Search Ranking Algorithm

[Gene775]

Hello Everyone! 

My name is Gene and although I've been a (super)host (off and on) for the past 8 years, I'm new to this community center. 

I have 2 listings where I recently ran into a situation where one of them shows up on the 2nd-4th page and another doesn't show up at all! I should mention that both my listings would almost always rank on the first page (prior to 1 week ago). In fact, a lot of times, I was in the top 5 on the first page, due to my response rate and guest feedback. The first listing which dropped significantly in the search rankings is a 4/2 Art Themed House, the other is a guesthouse. Both are active listings, both have ratings above 4.9 stars and both have been renovated within the last year for the sole purpose of renting it out on Airbnb. So the pandemic hasn't done me any favors.

Unfortunately, as I'm sure everyone on here knows, the pandemic has severely impacted travel and hospitality and has pushed hosts to lower their nightly rate in order to at least keep the lights on. But the flip side of that has been a much lower quality of guests and a markedly higher propensity for problems.

Over the past 6 months, I've had guests throw parties, leave permanently stained linens and towels, damage furniture and other property; all despite having strict guidelines in place. Thank you COVID! 

Anyway, because of all the problems, I've had to submit numerous reimbursement claims (first requesting payments from guests and then, when/if they declined to pay, from Airbnb's Host Guarantee). So, I wonder if the search algorithm takes this into consideration? And, if so, what are the parameters? Because I can't find any other reasons to explain why my listings no longer show up in the rankings. I've already called and written Airbnb numerous times and no one has any answers. If I was even lucky enough to speak to a rep that understood the problem, they'd follow up with links to the page that gives a high-level overview about how the search ranking algorithm works. 

Needless to say, I'm at an absolute dead end and was hoping I wouldn't have to take my listing down in order to relist it again and have to lose all those hard earned reviews. 

Any feedback and/or help would be greatly appreciated!

Gene

[Pat271]

I would also lIke to know the exact algorithm used to rank listings. One thing I have heard is that if you go in and “play with” the listing a bit (change the title, some text or other edits), it will lift the ranking, perhaps because it shows that the host is an “active” host.  I have tried this a few times, and it *seems* like I got bookings shortly thereafter, although that might be coincidence or my imagination. 🙂 You could try it and let us know if it made any difference.

[Gene775]

Thanks Pat! I'll give that a try and let you know if it changes anything.

[Ann72]

@Gene775 I don't think the resolutions you've put through are factored into the ranking algo, unless the guests have given revenge reviews with low stars - then guest satisfaction would appear lower.  But @Pat271 is right that "hover time" is.  I don't think it's your imagination, Pat, as it's happened to me over and over again that I've gotten bookings shortly after making changes.  At the very least, frequent small changes raise your view count.  And btw you can change just one word in your description and the property will show as recently updated.

You might enjoy this article, Gene:  https://medium.com/@childnick/hacking-airbnbs-search-rank-algorithm-8007a097382d

For what it's worth, I've never bought the "forced to lower rates" thing - no one's forcing you to do anything.  Have you ever tried doing the opposite - raising your rates in the face of all this, putting a higher value on a place you know is excellent in order to attract people who want to pay more to guarantee they get a good place?  You might be very surprised at the result - more bookings and better guests.

[Gene775]

@Ann72 Thank you for that feedback! The link you sent is incredibly useful. I went on an alternate Airbnb account and tried to find my listing and, as it turned it, couldn't because the dates are NOT available for prospective guests to book! In other words, the calendar on my account shows different available dates than the  calendar on a prospective guest's account!!

I can't even gather the words to express my anger and frustration right now. I've been calling and speaking to at least 5-6 reps most of whom didn't understand the problem. But even the ones that have, have just sent me useless links to a high-level explanation to how Airbnb's algorithm works. But this, as it turns out, is a glitch in the system, having nothing to do with the Airbnb's algorithm. Although, as I previously mentioned, I used to have a much higher ranking.

Anyway, I called them again this evening and tried explaining the issue. The rep once again told me that she'll forward my concern to the development team... meanwhile, no new reservations in over a week! 😫

[Ann72]

@Gene775  I just read your response in my inbox, but when I clicked through, it seems either you or the system has taken it down.  I just wanted to say it sounds massively frustrating to realize the dates are blocked from guests and I hope you get to the bottom of it soon!

Also looked at your beautiful listings and love them.  How can anyone get a hotel room at less than what you charge for your guest house?  Honestly think you can double your rates at both places.  🙂

[Gene775]

@Ann72 Thanks for your note and glowing endorsement! It was definitely not me who took down my message. I’ll keep fighting and try to get to the bottom of it.

[Ann72]

@Gene775  Looks like your reply from Saturday has appeared.  Any luck on this?

[Ann72]

@Gene775   Looks like your reply from Saturday has appeared.  Any luck on this?

[Gene775]

@Ann72 I've tried posting in this community and my replies keep getting taken down. 

[Gene775]

@Ann72 The issue has been resolved due in large part to a (7th) representative who was diligent enough to do some research and figure out that I had a setting in my calendar that would only allow my listing to show up in search results if the travel dates started on a Monday! Can you believe it?!

The settings can be found here: Listings>Availability Settings>Availability Tab>Trip Details (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

While I still can't figure out why our listings fell in the search results ranking, I'm fairly certain that it's due to the quantity of reimbursement requests over the last 1-2 months.

That aside, there have been so many glitches with Airbnb's calendar over the past 6-8 weeks, it's ridiculous! They initiated new calendar promotions program, only to take it down 5 weeks later and then put it back up again a few days after that. Then there were issues with pending verifications that took longer than 48hrs to resolve. And by the time they were resolved, guests were ready to cancel the booking or dates would no longer be available on the calendar because it was too close to the travel dates. So we lost reservations there. Then there were issues where we couldn't manually unblock certain travel dates because of the 2-night minimum stay requirement. 

I mean, in terms of hosting, this year has been the gift that just keeps on giving.

I hope yours has been easier. 

[Steven65]

@Gene775 Have you noticed on your viewing stats, that it is cyclical. Like below. This suggests the algorithm is highlighting (my) properties weekly, and presumably the same is happening for others. 

[Hannah646]

Seems like a similar issue to me. We have three Cambridge properties listed on Airbnb. Two of the houses are listed on the first page of search results, but the third house with the highest specification is only listed on the second page at 22nd place (this is confirmed by the 'rankings' analysis that Porter - our listing management software - provide). This makes no sense to me, as the bookings are much better for the first two properties that are listed higher in the search results, even though the third property is a similar price and has lots of superb reviews. The first two properties were first listed in July 2020 (approx) and March 2021 (approx) respectively, and the third property was listed in May 2021. Perhaps there is an obvious answer to the question of why the third listing isn't performing so well in the search results (it could be related to the fact it hasn't been listed for quite as long, for example), but there may be something simple I can do to change the listing specification or property details in order to lift it higher, so more potential guests notice it and bookings improve. I was wondering, is there a way I could find out specifically what criteria Airbnb use to decide how high each listing appears in the search results? The information I have found on the 'help' pages hasn't been helpful, as I feel I am already following the suggested advice. I would be grateful for any advice anyone can offer. Kind regards, Hannah

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Hannah646 The criteria for search placement are occasionally published but there is no indication of which is most important.

Instant Book seems very important but the most important seems to be booking rate. Bit of a catch 22 of course as your booking rate will be lower if you appear lower down the search ranking!

[Hannah646]

That's annoying, isn't it. Would be helpful if they provided more information about search placements. Must be easy for them to spell it out. I've been trying to ask Airbnb customer services about it today, but they're about as helpful as you would imagine!