What gives you a bump in search? Anyone know?

[Laura2592]

I have been trying to figure this out for a few years now. Maybe someone knows.

What "bumps" your listing in search? Even as a superhost, there are times when I can't see my listing for available dates if I log out of my account. Does getting a good review bump you? Refreshing photos? Changing your listing factors to something Airbnb likes (instant book for example)?

[Robin4]

@Laura2592 

Laura, using IB definitely gives you preferential search placement, along with key amenities like 'disabled friendly' but, the big thing that governs your search placement is ......'Activity'. The more activity you can generate with your listing, the higher it will display in search rankings. By activity, I don't mean 'views', the algorithm responds to something actually happening on your page.

I average 11 bookings per month but they seem to come grouped! I might get 3 in a day and then go a week to 10 days without one. That day I get multiple bookings sees me head to the top few out of 300 + listings in my area. If I don't get a booking, enquiry or make any alterations to my listing for a week or so I will drop down to the second or even third page in my Adelaide Hills area search. A couple of enquiries or bookings come in and I suddenly shoot up to the top few again.

Airbnb will not confirm it but, the search algorithm promotes success and the more activity you can generate, the higher you will display in a random search.

Cheers........Rob

[Laura2592]

@Robin4 so by activity, do you mean bookings? Reviews? New photos? New listing attributes?

[Robin4]

@Laura2592 

I don't necessarily means bookings, but every time your site is accessed, either by you to make some alteration, or someone else who requires a response, it triggers the placement algorithm.

If you are in an area where there is a bit of competition and things are slack it pays to put the price down a dollar or two for a few days then put it up again, add a picture, reword your text, put in another amenity. Doing this keeps your listing 'fresh'. It gives the algorithm the impetus to promote your listing.

Airbnb will tell you the algorithm responds to views and that is probably logical because the higher your search placement, the more people are going to see it! But views in itself are not going to do the job, if nothing is happening despite lots of views your placement will slip and consequently, so will the views. The trick is to maintain that higher search placement

Cheers......Rob

[Lisa723]

@Robin4 this idea that tweaking your listing has beneficial search results is certainly widespread-- I've never seen any supporting evidence, though. (And it doesn't seem logical, not that that means much.) Do you have some?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2017/10/30/airbnb-finally-opens-up-on-how-to-rise-through-it...

[Robin4]

@Lisa723 

All I can go by is my own experience Lisa, and that of other hosts in my area that I talk with. We all seem to float around with our exposure dependent on how Airbnb active we are.

As I said above, if I snooze my listing for a week or two and nobody contacts me, I slip out of the top few search pages, but as soon as something starts happening again I get more prominent exposure. 

Unfortunately I can't access that Forbes site. I use adblock and that locks me out of some sites that want to promote unwanted advertising to me!

Cheers.......Rob

[Lisa723]

@Robin4 Here is a quote from the article and a link to the original Airbnb blog post saying the same:

Constantly Tweaking Your Listing Isn't Actually Helping

This is probably the biggest shocker in the blog post. Airbnb host forums are filled with advise to slightly alter your listing in some subtle way on a near-daily basis, and it's been a longstanding assumption in the host community that the Airbnb algorithm favors listings that are constantly tweaked and changed. Adding fire to this rumor: The Airbnb host dashboard tracks the last time each listing was updated, giving the impression that this matters.

Turns out, it doesn't. According to the blog post, "repeatedly changing or tweaking your listing will neither help nor hurt your Search Ranking."

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

[Lisa723]

FWIW: https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/how-airbnb-search-works-44

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  I tried that at one point. Changing a sentence, or some other thing on the listing. My experience was that it didn't make one iota of difference.

[Ann72]

I've had the same experience as @Robin4.  "Hover time" is another term for the kind of activity he describes.  But it's strictly anecdotal.  @Lizzie wrote a piece several years ago about this, https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Your-top-questions-about-Airbnb-Search/m-p/509644, and it seems the Forbes blog read it because here's a sentence in her post:  "Repeatedly changing or tweaking your listing will neither help nor hurt your Search Ranking."  Still, there are over 100 factors in the search algorithm, and I've read elsewhere that "hover time" is one of them.  That makes sense if they want guests to book with hosts who are attentive and keep their listings up to date. @Lisa723 @Laura2592 @Sarah977 

[Lisa723]

@Ann72 not that what makes sense is a good predictor of what Airbnb will do,  but IMO it doesn’t make sense to favor listings that are undergoing meaningless tweaks. If such listing updates ever were part of the equation it would have made sense for Airbnb to remove them from it when this advice to try to game it this way became ubiquitous.

[Ann72]

No, that’s not what’s happening, @Lisa723.  “Hover time” favors attentive hosts over inattentive hosts.  Hosts who don’t keep their calendars up or don’t keep their listings accurate make unhappy guests, as I’m sure it doesn’t take much imagination to see. If a few minor tweaks made regularly were the deciding factor, how stupid would that be?

[Ann72]

Also found this article @Laura2592 - https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/39/how-search-results-work

[Robin4]

@Ann72 

Ann totally off topic but I thought you might be interested in this.

As you know from my previous ramblings the back of our property is a 1,300 square metre nervous breakdown of a garden......

But Ade is turning into something of an amateur horticulturalist and she like experimenting with cuttings.

You are no doubt aware of the Geranium....the working mans flower, the blue collar plant!

Well Ade is having a bit of success at grafting them. This would you believe is one plant......

It has flowers of six different shades........so far!

I guess we should call it a nervous breakdown of a Geranium!!

Cheers........Rob

[Ann72]

@Robin4 “A nervous breakdown of a garden” is sheer genius 😂😂😂 But even more - Ade’s geranium.  That is fantastic!  I imagine ordering them in bespoke color combos.  Last year I discovered that purple coneflower/echinacea has been developed into many more colors and shades.  Ade is onto something!