Does instant booking make such a difference ?

[Ruth413]

I am just wondering whether instant book makes such a difference in our search rankings?  I try to keep an eye on what is available in my area, probably partly out of a business sense and partly out of curiosity.  I have noticed that there is one property that always comes up first, whether I search airbnb incognito or any other way.  There it is right at the top !  Strangely though the property has a 4.38* rating, which is very low compared to all the other properties in the area.  The only reason that I can think of that it comes up top of the list is that it is instant book.  I am just wondering to other hosts views on whether instant book would make such a difference.  I personally, due to Covid,  don't do instant book as we have our own Covid Policy that we send to all guests before accepting any new bookings.  

Looking forward to hearing other hosts views on this subject

[Sarah977]

@Ruth413  Yes, IB properties head the list. It's how Airbnb tries to force hosts to use IB, even if it results in bookings that put a host or their property at risk. 

I have never used IB, and though there are many listings in my town, guests still manage to find my listing. But I know there is really heavy competition in some areas that sort of make hosts feel they have to use IB to ever be seen.

[Ruth413]

Thanks @Sarah977  for confirming this. 

I used IB right at the beginning and actually never had any significant problems, but due to Covid decided to opt for the other route and totally agree with you that it hasn't affected the bookings.  Actually I would say it is an improvement

But I am still slightly confused, because we all know what the negative effect of having bad ratings are and I thought after reading various discussions regarding listings being suspended etc. That this property which has the lowest rating in our area actually heads the list of places to stay. 

C'est la vie, trying to understand is probably impossible !  

[Sarah977]

@Ruth413  It's pretty ironic- all this stressing out hosts do about low star guest reviews, when in fact, Airbnb doesn't care- some of the listings with high search ranking have much lower than 4* ratings. What Airbnb cares about is how much revenue listings bring in for them. It isn't that hosts "know" that lower ratings are bad for their business, it's that they think they are. It's a manufactured issue. If a host has 100 great reviews and one lying revenge review, so what? Guests aren't all idiots who'll believe the outlier.

And the other irony is that not using IB tends to help filter out the type of guests who are trouble and leave bad reviews. Personally I'd rather have hassle-free guests who leave nice reviews than more guests.

[Elaine701]

@Sarah977 

Of course I agree with you on this. 

We do use IB, but with all the restrictions ticked. And only to help with search results. We have a lot of competition. 

So far, we haven't had any major problems with guests who've qualified, and instant booked, but I'm under no illusions that it's any sort of guarantee, and if problems arise, I'll stop it without hesitation. It's not that important. 

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Ruth413 , I am certain that IB has made a huge difference in our bottom line  for a few reasons including my spaces are always on page one and 2 of any search, usually #1 on page 1.  There are no doubt more perils and pitfalls  from offering it but I also get more tools at my disposal to be picky with.  Everyone must weigh the pros and cons and decide for themselves if IB could work for them but I do believe is an important weapon in my Airbnb Inn Keepers arsenal, stay well, JR 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ruth413 I believe the biggest factor in the search rankings is how successful the property is with respect to bookings. However when we switched IB off for Covid we pretty much disappeared and were certainly not on the first page. For whole home bookings I believe IB is great as we get access to a guests ratings/reviews and can decline up to 3 bookings a year if we don't like what we see. I fully agree that homeshare hosts probably benefit way more than we do from discussion with guests prior to booking so agree with @Sarah977 that it may not be great for them.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 @Ruth413 @Sarah977 

It is definitely a good thing for homeshare hosts to have meaningful discussions with guests, I agree. The only time we've ever had rules broken and troubling issues was when we had IB on, so we switched it off. Our IB guests were not very easy, our nerves suffered; and we struggled to review those guests fairly, afterwards. That stress is not our first choice. We're just old enough that we appreciate things going smoothly in our lives. 

It would seem to me that whole home bookings might also benefit from having these conversations with guests sometime during the process. Whole home/distant hosts  appear in these forums to have the most problems with guests breaking rules.  Another complaint I've noted is guests not understanding things like location relative to places they want to visit. These details can really affect their experience. 

A number of people have expressed to me that they prefer a hotel over a whole house as they so appreciate the services of the concierge or the front desk. As a homeshare host, I can and do provide those services. It would be challenging as a distant host for me to be there for them.

I know that, for me, turning off IB saved me so much anxiety and allowed me to best serve my guests with my finest possible hospitality. It is such an individual thing, definitely not one size fits all. 

[Sarah977]

@Mike-And-Jane0  I'd say that while it's more crucial for home share hosts to have pre-booking communication, there are other factors, such as area and the nature of the listing that might make it better or worse for hosts to use IB.

An entire rural cottage with a max guest count of 4 isn't nearly as risky as an entire house in LA with a pool and a hot tub that sleeps 14. One would tend to attract partiers and house trashers and the other wouldn't.

[Ruth413]

@Sarah977 @Kitty-and-Creek0 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Melodie-And-John0   Thanks for your replies and views.  I think the question is possibly answered by the rankings being based on how much the property is let out maybe ?  Saying that we are fully booked all the way till the end of September (thank heavens, after the past 1 and 1/2 years !)  I am now looking into how to keep this going as much as possible through the winter months, so that was why I was looking about at other listings and was surprised to find this property constantly at the top of the list.

Re IB, as mentioned before, we did use this at the beginning but after Covid, when we decided to do our own Covid Policy alongside Airbnb we switched IB off and I must admit, I am happy we did that, because even though in the U.K. we had a few strict lockdowns didn't stop people trying to book a breakaway with us.  The amount of times I had requests starting with "I know we are in Lockdown but ....:  and then there was the difficulty of Tiers !  Anyway not being on IB has been better from what I see but who knows what will happen when people start travelling abroad again and staycations aren't as popular !

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Ruth413 

I might seem that ranking also could have to do with how many times your place has been viewed, and saved/favorited/wish listed. Most systems count hits and clicks, so this one likely does as well. As far as other points systems, that is beyond me, but there must be something, somewhere built in. 

[Sarah977]

@Ruth413 Yes, while  IB listings definitely get priority, my search ranking always goes up when I get bookings.

To me, that's sort of the opposite of how it should be. If a listing is buried on the last pages, it won't get as many views or bookings- it's a vicious circle. 

What would be fair is to do away with all this mysterious combination of algorithms that determine search ranking, and randomly shuffle the listing order daily