What are you doing to increase search results?

[Patrick568]

My wife and I have been hosting for about three months and I was wondering what people are doing to increase the search results for their listings. We have an Instagram page and a Facebook profile, we have all 5 star reviews (6) but it seems that searching for our house is sometimes difficult to find, even when we search the paramaters specific to us. 

Has anyone used any specific techiques?

Thanks

[Matthew285]

@Patrick568 your listing is truly stunning; the photography captures the energy and color very well.

How to rank higher in the search results is a very popular topic in the discussion rooms.

Just search for "Ranking" or "Listing Ranking" or "Search Ranking" or "Listing Visibility" and you will find a lot of lively discussion about how the rankings of listings is done.

AirBnB is deliberately vague on how ranking is done. Here is their information page about it:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/39/what-factors-determine-how-my-listing-appears-in-search-resul...

Here is one AirbnB blog entry about search matching:

https://blog.atairbnb.com/how-search-makes-the-best-matches/

Here is a very informative AirBnB blog entry about how to rank higher (I think this one is the best):

https://blog.atairbnb.com/search/

Finally, here is a Reddit post where someone did a small bit of analysis about search ranking:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/6113kx/ranking_of_listing_factors_correlating_to_search/?st...

If you don't have time to read all the links, here are some highlights (in no particular order):

1. Instant Book: Very Helpful
2. SuperHost status: Not supposed to be a factor.
3. Being the kind of host that *is* a SuperHost: Definitely a factor.
4. Tweaking your listing every day: Not Helpful
5. Being put on lots of people's Wish Lists: Very Good
6. Getting clicked on (views): Good
7. Receiving inquiries: Good
8. Competitive price: Very Good.
9. Declining people’s booking requests: Bad
10. Positive Ratings from Guests: Good
11. Having lots of reviews: Good
12. Being a new listing: Very Good
13. Being responsive to guests: Good
14. Cancelling a confirmed booking: Very Bad

Also: be aware that the way the search results are ranked can vary from one guest to another. Just because you are high or low in the list for one guest doesn’t mean you will be in that position for ALL guests.

You can tell that many of the most important factors are not under your direct control: receiving great reviews (and a lot of them), getting views, being wishlisted, receiving Inquiries or Bookings.

The important factors that you *can* control easily are: having Instant Booking, having a competitive price and how responsive you are.

[Patrick568]

Matthew, thanks for your response. My wife and I are working pretty hard to tweak our listing as much as possible to maximize the response.