Your top questions about Airbnb Search

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

One of the most popular discussion topics here in the Community Center is on how Airbnb Search works. We brought your most-asked questions to the Airbnb Search team and have gathered the answers for you.

I really hope you find the responses helpful. To read the responses to each question, please click on the 'Read more' buttons! 🙂

Lizzie

---

---

 Answers to your top Search questions

You’ve created and published a fabulous listing and now your friends and family want to check it out. How do they find it? And among all the listings out there, how does the Airbnb algorithm decide which ones to show a traveler searching in your area? As we hear questions from hosts, two basic categories of questions emerge: What affects a listing’s ranking, and how can I find my listing online? So we took your most asked questions to the Airbnb Search team and have gathered the answers for you. Let’s dive in.

1. On search ranking, and how to improve yours:

What factors affect my listing’s placement in search results?

Read more

That’s a great question. We have an algorithm that looks at over 100 signals to decide how to order listings in search results.  Most of those signals have to do with things that guests care about, like positive reviews and great photos. If you think guests might care about it, it probably factors into your ranking! The reason is this: you’re most likely to get a booking request (or be instantly booked) if a traveler finds the type of place they’re looking for right away. We get a lot of information from the traveler about what they want for then show them listings that match their needs most closely.

Not every signal is weighed equally, and you don’t need to have a perfect listing or an unbeatable location for your listing to rank well. But there are some really influential signals that make a difference. Some of those include: how often guests click on your listing in search results, how often guests attempt to contact you from your listing page, how many booking requests you accept, if you use Instant Book, and how competitive your listing price is.

Why are listings with Instant Book prioritised ahead of other listings in the search results?

Read more

The main goal of the search algorithm is to facilitate bookings. And if a guest has an excellent experience booking and traveling on Airbnb they’re highly likely to use Airbnb again in the future. This helps travelers and hosts alike. We’ve seen for many years that—all other things being equal—travelers prefer to use Instant Book because they can book quickly, skip the wait time for hosts to respond, and avoid possibly being rejected. Because of the high booking success for hosts and guests, Instant Book gives your listing a boost in searches.

That said, many of you have amazing listings and use a Request to Book approach to hosting. It’s important that you know Instant Book is only one of more than a hundred factors in your listing search ranking. You can absolutely rank really well in searches without being an Instant Book host.

If I’m a Superhost, will my listing get a boost in search results?

Read more

Although we don't give an explicit boost to Superhosts in search, the factors required to become a Superhost do help your listing rank higher. Moreover, we give guests the option to filter their search results to only display Superhosts and occasionally showcase Superhosts on the results page.

How can I improve my listing ranking in search results? Are there any settings I can adopt to help my ranking?

Read more

The best way to immediately improve performance in Search is to enable Instant Book. Our research shows that guests prefer the booking experience that Instant Book provides. Even when they don’t filter for Instant Book listings, they often choose them over others because booking a place to stay quickly means they can get on with planning the rest of their trip. Other ways to quickly boost your ranking:

• Make a fabulous first impression. Make sure that your first photo is a bright, attractive, high quality, horizontal image of your listing. The more clicks you get from curious travelers, the higher you’ll rank in search results over time. An enticing and realistic photo is the very best way to show off your space in an instant.
• Price your listing competitively. Travelers are frequently looking for a great value for their trip, and by using tools like Smart Pricing, or setting your own competitive price, you can get the benefit of well informed pricing recommendations.

Is it true that if guests add my listing to their wishlists, my listing will get a little boost in the search results?

Read more

Yes! When travelers add your listing to their wishlist, it does indeed help your search ranking! One individual wishlist may not make a visible difference but over several months, if many guests love your listing and choose to wishlist it, it will rank higher. We also use listings that guests wishlist to better personalize their search experience, so they’ll be likely to see your listing again in future searches.

Is it true that editing and tweaking my listing every day will help boost my listing in Search?

Read more

Repeatedly changing or tweaking your listing will neither help nor hurt your Search Ranking. If you’re happy with your photos, price, and description, feel free to leave it as is and wait for booking requests to arrive!

Can I pay to advertise my listing so it appears on more search results?

Read more

Airbnb does not offer pay-for-placement in Search. This allows us to generate impartial search results for the best matches between hosts and guests. But you can advertise, if you like. We’ve made it easy for you to find, copy, and paste the information needed to embed your listing on social media and your personal blog or website: On your listing page, you’ll see “Share” on the right hand side of the screen. Underneath that, you’ll see the embed icon. It looks like this: </>. If you click that icon, you’ll see the information you need to easily copy and paste your listings code on your personal blog or website.

Why am I on the last page on search? This way no one will ever book my listing?

Read more

It’s important to know that some searches, for example city-level with no dates, are not highly representative of how a traveler looking to book uses the website. Some of those searches can capture many tens of thousands of listings. Travelers that book tend to use specific dates, zoom in on the map, or look for certain amenities using filters. So there will be far fewer listings in the search results than with a general search with no preferences or filters.

