Search Results Ranking Algorithm

[Alexander464]

Airbnb contacted me by telephone and asked me if I would consider allowing a guest to book my property for check in within 24 hours because her reservation at a different property was cancelled. This guest cancelled the reservation (that Airbnb arranged on her behalf) before checking into my property and was somehow able to still write a review of my listing. She gave me 3 stars across the board and 1 star overall because she thought my house rules were too strict. She even gave me 3 stars for check in and cleanliness even though she never visited my home. This review brought my overall rating below 4.0 stars and Airbnb paused my listing for 7 days. Fortunately, I was able to get her review/rating removed after explaining my situation to an Airbnb representative. This brought my rating back up to a 4.8 where it currently stands, but the pause/suspension (that never should have happened) was not immediately lifted. After serving the 7 day suspension, I noticed that I have not received any inquiries about my property anymore. Before the suspension, I was getting one inquiry per day. I even had A-list celebrities renting my home. I strongly believe that my listing is not showing up at the top of searches anymore because of the suspension that should never have happened to my listing in the first place.

Anyone know if Airbnb can fix my particular algorithm to return my listing to the top of searches. The glitch in the system that allowed a guest to give me a review even though she had cancelled her reservation and subsequently damage my rating has adversely affected my business.

[Linda108]

So you were trying to help a guest due to the intervention of Air BNB staff and you ultimate reward is a depression of business..What???!!.  Wow Alexander, since you were able to get Air BNB to remove the review by discussing with Air BNB, I wonder if there is any way they can give you a temporary boost in the search results to make up for their error.

if not, then take some time to make some minor tweaks in your listing as listing updating helps bump the listing in the search.  Good luck.  You deserve better.

[Alexander464]

Thanks for your advice Linda. Yes, I’m bummed out about the situation since this income is needed right now for my personal finances.

 I decreased my price twice, but is there any other update to the listing that could help improve my search results ranking? 

[Clara173]

change or add some photos _ different lighting etc. If there is access to a garden put photos of the garden!

[Jack-and-Sherri0]

Wow that's horrible!!! Yes you deserve better. We are making airbnb money and they should accomodate you based on their error. I reviewed your profile and your guest outstanding reviews and yes you should not be punished for someone making outlandish comments. It sounds like it could have been someone intentionally ruining your stealer reputation. I wish you luck and I've seen this before with a friend. Her listing went completly dead. She deleted her account and reopened under a new account due to the lack of activity. She changed the name of her listing and it seemed to help. It did take her a little time to recover but much faster then what was happening. Her's lasted 5 months with no activity before she relisted. Now she's somewhat back to normal but it took about 2 months sinse she relisted.

You can always save all of your images and listing information in a word document. Once you go live you can paste it back in. Take screen-shots of every page.

Hope this helps and I wish you good luck.

[Pete28]

I get the sense that these last minutes guests are the ones that other hosts have either kicked out or cancelled - probably for some good reason.

The whole mess is a great example of the random nature of how one bad guest can ruin a good business with a single review.

[Letti0]

@Alexander464  That was a horrible thing to happen. You agreeed to help out and got $hit on big time. I have had AirBnB call me too for guests that got canceled at the last minute. Thank God it wasn't her. My groups were grateful for taking them at the last minute especially as it's hard to find a place for 12 at the last minute open for 2 or 3 days. The last one I was literally the only place available for the 3 day Labor day weekend. I am glad AirBnB pulled the review and I agree with @Linda108 I would call AirBnB and see if they will give the new host bump since they were responsible for this and you also suffered from the suspension. It can't hurt to ask. 

[Fred13]

  The problem stems from their not-so-brilliant recent move to start allowing reviews even if the guest cancels and never even stepped in the property at all, to accomodate the rarer events that the reason the guest cancelled had 'something' to do with the actions of the host, before arrival. Imagine how this can be abused by hosts trying to sabotage one another as competition amongs them rises in a given area.

   They didn't think this potential absurdity through probably because of their present inherent bias towards placating to the constant clamor from their guests for more 'rights'.

   They do realize they need to start 'seeing' things from outside of their now possibly 'inbred corporate culture' and have an existing program to get the opinions from selected hosts/guests throughout the world outside of it, on every subject of their model. A most positive move.

[Pete28]

I don't think you need a focus group to fix the obvious flaws :

- host makes damage claim, guest should not be able to review if upheld

- guest cancels, should not be able to review