the front of the line and also in some cases Pets Allowed listings . This would explain why the rating score number now seems meaningless to the A.I. 

[Huma0]

@Susan990 

I have no idea about the pets allowed listings, but I think that Airbnb has always pushed IB listings. That is actually why I started using IB a few years ago. I definitely never wanted to but they started pushing it so much that my fully booked listings dropped way down the results and my bookings stopped. As soon as I switched on IB, the listings went back to the top and the bookings flooded in.

I did eventually turn it back off and continued to get bookings, so perhaps you are right that they have recently started pushing it again?

As for Superhost status being a big factor in search results, I don't actually think that was ever true. The wording was such to make it seem so, but actually, I did not find that in my area Superhosts or listings with high ratings automatically came higher than others. I think when Airbnb stated that Superhosts got a benefit in the search results, what they meant was that guests could search with the Superhost only filter if they wanted to (they still can) but I doubt many guests do that, especially as the filter is a bit hidden.