How important is it to be on page 1 of search results?

[Ute42]

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Many of us have complained about the airbnb review system. It is a rankingsystem much similar to the ranking in the top contributor list to the right of the startpage.

I am currently (June 14, 2018) No 2 on that list, do I deserve to be there? I am afraid no. I am there due to two posts I have published in the airbnb-thread „Clarity about the new superhost criteria change“. For one of my posts I got 590 thumbs ups, for the second I got 173 thumbs ups.

I did a research on this superhost thread to find out what the reason is I got so many thumbs ups. Is it the content of my posts or is it something else?

In this thread right now there are 401 answering posts from community members on 27 pages.

What is the average number of thumbs ups based on which page they where published on?

Page:........................................................1..........2..........3..........4..........5..........10

Average thumbs ups per post.........274.......28........19.........6..........4...........6

Can it be, that posts on page 1 have such a highly valuable content and starting with page 2, the content quality goes down the cliff? Certainly not. The answer is, how much thumbs ups You get does not depend on the content quality, it depends on what page You publish. And therefore, the ranking of the contributor list is wrong.

I am right now No 2 on the list, have published 228 posts in the last 3 months and almost all my thumbs ups come from 2 posts. My dear Friend Rebecca from Oregon has published 1165 posts in one year and is No 4. Shouldn't Rebecca be infront of me? No. 1 right now is Brenden from Palm Beach. All he did in his live was asking one question on the June2018 Host Q&A and he asked the question on top of page 1.

What can we learn from this?

1. The number on thumbs ups someone gets does not depend on the contentquality of the post, it depends on the page You have posted on.
   
   

2. If there are multiple pages of any kind, it is always important to be on page 1.

This is a good example how important it is, to be on page 1 of searchresults, there You make it. Page 2 or 3 may be good enough to survive, starting page 4 You are dead. The reality obviously is, everyone reads page one, some people read page 2 and 3 and then it goes down the drain.

Airbnb should not be surprised that hosts fight against bad reviews like a lion, bc their average rating and being a superhost or not, determines on which page they end up in search results.

And the criteria for the guest ratings often reflect nothing else but the insanity of human behaviour. Guest often give bad ratings bc the wheather was bad, their car broke down, host didn't agree on a 8 hrs earlier check in, they ran into an argument with their host or they claimed money back and they didn't get it. All this has nothing to do with hosting quality and it upsets everyone.

So, based on this, airbnb should not be surprised about the headwind they are getting for their new 4.7* / 4.8* requirements.

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This is the thread I took my data from:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Clarity-about-the-recent-Superhost-criteria-chang...

[J-Renato0]

Ute

In terms of search results, the listings that appears in the first page has more chance to get booked, of course if the listings match the filters used by the potential guest.

Thats is why there is the algorithm, to present search results according to the potential guest preferences.

There are hundreds of factors that has influence on the search results.

Prices that matchs the range of price is one of the most important.

The quality of the listing in terms of conversion is also very important.

If a listing is shown in the first page for while and nobody visit the list or book it, the chances to continue in the first page are minimal.

That is the way internet business work. Being on the first page is without any doubt very important, anyway, conversion is very important important as well.

Convertion is not very important while there is not enough listings in some city to fill the pages.

[Sarah977]

Yes, going up in search rankings for allowing 1 night minimums makes sense from the corporate headspace of airbnb. Just like Instant Book. Whatever they have found or believe brings in bookings fastest. Don't want to use Instant Book? Don't want to spend 2 hours cleaning after a 1 night stay? Then, no matter whether you have 100 5 star reviews and 100% rave reviews, your listing will be buried on some back page. Now, because guests can't find it, you'll get less views and less bookings, which will cause your listing to move even farther down. 

The fact that many guests are looking for exactly the kind of accomodation that small, on-site hosts provide is of little importance. They obviously don't care to cater to those kinds of guests anymore, just like they don't care about those kind of hosts anymore.

[Rebecca181]

'at Sarah': Clearly, we on-site Airbnb hosts are going the way of the dinosaur. It is a real shame, because the world is starved for connection and true community. Many of our guests comment on the tranformative aspects of their stay, including the time they spend with us as hosts - Whether that's visiting our horses; meeting our dogs; playing with the kitten; sharing stories and spirits by the fire-pit. They wonder why Airbnb has more and more properties that are hostless. They wonder if hosts like us will still be around down the road. I really don't know what to tell them. As I've mentioned elsewhere, just this month, 22 more hostless properties run by commercial property management firms were listed on Airbnb in my small beach town. In my area, I am one of only 3 or so 'traditional host' (host on site) properties left. We are dropping like flies.

Kind of ironic what is happening, given Airbnb is obstensibly all about 'community' and giving travelers the ability to 'live like a local', don't ya think? 

[Sarah977]

'at Rebecca' - yes, pretty ironic indeed. I wonder if once the whole platform consists of property management companies and vanilla listings that they will change the rhetoric about community and living like a local. 

