Totally Bogus:

[Peter-and-Sabrina0]

Hi folks:

Is there any way to get past the Praetorian Guard that is Airbnb Customer Service to people who might consider some changes?  I have gotten as far as to a supervisor of the first line of defense.

Here is just a small part of my story that I sent to the Feedback (aka cut and paste a link, yay!)

-I am a Superhost

-My response time is less than an hour

-I am priced reasonably

-I always review my guests

-My reviews are stellar

My property is in South Portland, Maine

When I do a generic search with just South Portland, Maine as the destination, I am 14 lines down from the top! Portland listings are ahead of mine

When I do the same search narrowing down to 2 guests. I drop to 21 lines down!!!! Again Portland listings are ahead of mine.

Please explain how my airbnb with more amenities than most, in the desired location clearly stated ends up below places in another town.  Below non-superhosts.

I would dearly love to speak to someone about this.  This algorithm is killing me.

Peter *

*[Surname hidden for safety reasons–in line with the Community Center Guidelines ]

[Ann72]

@Peter-and-Sabrina0 I hate when that happens.  My listing in Sedgwick comes up better in searches for Blue Hill and sometimes even for Bar Harbor, an hour away.  Gah!

Since more than 100 factors go into the rankings, I would play around some more.  Take new pictures, maybe with curtains open so there's light in the room.  One funny sign (Hokey Pokey) is amusing, but two immediately made me impatient, like let's get to the listing. I also wished there was a caption under each picture saying something about the space.

Raise your rates - go for $79 a night or more.  Make that your minimum with Smart Pricing (turning that on makes your place go up in the rankings for awhile).  Then you might get a notice next to your calendar:  "Offer 15% for March 25 - April 4."  15% off $79 is still more than you were charging, so give it a try, because then Airbnb sends out emails to people looking in that area for those dates.  Even if you don't get bookings, you get more eyes on your listing, which pushes it up in the rankings.

You don't have to leave Smart Pricing on forever if you don't like it.  It's just that using some of the Airbnb tools, either all the time or sometimes, does give your listing a boost.

[Peter-and-Sabrina0]

Thank you, Ann.

I will turn it all back on for awhile and see how that goes.  I have been playing round with pricing and the prices for April and May seem ridiculously high with Smart Pricing (over $100) so I adjusted accordingly.

I had it set at $69 but what was interesting is that August here was at that minimum price.

I have switched and tested all sorts of things and it really seems geographical to me.  We had around 200 airbnbs in South Portland prior to January 1st when a new ordinance went in affect.  Currently there are only 14 licensed airbnbs in town- it seemd I got more hits when there were more bnbs here.

Ugh.

Again thanks for your response.

[Ann72]

@Peter-and-Sabrina0 I found the same thing with the minimum price for August.  Don't they realize that Maine in August is Camelot?!?  The price stayed at the minimum through Labor Day and into the middle of September, then went up for the rest of the year. So I turned off Smart Pricing for that period and put in higher prices.  

BTW, I don't agree that $79 is too high.  Portland is a very desirable place, not exactly the middle of nowhere.

[Donald28]

I agree about the humorous pics in your listing. I'd ditch those. Potential guests probably don't care about getting a chuckle from an airbnb listing. They just want a place to stay. Those slanted ceilings are keeping all the 5 foot and taller guests from booking! Wow that's crazy. I wouldn't raise the price to $79 unless you want less bookings. 

[Peter-and-Sabrina0]

I

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@Donald28 wrote:

I agree about the humorous pics in your listing. I'd ditch those. Potential guests probably don't care about getting a chuckle from an airbnb listing. They just want a place to stay. Those slanted ceilings are keeping all the 5 foot and taller guests from booking! Wow that's crazy. I wouldn't raise the price to $79 unless you want less bookings. 

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Thank you for responding.

Funny things is I put that in last weekend- coincidence or not- and got a .handful of bookings afterwards. Was simply trying to get noticed in a sea of  bedroom and living room shots.

And the pics currently in my listing are indeed new and much brighter than they were. 

That said I will ditch hokey it for a week.

Again thanks for the reponse

-p