@Laura543
Hi Laura, you do show up but, one has to be very specific to find your listing. In a general search nobody would ever come across your listing. It is not until you focus the search map in your specific area that your property will appear in search results.
It is there, I judt did a specific search for it.......
I was caned here a week or so ago by another contributor waving a rule book around which says that 'Activity' has no baring on search placement! And it is a pity that some contributors will do that and spout out from a rule book rather than looking at the cold hard reality of how the platform works because what is happening to you Laura is classically what happens when your property slips in visibility due to inactivity!
You need to lift the profile of your property Laura, you need to get some activity going on to trigger the algorithm that governs search placement. Using Instant Book is certainly going to shoot you back up the rankings and you can put in safeguards by requiring Gov ID and positive reviews from other hosts in order to IB your listing. Get some friends to ask a question of you through the 'Contact Host' field on your profile page. Put your price down a dollar one day and up a couple of days later. Add a House Rule or change a few photos around.....get some activity going.
Despite what some less experienced people will say, the most visible properties in an Airbnb search are those with the most activity happening.
My property was averaging around 16-20 bookings per month for 7 to 8 months because I was sitting at the top of the search rankings for my area. In Airbnb's eyes I had the most succesful listing in my area.
But that can only go on for so long....the calendar fills up for months ahead with just odd days here or there available, so when people can't book, they look elswhere and although the views are still there the activity drops and so does the property visibility. I am now not even on the first page for my area any more and I haven't had one booking in 3 weeks, but that doesn't worry me. Once I get into March 2019 my availability will come back and my bookings will take off again.
Don't let anyone tell you here that activity does not affect where you show up and who can see you....Laura, it does! Get some activity going on your site, turn on IB and you will be off and running again.
Cheers......Rob