Has anyone tried AirBnb search engine optimisation (SEO)?

[Ben551]

I was reading around today about AirBnb specific SEO (search engine optimisation) for listing descriptions and wondered whether anyone had put effort into this, with any success?

I thought I might give RankBreeze a try to see whether it works.  We've had a highly successful first season, but it's the peak season and I expect our listing will utterly bomb over Winter / off season (which for us is June to September).  We get a lot of work visitors in our city and, having clawed our way into the work collection, I'm keen to maximise this over winter.  I think working on getting to "Page 1" will help.  We've been in and out of page 1 over summer, but often it's because the regular Page 1 crowd have been booked, so we can do more I think. 

We already know from reading that the key things that impact AirBnb SEO mechanics are pricing, great reviews, regular host interaction with calendar, no cancellations, facebook/ twitter mentions, completing every listing section, turning on instant book, great photography, narrated photographs... all those things.  But the listing description itself is where we haven't optimised, which really requires work, i.e. like keyword density analysis vs. our local competitors who consistently appear on Page 1.

I'm a big fan of SEO, so I suppose I have a scientific curiosity for it.... that said, SEO is no supplement for great hospitality! So it's less of a priority in that sense.

Keen to hear if people have done this for their listing description and what has worked for you.

Cheers

~ Ben

[Ben551]

I thought I would post an update on how I'm doing with this, in case anyone is interested...

I've had some interesting discoveries after getting my subscription to RankBreeze up and running.  It took a while to load the data, but after it loaded I was stunned by the amount of data points!  The table below is just one of the views it gives me, telling me exactly where my listing is showing in the page rankings on AirBnb, across all the upcoming "free" dates I have in my listing calendar.

It was exciting to see our listing on Page 1, even if it was number 7 or 10 on the page half the time.  When I clicked "details" on each data point, it showed me where exactly I was placed against the highest ranking listings in my area, including their rates, my rates, average rates... a full analysis of me vs. my competition, and not just on base rate... on everything. 

Pricing drives SEO, so I dug deeper... and found my prices were doing something nuts. 

I had recently put a lot of time into adjusting my base rate, thinking it would solve all our pricing problems.  Our problems are the "good kind" in that we are constantly booked, but we know we aren't charging enough.  I thought we had made some ground on fixing this, but this is the first time I have found a tool that went beyond base price and showed my average prices for all types of bookings!

We charge a nominal $10 extra per guest, over the first 2 guests, so it means our "base price" is the equivalent of a max 2 guest stay.  We thought an extra ten bucks was reasonable and didn't think much about changing it....newbie mistake!

Take a look at this:

I tossed some of the RankBreeze data into a spreadsheet (15 mins or so) and looked at where my average prices were against average prices in my city.  From this I saw my prices were actually $25 per night above average for a 2 guest stay, a whopping $100 per night lower for a 3 guest stay, and $150 per night lower for a 4 guest stay.

These prices are on the same day too, against my key competition, who are higher than me in search results.  They also have "rare find", so people are paying their prices regularly.  So.. logic tells me I shouldn't be scared about raising my own prices and dropping in search results.  Having gone through their listings one by one, I can also say that... there is no good reason I should be pricing so much lower. 

So, I did it. Last night, I went ahead and lowered my base price slightly over winter to ensure my listing rises in the 2-guest search results (I expect to need those winter business bookings), and secondly I raised my prices for extra guests from $10 per night to $40 per night!  Knowing that, in theory, this should have no effect on my placement in search results for 3 and 4 guest bookings.

Then I saved, closed, and immediately wanted to put it back.  I don't know why I just did.  Bah, I thought I was going to lose my nerve.  It's that little voice that says "pfffft as if anyone would pay that much for your place....".  But I resigned to back myself and leave it for at least a week.

Around 8am this morning... we received our first booking for 4 guests at GROWN UP PRICES!  We are also still rocking Page 1, for the closest bookings we are even still #3 in the results, so yeeehah SEO!

[Ricardo85]

@Ben551

"I tossed some of the RankBreeze data into a spreadsheet (15 mins or so) and..."

I was curious to know where you got the data on RankBreeze to generate the "Average Prices Analasys ..." chart?

Ricardo

[Ben551]

Hi @Ricardo85 - it wasn’t hard to find. It’s on the little nav table at the bottom of the first Beta chart.

I had to click to open each date range on the table, then note the average prices from the pop up box vs my own price in the same box. I copied each price point from there to get the main set of data for roughly 3 months then started filling in the blanks to extend the data range. To fill in the blanks, I identified my main competitors from the Rank Breeze data set (I.e. the ones I wanted to benchmark to), and filled in any blank periods by looking at their listing prices manually on Airbnb for each major period in my calendar.

