Enquirers can no longer find me using place, regional, town, city names

I have an isolated airbnb property in the Scottish Highlands. I have been a superhost for a year with consistent 5* ratings and excellent reviews. I raised my prices in this, my 2nd, year to be more in line with what I felt the place was worth. Towards the end of last year I noticed the volume of enquiries/bookings dropping. I asked friends and family to search for my property and they were finding that they could only find nme using the map search. Even entering a village no more than seven miles away did not find me. I had one chat session with an adviser and found that important details had been omitted from my address, but even rectifying this does not seem to have made a difference. Has anyone else been experiencing this? And is there a possible solution?

Difficult to say without seeing your listing. Can you post a link @boathman

Relevant thread hereā€¦

Since @boathman is new, he probably canā€™t post a link, but he can provide his Airbnb ā€œroomsā€ number from the link to his listing.

@boathman in the address bar when you are looking at your listing, is the URL of your listing. Mine for example is: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9747142

If you post here the number at the end of that string (mine is 9747142), that is the unique identifier of your property, and we can go look at it and perhaps help you better.

Hi KenH
I believe my URL is 29937525

I spent two hours this afternoon in a chat exchange with an Airbnb advisor and we seemed to make some progress

It seems to be about my proximity to places (town, village) that are like to come up in searches

I am very much in the wilds, though not far in distance from town/village

Thank you for your interest

Regards

Andrew

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Will check it out. Although my partner & I have old friends ā€œup northā€ weā€™re always looking for new and interesting places to stay in Scotland. My family were Borderers back in the dayā€¦

What a lovely listing. beautiful restoration! I can see some of the issue. The Air map system is confusing Nairn with the River Nairn.

Your description really needs to say something like ā€œ20 kilometers on the B9090 from Nairn, on a private road outside Cawdor on the Castle Estate. Near Culloden Battlefieldā€ā€¦ Because even someone from Inverness isnā€™t necessarily going to recognize Nairn, Cawdor Estate and Dava Moorā€¦ I wonder if you put Culloden as your address what the map would showā€¦

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Andrew, your place is beautiful!

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So you are the new Thane of Cawdor? My ancestors fought for Prince Charlie at Culloden and were deported to Virginia in the mid-1780s. Iā€™ve bookmarked your place for the next time I visit.

Do you think SNP will be able to force another devolution election now? Most of my friends in Scotland are SNP and would prefer to live in a Scotland that is in the EU and not, as they say, ā€œa colony of Englandā€.

I imagined I was planning a trip through your part of Scotland and how I might search for accommodation that may throw up your listing.

I decided if someone was planning a trip in that region that they are likely to use Inverness as a search term at some time. When I did that your listing didnā€™t display however another one in Cawdor did. It is this one http://bit.ly/39iD1J1

As you can see this property has called itself ā€˜The Hankir Bay-Stunning Log Cabin in Cawdorā€™. You have called yourself ā€˜Beautiful Farmhouse Retreat in the Highlandsā€™. Without knowing the Airbnb search algorithms we can only guess as to what influence the listing description has on search results however it may be worth being more specific in your listing name to include Cawdor and Inverness. Maybe something like ā€˜Cose Farmhouse - Scottish Highlands at Cawdor near Invernessā€™. I would be inclined to leave out the word ā€˜retreatā€™ because usually it is best to only include essential words for SEO purposes.

As a superhost you are able to create a custom URL for your property. Search Airbnb Help for how to do it. My suggestion is that your URL be airbnb.com/h/cose-farmhouse-cawdor-scotland The reason that Iā€™m suggesting cawdor-scotland is that a Google Earth/Map search using this phrase will take you directly to Cawdor. If you make it cawdor-inverness then you are taken to Inverness. If you make it cawdor-nairn you are taken to Nairn.

The other advantage of a custom URL like this is that when you advertise your property or email somebody or include the airbnb booking option in a social media page it is much better to have airbnb.com/h/cose-farmhouse-cawdor-scotland than airbnb.com/rooms/9747142

Also, you have chosen to only provide the exact location after the guest makes a booking. I suggest that you choose the option that allows you to make your exact location known at the time the potential guest is reviewing listings.

Might make a booking in 2021 Andrew :slight_smile:

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Hi JohnnyAir
Thank you so much for your extremely constructive suggestions
Boathman

The last Thane died in around 2000 and Iā€™m not sure that the present Earl has inherited that title. I am not he.
Yes, I believe we shall have another referendum soon enough and somehow be able to rejoin the EU
Do visit
Boathman

Thank you Jaquo
Itā€™s certainly had alot of love lavished on it!
Boathman

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Hi KenH
Thank you for your thoughts. Incredibly helpful and Iā€™m getting to work on it right away.
Boathman