If I have to decline a booking because a guest doesn’t meet my House Rules, does this impact my search ranking?

Read more

Because being rejected for a booking is one of the worst experiences for our guests, we do factor this into Search Ranking. However, we understand that sometimes you legitimately need to decline a traveler, and we take that into account. We’re most interested in how you compare to other hosts, rather than just counting your rejections.

A single rejection will not significantly hurt your ranking, but over time, rejecting more guests than other hosts in your market will lower your ranking. We find that a large majority of our hosts are able to accept most booking requests, and our best Request-to-Book hosts accept almost all of them. You can help travelers know if they should try to book your space by writing clear, detailed House Rules and keeping your calendar up to date. Make sure your settings and amenities lists also set accurate expectations.

2. On finding your listing online

I just created my listing and it appears as published on my profile, but when I search for it I can't find it. If other people search for it, they can't find it either. Why is that?

Read more

There is usually a delay of around 6 hours between the time you publish a listing and when it shows up in search results. This gives you time to make final changes to your listing settings before receiving your first booking request. It also gives Airbnb time to ensure every new listing is suitable for the marketplace. If you don’t see your listing within 24 hours, you can contact customer support to find out why.

I haven't received a new booking in awhile, so I searched for my listing and asked a friend to search for it too. Neither of us could find it, and it’s not showing up even when I add specific details and filters. What can I do?

Read more

If your listing is in a popular market with numerous listings, it may be necessary to apply several filters to show your listing. Don’t worry, this is how travelers search and they’ll be able to find your listing too! We recommend using dates on your search, and checking that they match your calendar availability and minimum nights settings.

A common reason Instant Book hosts (or their friends) may not see their listing is that they’ve chosen to require a guest have positive reviews in order to make a book their space. If you’ve chosen this requirement, it means your listing will show up as a Request to Book, not an Instant Book, listing for logged out users or new guests if the Instant Book filter is applied. This is because a logged out or new traveler will not be eligible to instantly book your place.

I can’t find my listing. Does it make a difference if I’m logged in or logged out?

Read more

Most listings on Airbnb should show up in searches regardless of whether you’re logged in or not, although the ranking may appear different. This is because Airbnb search is personalized, and when a traveler logs in we have more information to better match them with listings. One exception to this is for hosts who allow Instant Book but have chosen to require that guests have positive reviews. In this case, if the Instant Book filter is applied, your listing would not show up to travelers who are logged out. This is because we can’t tell if a logged out visitor to the site has reviews.

I can see the listing appearing on the map in the Airbnb app, but when I go to view the same listing (with the same filters) in the desktop version, it isn't appearing. Why is this?

Read more

Airbnb Search is personalized to help travelers find the best listings for their trip. Part of that involves looking at the device and location they’re searching from. This means that you may experience a different ranking of listings on different devices.

I have Instant Book activated, but my listing doesn't come up in the results. Isn't Instant Book supposed to boost my listing on search results?

Read more

Instant Book does give you a boost, but it sounds like there may be another reason you’re not seeing your listing in the results. Make sure that your search criteria match the settings and requirements you’ve established. Anything from minimum nights requirement to date range, number of guests or not having reviews can hinder you from seeing your listing in a search. And of course, if you require guests have previous ratings, then it may be that you haven’t traveled on Airbnb yourself or that you’re not logged in as a guest.

I can’t find my listing when I search for its title. Why doesn’t Airbnb have keyword search? Will it be implemented in the future?

Read more

Keyword search, and especially free-text search, is extremely technically challenging, but an exciting product to build! Rest assured that we have an excellent team that is always investigating how to improve the search experience, and we hope that changes like these will make it into the product in coming years.

The most important thing is this: you’re a unique host who offers a one-of-a-kind experience, because you’re you and your space isn’t like any other. We hope these tips and answers help you understand the sometimes complicated nature of matching unique travelers with hosts. Focus on what you do best, play up your strengths, and don’t worry about showing up first in search.

[Jann3]

These are EXACTLY the reasons I dislike - and won't use - Instant Book! Like someone earlier said: What the heck good is a "GUEST REVIEW" if we cannot see it FIRST? 

Also, we have 16 stairs, can handle ONLY two guests, and parking ONLY 1/2 block away on *certain* streets! Just like @Tracy148, so why should we use Instant Book!? ..and - if what @Farah1 said is true wrt not being able to see guest's profile pic BEFORE booking *anymore* - how do we know that the person booking is the guest arriving! Time to re-visit ID's REQUIRED upon check-in...cos I do NOT allow third party booking!

Jann

[Carol302]

Well said! We hosts should definitely be able to read reviews of potential guests before we decide whether or not to welcome them. 

Message to Airbnb - we are NOT hotels. The whole idea of Airbnb is to aim for a much more relaxed, authentic and intimate travelling experience. And the way to achieve this this is for Airbnb and potential guests to show some basic respect towards hosts - and that includes facilitating learning something of our potential guests before we commit ourselves. 