I've taken my guests to beaches they would never find as a tourist staying in a hotel or non-on-site-hosted place, restaurants they'd never read about in the tourist brochures, invited them along on excursions with friends, etc. All of them have been thrilled with the experience and expressed major appreciation. I have met wonderful people doing diverse and interesting things with their lives. 

There is a profound difference between the marketing of a concept and the importance of that concept as being something worthwhile as a positive thing for humanity, as opposed to the marketing of a marketing idea. A lot of us believed airbnb to be the former when it has turned out to be the latter. 

Airbnb has been fine for me in terms of a booking platform that got me those lovely guests. I wish they'd just be okay with being a straight-up booking platform, i.e. stop trying to play mommy and daddy good cop/bad cop as far as rating us on ridiculous things in ridiculous ways and even talking to us at all (the threats, the gold stars). Just let us list, charge us their commission, and butt out. Then it wouldn't matter what reviews hosts and guests got- we can all decide who we want to host and what listings we'd like to book based on our own interpretations of the reviews.

[Lori213]

I just joined Airbnb and am south of Corvallis with horses and dogs. I found your input informative. I really hadn’t thought about most places were without a host so now I will emphasize that we are hosted. We just had our first guest and part of the attraction of Airbnb to us other than the money is meeting new people since we are now old homebodies.

[Fred13]

This thread appears to jump back & forth from the subject of 'Posts' in a forum, and on Search position; is there suppose to be co-dependency  amongs the two? I am probably connecting the wrong dots, but while on those subjects:

 I been forever under the 'impression', the 'further' a listing is away from the concept of Instant Booking (IB), the lower it will be ranked and shown in Search. So IB will get top preference, then 1-day minimum type of listings, and so on. 

 Some discussion 'rooms' in this forum (but not this one), show the strangest calculations as to 'Thumbs Up', something that was brought up here before, though the strange reason for it we did figured out at the time, but escapes me at the moment.

[Ariel10]

Thanks for your recommendations. 

[Emily6]

I asked an Airbnb employee at an Airbnb event about their search and how it works. Their answer went something like this....

Airbnb have search algorithms that are a bit of a mystery (even to their own employees) but ultimately although your listing isn't showing to you that doesn't mean it isn't showing your listing to others. And though your listings may be showing on page 5 to you, it may be showing on page 1 to others. 

The reason is that as there are many available listings Airbnb try to show your listing to people who are most likely to book your place. If a family is searching in your area and have a history of booking luxury accommodation they will show luxury options. Alternatively if a family has a history of booking more budget friendly options, they will show family friendly budget options. 

As ever these tech giants hold a huge amount of data on their users: what properties you have saved in your wishlists, which properties you have clicked on and booked and then how you have rated them and this all builds a profile of the styles of properties you like and will likely book. Which in turn influences what appears in your searches for future properties.  

Of course then overlaid on the above is whether or not you have Instant Book on, how competitive your pricing is, guest reviews, response times etc.

Your best indicator if your property is showing up to potential guests is by looking in your "progress" tab at the top of the page and looking at "views". If you have a healthy amount of views (and of course bookings) you shouldn't worry yourself too much with where you perceive yourself to be on the search pages. 

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

 I bet this post will get many thumbs up! I totally agree with you that if a post is displayed on the 1st page it obviously get more thumbs up because it is more visible.But i have also notice some forms of discrimination from members of this community towards other members which may affect the number of thumbs up.Mind you that there are some individuals which i have the regret to see in this community only gives thumbs up and advices only to a certain type of members based on Ethnicity,language and gender.This is sad but its an unfortunate reality.

[Ute42]

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Hi Oomesh,

I'm sorry to hear that You feel there is a thumbs up discrimination based on ethnicity, gender and language. I personally do not feel discriminated even though my english language isn't perferct plus I am German, and Germany lost World War II against the US. (Oomesh, that was a JOKE).

As far as my own thumbs up policy is concerned, I give a thumbs up

• when a agree with an opinion

• when I think the post is interesting

• when the post is funny

• to say hello
  
  

I sometimes just say hello to some CC members who have posted on interesting topics in the past or when there has been an exchange of Direct Messages. I've seen a few posts of Yours but don't remember a thread so far. Should You ever come up with something that catches my eye I will certainly thumb You up.

People who spread their thumbs up based on Ethnicity, language and gender do not belong on airbnb and the do not belong into the 21st century.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

 I do not only feel it i see it too! This is why i have decided to mention this because many people do not see it.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Ute0 I appreciate your concern on this matter.

[John1574]

*  *  *  * 

"But i have also notice some forms of discrimination from members of this community towards other members which may affect the number of thumbs up.Mind you that there are some individuals which i have the regret to see in this community only gives thumbs up and advices only to a certain type of members based on Ethnicity,language and gender."

I'm with you, Oomesh.

You said a mouthful.  Discrimination by gender is big on this forum.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

 I am glad to see that you have also noticed this.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@John0 Thank you very much for your support! I really appreciate