Why does my listing does not show up when searching for one night stay?

[Eric48]

Recently, my AirBnB listing does not show up in searches when looking for reservations of one night. It will only show up when looking for places that are available for at least 2 nights. When searching for locations without a specific date set, the listing will appear first. This issue specificly relates to searches for only one night.

My minimum reservation requirement is set to 1 night and my maximum is set to 5 nights. My maximum accomodated guests is set to 3.

I've seen a few people post on this forum within the last month saying they've experienced similar issues. I'm hoping this isn't a problem specific to me and would be gracious if somebody could let me know whether or not this is a website-wide issue.

The listing can be found here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9647531

[ZenHomes0]

@Nan2 I poked around my own listing a little more and I think I understand the 'experiment' a little better. I was able to see my listing when I selected 2 nights but only because between these 2 nights there are booked dates. If there's 4 days available in a block, I can only see my listing if I choose the check-in and check-out dates for all the 4 available days. If there's 3 days available in a block, likewise I can only see my listing if I choose all 3 nights. If there's a 5 day block available, it only shows up when more than 2 nights are selected within this block.

So it seems to be a very carefully crafted experiment to test if "hosts could have higher occupancy rates if they just sit tight and wait for a longer reservation (> 2 nights) over the next 3 months". Realising this gives me some kind of 'closure' at least...

Maybe for the "4 days available in a block" period, those dates will start showing up for  2 night bookings as there's a more pressing need to fill those dates? We'll see...

[Nan2]

@Adam: Yes, I too feel a little better in knowing what's going on, but on the other hand, I don't want any part of what's going on and it really ticks me off that airbnb has done this without asking and clearly without understanding the needs of some hosts. Like me! So if you have time, can you search for 1 night stays at your place and see if you get the same results as me: When I search for 1 night, my listing now shows up through June 14, and stops showing up on June 15. It then reappears on Sept 6 and thereafter for 1 night searches. So I think they start showing the listing again roughly 5 weeks out, and then stop for roughly 12 weeks. And these rolling timeframes. Let me know!

[ZenHomes0]

@Nan2 Yes it's true I've searched your listing quite thoroughly and for your listing (great listing btw!), I can't find them on 14-15th June. I noticed you have 2 listings actually, and it's during this period that I cannot see both of them. Maybe your new one is also booked that day? If I search 11th to 13th July I only see your new listing, but from 11th to 14th July it's your older listing. It does seem fine in late september (22nd-23rd).

I suppose based on analytics, a tech company like Airbnb would try to optimise bookings. Maybe this experiment affected hosts that has met a certain occupancy rate, so they push listings that aren't as booked for the 1 - 2 nights stays (since it's more common?) and let the more booked listings take on the longer-term stays. Not sure, these are just my thoughts on this.

[Nan2]

@ZenHomes0: Oh, sorry, I meant would you check our own listing for those dates with 1 night searches and see if the same thing happens. Sorry that wasn't clear! How did you get to my listing? I tried clicking on your pic to get to your listing and nothing happens. And yes, I set up a 2nd listing on Sunday to try and work around this issue. I set it up with Max nights = 2, so it shows up in searches now when the original listing doesn't, and I've tried to block the the timeframe when the original listing up, but it's a moving target and it hasn't helped yet. Has a few views but that's it. I feel like I've missed the window for June already. Bleh.

[Dede0]

@Nan2, The link form the host's photo here to their profile (and then to their listing) only works if you use the Chrome browser, which is the ONLY one that AirBnB claims to fully support. Because other things are similarly broken within various other browsers, you should really switch to Chrome for all your AirBnB dealings. I have. (I still use others for other things, but ONLY Chrome for AirBnB interactions.)

[Crys-and-Jim0]

Re: Chrome

We have been trying to download photos to our listing from our IPad2. We were able to last week, but not now. After reading your post we tried Chrome to download pics and search for specific dates. Neither worked. We did receive an email from Airbnb that our listing had been accessed by Chrome and respond if we were not the ones accessing it. At least they are on top of that.

Some hosts have made reference to the use of different browsers causing problems.  I wonder if guests are seeing different search results based on the browser they use?

