Boost your listing in search results by...

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Laura5421
Level 2
Beaverton, OR

Boost your listing in search results by...

Hi everyone!

 

All threads I've found about what actions increase a listing's rank in search results are 3 years old or more, so I'm starting a new thread.

 

I've been hosting close to 5 months now. I qualified for Superhost in early April and expect to see that updated on my listing at the next review.

 

I update at least one picture on my listing every two weeks, which has been enough to keep views and bookings coming in until now. I'm concerned because it is now high-demand season, so I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong.  ...or perhaps should be doing something I am not. Here's my listing: 

 
Even if this is happening due to the recent Airbnb updates/changes (which I don't think is the case given my kind of space), it seems to me I should be able to counteract whatever that effect might be by proactively taking key actions. I'm trying to figure out what the actions should be, and I deeply appreciate any guidance you have to offer.
 
Thank you so very much, and Happy Hosting to you all!
 
Laura in Beaverton, OR
1 Best Answer
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Laura5421 

 

You might not think that the updates/changes would affect your bookings but I also host private rooms in my own home and my views have nose dived dramatically since the updates. I can see that I've gone from a very healthy number of views to hardly any at all. 

 

RE updating your listing or photos regularly to keep it high in the search results, I think that may be a bit of a myth. Although it is a few years old now, Airbnb did publish a topic here some time ago specifically about how the search results worked and in it they confirmed that tweaking your listing regularly has no impact whatsoever. I stopped tweaking when I read that and it made no difference to my views or bookings, so I believe I had been simply wasting my time doing that, but if you feel it works and don't mind, I suppose there's no harm. I also heard that it helps if people save your listing to their wish lists. Not sure if that is true or not.

 

Bear in mind also that, as a new host, you can expect to see an initial dip in views and bookings because Airbnb gives new listings a boost for the first month and, after that, you will drop in the search results. That doesn't mean you can't push it back up, but you no longer have that automatic initial boost.

 

What I have noticed (prior to these latest updates) is that enquiries often come in waves. I will suddenly get a lot of interest in the same listing for similar dates. When this happens, I suspect that I've had a boost in the search results. I think that the more bookings/interest the listing gets, the higher it appears in searches (which was also confirmed in the Airbnb article).

 

Also, I will suddenly get a lot of interest from a particular country. I host long term stays and, while this occasionally includes people from the USA, they never made up a large portion of my long term guests who were usually from the UK/Europe and Asia. In the last few months (again before the update) however, almost all of my bookings and enquiries have been from American guests. I do not know if this reflects a change in the way people from the US are travelling/living due to COVID (this would apply to many nationalities, not just the US) or because my listings were getting some sort of boost in their search results or both, but again it maybe reinforces that the more interest a listing gets, the higher it shows in the searches.

 

 

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15 Replies 15
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Laura5421 

 

You might not think that the updates/changes would affect your bookings but I also host private rooms in my own home and my views have nose dived dramatically since the updates. I can see that I've gone from a very healthy number of views to hardly any at all. 

 

RE updating your listing or photos regularly to keep it high in the search results, I think that may be a bit of a myth. Although it is a few years old now, Airbnb did publish a topic here some time ago specifically about how the search results worked and in it they confirmed that tweaking your listing regularly has no impact whatsoever. I stopped tweaking when I read that and it made no difference to my views or bookings, so I believe I had been simply wasting my time doing that, but if you feel it works and don't mind, I suppose there's no harm. I also heard that it helps if people save your listing to their wish lists. Not sure if that is true or not.

 

Bear in mind also that, as a new host, you can expect to see an initial dip in views and bookings because Airbnb gives new listings a boost for the first month and, after that, you will drop in the search results. That doesn't mean you can't push it back up, but you no longer have that automatic initial boost.

 

What I have noticed (prior to these latest updates) is that enquiries often come in waves. I will suddenly get a lot of interest in the same listing for similar dates. When this happens, I suspect that I've had a boost in the search results. I think that the more bookings/interest the listing gets, the higher it appears in searches (which was also confirmed in the Airbnb article).

