The Airbnb site says my property is listed, but it isn't. How to post? Calendar is open.

[Laura1218]

My property is not discoverable. I've tried all kinds of filters to narrow down the search to find my place, and the unhelpful "Help" section tells me it's listed, but it isn't. I have had no queries about my house, which clued me in on the fact that it was not listed. On some google searches it says I should see a "Post Listing" red button. No such button exists. Has anyone else had this (very) frustrating issue?

[Emiel1]

Hi,

Did you check your statistics pages to see the amount of views ?

Please note it can take some time before the listing is displayed in search results. I also noticed you have a minimal stay of 30 days (and it's NOT limited to the period you mentioned in the listing !) , so it's a long-term-stay accomodation. It also means long-term-stay cancellation policy will apply.

I could not locate your listing until now.

Best regards, Emiel

[Laura1218]

Thank you Emiel for your reply! The statistics page yesterday showed NO views. Today I changed the length of stay to 7 days (not 30) and entered February 3-10 to see if my property showed and...NO! February is the hottest month for rentals here and my property, which is free the whole month, is not showing up. Any other suggestions? Thanks to all who have offered suggestions!

[David126]

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13533400

Here you are.

[Emiel1]

@David126Yes, that's the listing as mentioned also in her profile. But @Laura1218 want to see her listing somewhere in the search results. I could not locate it there, whatever search i did in the area where the accomodation is located. Today i tried it again with some extra filtering and YES, it is showing up in the results of "San Miguel de Allende, Mexico". As @Susie5 also pointed out here: the minimum stay of 30 days makes it difficult to book. But i put in some available date range and the screen shot proofs "Casa Margarito" is there !

[David126]

I had no doubt it was not on the site, obviously with very restrictive booking requirments it is not likely to show to most people.

[Susie5]

Hi @Laura1218, I think the problem is that you may have set the mimimum stay to a period longer than there are actual openings for bookings. I put in some random dates and almost all the dates in the future were blocked, so I would have been unable to book.  Check your minimum stay and also make sure your dates are open (i.e. not grayed out on the calendar).  You can check this by opening an "incognito" window, ctrl-shift-N, on Chrome (which makes it forget who you are) and see whether you get the same problem. 

Also,  30 days is really long and it might not attract tourists who seldom have that long of a time to stay somewhere, or want to make that commitment.  Good luck! Susie

[Laura1218]

Susie, thanks so much. I changed my booking period to 7 days, not 30, but when I entered a week in February (when it is available) my property still didn't appear. Is there anything else I should be doing? My filters were: whole house, 4 persons, February 3-10, San Miguel de Allende. I truly appreciate all the help I've received from you and the Airbnb community! 

[Matthew285]

@Laura1218, I am not sure you are catching what @Susie5 is trying to communicate to you.

She is not saying to change the number of days you request when you search for your listing.

She is saying that as the host you have to edit your listing because your minimum required stay is too long (30 days).

Having listing with a minimum required stay of 30 days means that your listing will NOT appear to a prospective guest unless they choose dates for a vacation of at least 30 days. If they only search for a week of vacation, your listing will NOT appear to them.

That is why no one can find your listing.

Wait... so I checked your listing myself. It appears you have chosen a new minimum stay of 14 nights.

Better, but please be aware it won't be that guests will see your listing and realize they need to extend their vacation to two weeks.

It is that unless they are already searching for a 14 days vacation your listing will continue to be invisible.

[Matthew285]

@Laura1218, now that you've made some changes, I was able to find your listing in search.

I used 4 guests, whole home, Feb 1-9 and moved the map a bit to limit it to your area.

Good news! Of the 59 listings I found, you were #1.

[Susie5]

Hi @Laura1218, I had another look and you came up on p. 6 of 15 with no filters applied, when I narrowed the map to the area of your place.  When I put the Instant Book filter on, you were no. 2 on the first page!  I know there have been some "looks" because I've looked twice and I "favorited" you too, so that statistic is not quite correct. 

I did see that there is a ton of competition - what a lot of beautiful homes are available - and one thing I did notice is that you have a $500 security deposit. That may be discouraging some people.  You might consider lowering it, or looking into other options for insurance.  (I've used "Slice" once -- it was about $8 per day, here in the US - I'm not sure they cover Mexico, and that is a big hit on a fairly low rate, plus it's paid by the host, not the guest....) 

The other thing, which I'm sure you know, is the cats and I know that's not negotiable for you, but it might be causing you some problems among those guests who bother to read the description carefully (a minority of guests, by the way). 

Did you intend to block dates until January 14? I see that the minimum stay is now 7 days, that should be helpful.  Good luck!  (I'm almost out the door with my suitcases now that the cold weather has arrived here in Boston...) Susie

[Susie5]

Hi @Laura1218, I think the problem is that you may have set the minimum stay to a period longer than there are actual openings for bookings. I put in some random dates and almost all the dates in the future were blocked, so I would have been unable to book.  Check your minimum stay and also make sure your dates are open (i.e. not grayed out on the calendar).  30 days is really long and it might not attract tourists (without children) who seldom have that long of a time to stay somewhere.  You might also "snooze" the listing briefly (for half an hour), then reopen it - sometimes that helps with these random glitches.  Good luck! Susie