This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
These are the results of a small A/B test I made for myself. You can see the difference on pageviews of two very identical listings with and without Your Porter App. It is a handy tool for Airbnb Hosts, which we have been developing since a while.
Since this is a 100% FREE tool for hosts with 1 listing, I do not mind sharing it here. It has many other features you may like a lot, and there is a only very small monthly fee for property managers or professional hosts with multiple listings.
Please feel free to sync your listing before Christmas and let me know if you have any other feedback.
Interestingly page views are not an issue for my listing; I had over 500 views last week but only 1.9 percent of those viewing booked (a new stat from Airbnb). Airbnb also state that at my current price of ÂŁ32 a night for a double room I am least likely to get booked.
Lol, nice try Airbnb but it’s not going down any further. And since I’m fully booked for all the available dates in Dec and Jan, I’m guessing guests don’t agree with Airbnb’s concerns about value.
I run a company that also proposes calendar updates that are similar to what you offer as an explanation for doubling page views. I have configured updates every 15 minutes.
I have only seen minor effect, if any, on more than 900 listings managed on page views, or, more importantly, the ranking in search result. As a matter of fact, I now tone down that claim with every new customer, and have changed it to one hour to see if there was any effect. None whatsoever.
I have discussed on another topic why it is so hard to do proper A/B testing when you don’t know what precise metrics are involved on Airbnb’s side. It is certain that calendar updates are part of it, because in the end a guest can see what was the last time the calendar was updated. However, the two listings are not similar in respect to Airbnb’s algorithm or in the eyes of the guests, because the aggregated number of stars for each listing is not similar. This should have an effect on ranking, and therefore, page views.
Could you also disclose which listings are “listing P” and “listing A”, and the page views for the other listing? This is not documented.
Edit: I didn’t pay attention to a few other things: both listings have not received any new guest since May or July, and the host has stopped hosting in July 2016, and the doubling of page views occured in 2015.
You can compare both listings and my raw data from Airbnb in the post I mentioned above. I did not want to put all the stuff inside this topic.
I think the point which has created the difference was not updating links every 15 minutes but updating them at least once a day, where you can be listed as “updated today”. I strongly believe that it is very important to be presented to more people who are looking for a place to stay in your city. If they book or not is a very personal decision by potential guests.
Instead of doing nothing about calendar updates, using a free tool might still make sense. Otherwise it seems like I get a reservation in 7-10 days and my calendar updates only when a guest confirms his booking.
@KKC It seems like I have get 7 and 9 bookings respectively. You might say only +2 bookings in given timeframe or %28 more bookings if you want to name a rate.
Data is not from 2016, otherwise how could it include until Dec 30 in the graph. I have been syncing calendars since the beginning of 2016 and they are performing similar.
If you scroll all the way down, you can see the screenshots of stats page from Airbnb and find out green dots whenever a booking happened. I think there is even a summary of whole month.
I did not want to make up something which is not the case. It is just my small finding and wanted to share in case someone is willing to read more. It is not the rocket science. Regular calendar updates seem like helping about search results. If there is a host who missed it so far, it may help.
-> it is still free and similarly you can do the same by linking your ical from phone calendar to your listing. I read many people doing it as well.
As I say, if there was any effect in 2015, there isn’t any now in rankings or page views. The “Updated today” seems to be the only remnant of a metric that seems to have essentially disappeared from Airbnb.