 

Also, I will suddenly get a lot of interest from a particular country. I host long term stays and, while this occasionally includes people from the USA, they never made up a large portion of my long term guests who were usually from the UK/Europe and Asia. In the last few months (again before the update) however, almost all of my bookings and enquiries have been from American guests. I do not know if this reflects a change in the way people from the US are travelling/living due to COVID (this would apply to many nationalities, not just the US) or because my listings were getting some sort of boost in their search results or both, but again it maybe reinforces that the more interest a listing gets, the higher it shows in the searches.

 

 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I agree @Huma0  ever since they changed the settings my views and bookings have plummeted.

 

1. airbnb set default search to a week

 

2. when you search for my listing it shows my first availability as being December when uts June

 

no wonder I'm not getting any bookings

 

@Stephanie 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helen3 

 

I knew about point 1. but not point 2.

 

EEEK!! Where is it showing your availability as that? In the searches or on the listing's calendar itself?

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

No I got my friend to search for home-shares in Bristol for two nights and you get a list of listings and when it shows the listings it shows the first dates its available plus price and mine says 2 December !! when it's mid June 😞

Andrea-and-Glenn0
Level 10
Mill Bay, Canada

@Laura5421 @Helen3 @Huma0  I’m a big numbers guy, (business, personal, life) believe in them, follow and trust algorithms that are repeatable and reliable. 

That said, each of us have a unique offering, however to the customer, we are but a blip on their radar as they look for a place to stay during a visit, some business, a getaway, a vacation or holiday.

We are in a small community on the outskirts (rural-ish) of two larger cities, on the ocean, near the mountains, lakes all around. We don’t have hundreds of competitors, but there are lots of choices for travellers.


Nobody likes change, the new “look and feel” of the new design doesn’t work for me as a guest either, I’m not looking for a $12,000 per night palace in Istanbul with no reviews, but thanks. Yes, the new design doesn’t cater to the $100 per night couple looking for a small cottage on Vancouver Island for 3 nights. 

Unlike others here, we have not seen a drop in our views and our bookings have actually increased over last year so far.  (but I credit that to other factors) We don’t get a lot of daily or monthly views, average around 350 to 450 views per month and we crank out about a 1% booking rate off those views. We do not use any other rental platform, AirBnb generates all our leads and we average 80% occupancy (and only because we also have friends and family that use our Cottage). 

I watch our views daily, and can always tell when we are going to get bookings or why we got bookings on a certain day. When we get 15 or 20 views in one day, that will result in an enquiry. 

Sorry to be long winded, just my 2 cents. Nope, don’t care for the new “design” some decisions are off base (not showing number of reviews, random 1 week search, feature homes etc…)

 

Andrea and Glenn

 

@Andrea-and-Glenn0 

 

My bookings also increased over the last year, but that was kind of inevitable considering what was going on the year before, during which time there were many months of lockdowns, many months of Airbnb blocking calendars for shared listings in the UK and the fact that guests who were coming from overseas had to quarantine, which is impossible at my property. So, it's really hard to make a comparison.

 

What I would say is that, in the last few months, my bookings have gotten back to what I would consider 'normal'. That is to say, if I wasn't so choosy about guests, and I really wanted to (and I don't), I could probably getting bookings for every night of the year. That's not to boast. My location (London) is in high demand and the listings conveniently located and I price them probably much lower than I could.

 

I don't need a high volume of bookings, but I do need a high volume of views/enquiries because only a fraction of them are a good fit for my listings.

 

My concern is what has happened since the rollout of the Summer Release, i.e. the last three weeks or so. Prior to that, my views were looking very healthy indeed. Now they have pretty much stopped completely and I can't think of another explanation. Whatever I was doing was working before that but clearly no longer is. I guess I will just have to keep an eye on the views and see what happens...

 

I'd be interested to know what has happened to your views since the rollout and also if you are appearing in searches within any of the new categories or flexible date formats.

 

@Huma0  I will definitely let you know what my numbers are and a comparison going forward..

Have a look in Mill Bay, BC, Canada and let me know if my cottage shows up. 