Sincerely,

Jim & Crys

[Dede0]

@Crys-and-Jim0 I would use Chrome on an actual PC (Mac or other) to upload photos. It wouldn't surprise me at all that everything didn't function fully from an iPad. Move (or sync) from iPad to PC, then PC to AirBnB.

[Ally-And-Iku0]

It's not a Chrome vs other browser issue.  I took the advice of another poster here and created a duplicate listing for just the summer months.  Complete waste of 2 hours of my life but at least I'm showing up in the listings again.  It's been a useful discussion for me - thanks all.

[Dede0]

@Ally-And-Iku0 I was referring only to @Crys-and-Jim0's most current issue regarding uploading photos. No idea if switching from the iPad to a PC will help, but that (and Chrome) are always good ways to start when things act odd.

[Ally-And-Iku0]

Interesting detail.  Not sure I'd consider it a "carefully crafted" experiment though 🙂

I get airport traffic - people arriving late/leaving early.  No one is going to stay in my place for 3 nights just so they can fly out on the final day.

I suppose their thinking is that people with little history of multiple day bookings might get some uplift.  Quite the opposite.  I understand that experimentation is part of the process for tech companies but they have to respond faster when they get it badly wrong, or use a volunteer pilot group.

[Louise0]

On the website, under the heading "Why Host?" Airbnb states:

"You set the rules for who stays and when."    But now we find that this isn't true.  That's called a lie, isn't it? 

[Rebecca0]

This kind of crap happens all the time.  It's as if Airbnb offers a free-for-all for progamming and statistics graduates to just play around with stuff.  Never mind the impact it has, hey it's fun!  And we might get a PhD out of it!  They are notorious for not informing their customer support staff about anything at all.  Hell, the different departments within the organisation don't even speak to each other and CX is at the bottom of the food chain because..... well, because they interact with all us annoying boring hosts.   Y'know, the ones that actually bring in the money?  Anyway, luckily we are still able to find stuff out from each so thank you to everyone who has identified this issue.  My own listing seems to be ok but prepared to join any concerted email/twitter effort to get this changed. 

[Crys-and-Jim0]

Airbnb does not know the criteria of our guests, the demographics of our area. We are in a corridor of Rte 95 where people travel and want to stay one night. We are also 1 hour North of Boston, so get a lot of guests who just want to drive up for one or two night stays.
Someone sitting in a cubicle in San Fransisco should not be dictating how any Hosts wishes to operate their business. If we want to host a new guest and wash sheets each day that is our prerogative.
Maybe we should have the computer programmers tie one of their hands behind their back and tell them to start writing programs. They will only be paid on their productivity. Let's see how they would like paying their bills on a greatly reduced income.
Thank you to our fellow Hosts who have reported this dilemma to Airbnb and responded to our posts (1 and 2 night stays not showing). To the Airbnb rep who said they have not received any other hosts questioning this problem, BS.

Sincerely
Jim & Crys

[M-and-I0]

Airbnb is taking away the liberty of both hosts and guests. This is completely undemocratic is it really is an experiment. Obviously, a host's business will be greatly affected as everyone has already mentioned. But also on the guest's side, if they do not see a listing they like, they will just go to a hotel, resulting in an overall decrease in Airbnb's business, which again affects all of us in the end. If they want to play with the search and add more calculations/requirements to the listing rankings then I'll suck it up (since they've ALWAYS done this, the rankings have nothing to do with how good a host or unit is). However, they are completely omitting us from the search, not just lowering the ranking. This is a critical issue and hit to the business so I don't understand why they would experiment in a non-lab environment without any consent of the hosts. I'm guessing they just have too many units and are making too much money to care. Shame on them for pretending to care, their image and their self-proclaimed mission statement is totally different than their true business ethics....

[Crystal3]

Our listing was not showing up for about a week for 1 and 2 night searches, only 3+ night searches.  We placed our listings on Snooze for two days then Listed. Problem seem to go away. Now it is back. What is going on? Although a local host who has mediocre reviews has all their listings show. We are Superhosts with almost 90 4 to 5-star ratings.

What is going on??   We have worked hard to maintain our listing now we are losing business. What is Airbnb doing?

Is anyone familiar with other rental services similar to Airbnb where we can list our room(s)? We know of Home Away and VRB O.

Jim & Crys.