[Craig71]

Because my Airbnb is also my home, I would never add instabook. I prefer to vet my tenants in ALL cases. Not even counting the non desireable guests, I have had several guests I have steered away (I have have stairs, am close to the beach - not Comicon etc. ) that would have had a less than perfect experience had they instabooked. 

Perhap most dissapointing of all is there are 7 pages of feedback from hosts (many Superhosts) explaining the problems of Instabook and nary a reply from Airbnb. I have always had terrible results with support from Airbnb (i consider no response to be terrible support) who seem to take the hosts for granted.

[Franny2]

Re Instant Book. I've made my description and house rules very specific, but Instant Book was a disaster for me because frankly, a lot of people don't read. It's not worth being listed higher in search rankings with Instant Book when someone gives a poor review of complains because they are allergic to animals. Animals that reside in, and outside of this working farm and house are clearly described, but folks just don't bother. No more Instant Book for me.

[Laura204]

I want to find a place where I can sit and hear the lap of the ocean waves.  How do I search to find the perfect place by the sea side?

[Patree0]

I have been a host for 4 1/2 years, even before instant book made an appearance.  I have noticed the increasing suggestions and requests to use instant book.  I will continue to refuse it because offer a room in my home with me, and I want potential guests to know that they will get a home sharing experience with me.  If they could use instant book, they would be more likely to consider me as a hotel, and that's not the tone I want to set.  I have close to 600 reviews with no bad guests, so I can't imagine that instant booking would benefit me in any way.  

[Louise215]

Guys, so I understand that the wishlist has an impact on search.

I was suspecting that and therfore I was monitoring my wishlist performace weekly. Since a few weeks ago, though, I am not able to see/find my wishist number anymore (it used to appear under the calendar).

Does anyone know where to find it now?

Thanks

Louise

[Diane253]

well airbnb...the votes are in.  the overwhelming responses here to instant booking are negative.  us hosts dont want it and dont want to be penalized for not using it. 

many things have changed since the dudes in frisco put out that 1st airbed on their living room floor.  lets not forget where you came from airbnb.  the hosts have spoken.  now what will you do to address this issue?

[Jenniffer4]

I am a superhost and my airbnb is my home away from home in another state - I use it part time for personal use.  When I'm in town I love the personal "meet and greet" of guests. But when I"m out of state trying to manage my listing, cleaning, greeting, replishment, etc,  and guests from afar is very stressful and requires a lot of time to get it all right.  Instant book only rasies the stress level because I have to rely on other people to help manage my listing and they are not dedicated to this job.  So instant book does not work for me - I can't accept a reservation unless I can guarantee that everything is ready and clean, etc.   I hate the pressure from Airbnb to turn on Instant Book when it clearly doesn't work for my situation.  So Airbnb will pentalize me and in the process we both lose money.  

[Ann291]

We love to receive airbnb guests while we are at our place on the west coast of the US from May through October.  We block our calendars from Nov. through April.  That means, for 6 months, we have fewer search clicks, receive no guests.  It doesn't seem fair that we are penalized in the search process during the months we receive guests.  What do you think?

[Marius8]

Thank you for a good article. I have to disagree with the criticism of some hosts that Instant book attracts a lower caliber of guest. Our Instant book guests have been great thus far and we see no difference between instant and non instant book guests. 

[Richard9]

I have been hosting for 3 years now, and for some odd reason, I have had no bookings for the past couple of months.  None is not totally correct, but my point is that for 2 1/2 years bookings were coming in regularly.  This spring, 2017, I had one booking last week, but before that bookings went silent and continues silent up to today.  I live in a high-destination, upscale neighborhood in one of Chicago's trendiest neighbornoods and I see empty days on my calender for November and December.  What is happening?  I called tech support and they said "maybe traffic is down due to the terror attacks...".  Any thoughts???

[Wendy40]

Richard this is exactly what has happened to me. No bookings for nearly 6 months even with superhost status! Can't find my listing half the time either and then when I look see that some other listing is offering 11% discount. How is this fair???

[Wendy40]

What is also happening is tha I only get bookings now from Australia and USA. None for Europe or UK who make up the bulk of tourist to South Africa.

[Carl79]

Airbnb needs to re think its model. Instant booking is  forced on hosts by way of punishment ( a descrimination) yet airbnb lowers the standards of verification of new guests to the point its almost meaningless, leaving hosts vulnerable to abuse. 

Its a great hypocracy for airbnb to dictate that all hosts have to be purer than pure or be kicked off the site if they dont sign up to its saintly aspirations of no descrimination of race, creed, colour, gender, prefered gender, age, religion, height , weight etc yet it refuses to treat its own hosts equaly or fairly and favours only those that it gets the most dollars and least trouble from.

Airbnb only paid £188,000 tax this year on profits from its commission on £657 million of bookings in the uk.  Says a lot.