Cheers/Glenn

 

@Andrea-and-Glenn0 

 

Firstly, I looked using your location and 'I'm flexible' for dates, but had to choose between weekend, week etc. I chose weekend and couldn't see your listing on the first few pages of results (I didn't go through all of them though). However, it could have been there if Airbnb is changing the lead/photo and title in these flexible searches. I thought that was only for the category searches though.

 

I then entered dates (a week in June) and yours came up as the first result.

@Huma0 Thanks Huma, the fact that you found my little cottage is awesome considering we have very little availability left, but I’m super happy that it showed up when you searched. If you were a guest, and needed those dates in June, you likely would have booked with me. Thanks AirBnb, still happy. 

I’ve had my friends and family (non AirBnb users) sit down on the computer or iPad or iPhone or android and do a very basic search and our property always comes up #1 or #2 in the search results. 

Cheers for now/Glenn 

@Huma0   I used to really try to adhere to the tweaking, changing or adding photos, and I still do to some degree.  But, I'm not sure it makes a difference. 

 

This year, our views started rising in January to almost double what they had been and they were high for Jan/Feb/March, when we got a lot of bookings and thankfully bookings for much of the summer.  We had done nothing in the previous weeks or couple of months, it happened for AI reasons.  Then, the views declined and leveled off forApril-now, sometimes spiking and sometimes getting very low around 10 a day.  

 

 

 

 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Mark116 

 

I hadn't checked my views in ages, but I am guessing they were okay because I was getting plenty of enquiries and bookings and, like you, have already filled the summer months. 

 

I am not sure what prompted me to check the views right before the rollout. I honestly can't remember now, but they were looking very good and the 2nd floor bedroom's views had gone through the roof. Like you, I hadn't been doing anything specific. 

 

Since the rollout, they have plummeted, especially for the room that was previously getting loads of views. I had noticed that that room was the last to show in results and then only if I zoomed right in on the map to the actual house, which obviously no guests are going to do, so I suspect no one is seeing it at all.

 

Since the Summer Release, I haven't had a single enquiry for that room, which had always been the most popular and first to get booked. I did get a few for the other two rooms for the first few days, but those have now stopped entirely.

@Huma0   I think the truth is, that what you do as a host doesn't matter. 

 

We had problems with low views and showing up very low in the results despite being superhosts for YEARS.  Once we started showing up lower in the results pages we got more last minute bookings and more poor guests.  But, there was no reason for our drop.  Super hosts and we got our first 4 star review in 2.5 years this week [not for nothing but from a new blank profile guest who have us 5s in all the sub categories].  

Airbnb tweaks the algo and you win or you lose.  I know it for fact since our good fortune of earlier this year came at a time when we were not tweaking and changing and updating the listing  It just happened because of something in the algo that I had no input into or control over. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Mark116 

 

I believe you are right. I stopped tweaking or doing anything to the listings ages ago. I would only update rules occasionally, or amenities as Airbnb was continually unticking things I had checked, or sometimes changing prices or rule sets for length of stay. I don't think I did these  things often enough for it to keep my ranking high and I never noticed a drop in bookings when I hadn't changed anything for ages.

 

Yep, last minute bookings often result in problematic guests. Luckily, I didn't get too many of these pre-COVID and, since the COVID related cancellations have stopped, I've not had to accept any last minute reservations recently. 

 

Still, I not only got my first 4 star review in years the other day, but a 3 star one around the same time (I did have a 3 star review last year, but the guest asked for it to be removed as she didn't realise 3 stars was bad). So, goodbye Superhost status for now. As I host long term guests, there's no way I can recover from that anytime soon.

 

I am annoyed about it, but at the same time not that fussed. It's just another lesson learnt. These low scores always seem to come when I ignored my gut feeling and should never have accepted the guest. I turned off IB after one of these guests booked, because I really didn't have a good feeling about it and probably would not have accepted had it been a request, or at least asked her more questions. Turns out my gut instinct was right.

Jennifer1774
Level 5
Sacramento, CA

Our views and bookings have plummeted in the last 3 weeks. Usually by this time in a month we are almost full for the following month. That is not the case this month at all. June is looking almost empty. The only two things to which I can attribute that are the change in the search criteria and the fact that this is the first quarter in three years that we have not had super host status.