My listing is buried !

Dawn150
Level 2
Everett, WA

My listing is buried !

Hello hosting community,

 

I am in my second year of hosting, am a superhost and had a fantastic first year.  My problem now is that when someone (other than me, from my computer) searches for my listing and chooses my town/homes on the Airbnb website, my listing is buried sometimes 12-15 pages in. In fact, I have heard repeatedly from friends and others that they cannot find it. The homes that pop up ahead of mine are from communities 20-30 miles away. What the heck??? I have talked to Airbnb about this and they really haven't provided a satisfactory explanation. It is how people search, and how many clicks, etc. How can they click on my listing when they are searching for a place in my community and after a few pages they are looking at homes in Seattle, Whidbey Island, Camano Island and Arlington. All more than 20 miles from my place. If I were a potential guest I'd stop looking and go back to the first few pages that are clearly in the town I want to stay in. I turned off smart pricing at the beginning of this year and wonder if somehow that made a difference. Can anyone help me to figure out how to get my listing to show up on the first or second  page. I will consider all options, I have put my heart and soul into this business and love what I do, my reviews reflect this and yet I am concerned that I am missing out on so many potential guests because they cannot find me. Thanks for sharing your experience and insights.

~Always Forward, Dawn at Ruby's Guest Suite 

6 Replies 6
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

Hello @Dawn150 ,

The way listings are presented in search results is depending on the Airbnb algorithms in the software. They are in detail unknown to us, but if you search in this community you will find some information to understand this better, for example:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Your-top-questions-about-Airbnb-Search/m-p/509644#M12037...

 

You will also see a lot of other hosts complaining about their ranking in search results, everybody wants to be on the firsts pages, but that is not possible.

 

You can promote your listing also outside Airbnb on a private website or via social media. The homepage is the best link to be used (the "badges" airbnb provides for inclusion on an external website are not allways working well , due to errors in the html. But they can be found in your account)

Your homepage is:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/15879154/listings

You also can upload a coverphoto.

 

Hope this helps,

Emiel

Thanks Emiel, 

 

This was helpful and I have dug a bit deeper into the link you shared and additionally put my listing out on FB once again. I'm still a bit unclear about the filters on my "instant book" setting but I just need to keep reading and as the season picks up in our area, I've found that many guests book last minute. 

 

~Dawn

Hi Dawn, I am really upset about the same topic. In my town of Atascadero Ca there are maybe 20 hosts. But if a guest specifically searches in my town, 300 other hosts from towns that are an hour away are randomly mixed in. On one day I may be five pages down. On another day I may be 15 pages down!? BS!! I think when a person specifically asks for a certain town then the hosts in that town should show up first! Then nearby towns after that. Did you have any luck you could share?

Hi Amber, we have the same issue with our listing. We keep being told it has to do with the algorithms being used by airbnb's software, but when a guest searches with no filter other than a town or city name it should show all the properties from the town's center outward first. Our property is located in a town of approximately 7000 residents and I know of only 4 listings, but you have to drill down to at least the sixth or seventh page to find the first one! The first pages have listings 20 to 30 miles from our town; very frustrating but we are at a loss of any more changes we can make to our listing to improve this! 

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Wayne-And-Joyce0 

 

When searching for "King, NC"  it shows a wide area on the map around King, which is done by default with every search. But when zooming in, your listing shows up on first or second page.

 

Zooming in on the map when searching:

Zoom level 12

 

Direct link to search system (for testing purpose to test the filters):

https://www.airbnb.com/s/homes?host_id=295368867&map_toggle=true

 

@Emiel1

    On the default search area of the map why are listings 15 miles north and south shown without zooming but the listings at the center of the area not visible without zooming in two times?

Thanks for the info, Wayne