It sounds like more work than it was. Rank Breeze gave me the first 3 month data points, plus identified my main benchmark competitors. I then manually got 9 more data points for that same set using Airbnb directly. Didn’t take long to get the full 12 months. When you click on a competitor in the pop up box on Rank Breeze, it takes you straight to the Airbnb listing site, so you can identify and grab data very fast.

[Ricardo85]

@Ben551

Thanks for the tip!

Ricardo

[Nathaniel129]

Feels like you could have a second business helping hosts with SEO.  Thank you for the information!

[María304]

Hi Ben!

thank you for sharing your research and test with us. I’m very curious as well. Is this RankBreeze a free app or a subscription? 

Im not to a computer geek but I would like to know the logistics of placing the listings here, since I can never find myself if I’m looking as a Guest.

Thanks!

[Ben551]

Hi @María304 - no problem, it's a paid service I bought online - so far I'm paying USD $14 per month to track up to 3 listings. More on pricing here.  I expect it won't be something I use forever though, but it seems helpful for now.

PS:  I'm no expert at this sort of thing either!  Just driven by curiosity...

[María304]

Thank you, Ben! I’ll give it a try 👍

[Julia-and-Tarkan0]

Hi @Ben551 

Thank you for your very interesting post about Rank Breeze. We're also considering using it but wondering if you are still using it and are you still happy with it? Asking this because you said ' expect it won't be something I use forever though, but it seems helpful for now' in your reply to another host sometime ago.

Also, we've noticed that your listing description is organised/written in a very good way. Do you use any professional advice/service for this (e.g. getpaidforyourpad)?

Thanks a lot again. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

tnx, @Ben551 this is very interesting...

one of my neighbors has 2 bdr apartment the same as I have :

1. she accepts kids - I don't
2. her calendar is always open -mine is limited to 3-6 months in the future
3. She has 1-night min stay - I have 2 night
4. she has no cleaning fee -mine is 20€
5. her base price for 2 guests is 40-60€ - mine is 45-50€
6. her extra guest price is 15€ -  mine is 10€

she is always on the first page and fully booked.  I am not, so obviously, all those factors are relevant. I never thought keywords in my listing description would have any impact and I never tried but I know that here in my area just 5€ / night makes a big difference between full and empty place. If I would accept 1 nighters and remove cleaning fee I would probably be fully booked as well  ( and kill myself 😛  )

[Ben551]

Hi @Branka-and-Silvia0 - yeah it’s not really known for sure whether item 1 affects SEO, but from what I have read/learned all the other things are. Pricing seems to have the greatest impact, definitely, and having instant book turned on, but there is a lot more to consider.

I have learned that (in addition to keywords) there are some more sneaky things you won’t necessarily be able to tell of your neighbour is doing and have a big impact:

1. If your neighbour spends all day “camping” the Airbnb hosting portal, looking at their listing, tweaking their calendar, adding a full stop here and there to photo descriptions... this impacts SEO a lot. I’ve proven this has an impact by having a macro on my PC run all day for 2 days, then stop for 2 days. I changed nothing else and had a massive spike as a result of my Airbnb hosting portal camping.
2. Changing prices and updating calendar every....single...day. Wheelhouse is doing this for me, overnight, every night. To replicate this benefit, you need to update the price of a random day in your calendar, plus you need to block/unblock a day. Dong both daily gives you a big boost.
3. Receiving bookings and reviews - on each day I receive these, my listing spikes up 10 places in listing results, then drops back down 1 day later.
4. Having the most high quality (in pixels) photographs they can get. If these are even 10 pixels better than yours and are more dens than yours... they will be higher in search results. SEO is so sensitive to photo changes it’s nuts. Just adding one additional high quality photo moved me from page 2 to page 1 overnight. The people I moved past had only iPhone junk pictures with no lighting, so it was very easy to blast past them.
5. Narration on your photos - my god! This is so sneaky and it really matters! Check, photo by photo, what narration your neighbour has on their photos. Key words matter. Symbols matter. Number of words matter. You know what, check out mine... I’ve utterly nailed this.
6. Link backs to their listing - if your neighbour has generated a myriad of link backs to their listing, the Airbnb system knows it and rewards them. The more the better and it also tracks the number of social media mentions that link back to your listing. Blog, tweet, make a hashtag, share the hashtag with your guests, make a Facebook page, make a landing page... get those links out there!

Thats about it for the sneaky list I have so far, although it seems to grow every day!

~ Ben

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Ben551 Great research on your SEO work and also with your House Rules I discovered a few weeks back too. 

These things take a load of time to compile so thanks for sharing!

[Joe264]

Wow - thanks Ben! I was about cancel my Rank Breeze account. Time to dive back in a dive deeper. 

[Lynley7]

Ben you are amazing! I have 2 listings here in NZ - 'Riverviews on Alpha' in Cambridge and 'Waihi Beach Hive' in you guessed it! It's great to find someone likeminded in optimizing their listing. This business is so much fun and I really appreciated your suggestions. Thank you.