Sudden rush of bookings!

[Laura461]

HI all,

I am very new to hosting (just activated my listing last Wed). We heard nothing at all for the first few days then yesterday (Monday) had 6 enquiries in quick succession. Today, nothing more.

So what I'm wondering is whether AirBNB play with the rankings - how high up you appear in search results. Or do priority listings - which might explain the sudden rush.

Basically I'm trying to work out how to make this happen more often!

The apartment is based in Cardiff, UK.

Thanks everyone,

Laura

[Zandra0]

Yes I think exactly that happens; it never used to happen in the past, it would be more of a trickle, then a few months back it changed to what you describe. Silence and then some bookings followed by silence...

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Watch this webinar: https://airbnb-toolkits.schoolkeep.com/outline/pval2pub/activities/H1fKnv2s

Read these articles: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/39/how-are-search-results-determined

http://blog.airbnb.com/how-search-makes-the-best-matches/

https://www.quora.com/Airbnb-How-does-the-search-ranking-work

http://rentingyourplace.com/airbnb-101/creating-an-airbnb-listing/seo/

[Linda108]

@Alice-and-Jeff0  As usual, your response is quite helpful.  I just hope the new hosts will take your advice.  It seems so many hosts, experienced and new, prefer to develop conspiracy theories about Air BNB.  Thank you

[Zandra0]

Haha! I have to respond to this because you're painting the OP -and me 😉 out to be crazy. I've spoken to other hosts (admittedly London) and we all experience this; our suspicion is that airbnb has so many listings in this area (now around 30k) they need to give everyone a turn for their listing to feature prominently.

This really isn't me looking for a conspiracy it makes sound business sense.

[Danny0]

AirBnb is not a democracy, it is a business. They bump up new listings for a few days to see if anyone books and then the listing goes into the regular listing cycle depending upon what they think will SELL. If your listing drops like a stone, the assumption is your listing is not as attractve as the other ones higher in the search results.

[Zandra0]

Nope that's not what I'm talking about at all.

I'm talking about the fact that there are 30k listings just in London! How else can airbnb make sure everyone has a chance to get bookings? I'm afraid it's no longer as simple as do you have a nice listing and good reviews; there's too many of us for that to work.

[Laura461]

Certainly didn't mean to imply conspiracy theories - more just wanted to understand the factors influencing rankings (if any) - and the replies have all been very useful, much appreciated.

Laura

[Lawrene0]

Business sense and solid useful answers are all great, @Linda108, @Alice-and-Jeff0, @Laura461 and @Zandra0, but I'll take a wild conspiracy theory any day 🙂