Booking window affects placement in search results?

Do you think listings with a shorter booking window are placed lower in search results as compared to listings with a booking window that sets all future dates as available? For example, will Airbnb look at me as a host who may not be as serious about having their place rented if I make it available for booking only for the next month or few? Or will they look at me as a host that is simply not as profitable to Airbnb if I’ll be renting my place just for a few months now and then vs the entire time? In other words maybe… just maybe… they want to place higher and give more business to hosts who are going to stick with them for the long-term… presumably for a while if their booking window is set to open all dates in the future?

I’m afraid setting my booking window to open creates a risk to severely underprice future dates and lose revenue or potentially decline too many future requests and hurt my search result rankings. But I don’t know if that is a plausible fear or just a guess.

Or maybe Airbnb has more issues with hosts booking too far in advance because that increases the chance of a host not planning accordingly and possibly even forgetting some future reservations or as the dates near the host realizing they are priced too low and then cancelling on confirmed guests. So if that is the case Airbnb will want to reduce cancellations for reservations made too far in advance and may not want to encourage hosts to set their booking window to “All future dates” by giving a higher search placement to hosts who open their calendars for a shorter period of adanced time.

Or maybe this is just a preference that does not affect search results placement one way or another… What do you think? Does Airbnb’s search results algorithm factor in booking window settings?

And empirically speaking, has anyone seen a difference in their listing search placement that they have reason to believe was due to them changing the length of their booking window? Where do you fall in this poll?

  • I went from booking window “All future dates” to “3/6 months into the future” and noticed a decrease in inquiries/bookings or lower search results ranking as a result of it
  • I went from booking window “All future dates” to “3/6 months into the future” and noticed an increase in inquiries/bookings or higher search results ranking as a result of it
  • I went from booking window “All future dates” to “3/6 months into the future” but cannot tell for sure if I had a change in inquiries/bookings or search results ranking as a result of it
  • I went from booking window “3/6 months into the future” to “All future dates” and noticed a decrease in inquiries/bookings or lower search results ranking as a result of it
  • I went from booking window “3/6 months into the future” to “All future dates” and noticed an increase in inquiries/bookings or higher search results ranking as a result of it
  • I went from booking window “3/6 months into the future” to “All future dates” but cannot tell for sure if I had a change in inquiries/bookings or search results ranking as a result of it
  • I changed my booking window & it didn’t change the volume of my inquiries/bookings & search results ranking… I don’t think it affects it at all

0 voters

@sklyar I totally appreciate your ongoing commitment to seeking answers to incredibly detailed questions. I host in much much more of a “react, assess, adjust” mode.

@superhostnyc we all have to… so what’s your “react, assess, adjust” experience with regards to booking window changes on listings? :wink: