Hello!
17 years of STR Hosting, but still need tips!
My rental area has a TON of great restaurants, bars, music venues, etc., but almost NONE of them show up on the Airbnb Map, that potential Guests would find very helpful when selecting their location.
How does Airbnb “choose” which businesses are on their map?
I have heard that they “steal” businesses from Host Guide Books, but that doesn’t really make sense to me. How would they decide which businesses are “good enough” to merit an icon?
As of now, they have one paltry river outfitter listed in my Historic District, despite their being dozens of other fun businesses in the same area.
Thanks in advance for your insights!
1 Like
How odd that 2 new topic posts by 2 new forum members, regarding connecting local businesses with hosts and guests, show up on the same day.
5 Likes
I’m not sure about ‘their map’.
Why not just create a guidebook so that your guests can see the places that you’ve curated?
Airbnb has put that technology in place for Hosts to use.
2 Likes
I assure you, I’m a host.
I’m trying to show how close my rentals are to great things to do, as opposed to other areas of my town, but the Airbnb Map only shows 1 business.
I want my potential Guests whom are using the Airbnb map to find the best location, to also be able to see where they can eat, drink, listen, etc.
I don’t want to give Airbnb my Guide Book, as I provide this to them myself in a separate correspondence, so that Airbnb won’t “own” it.
What I meant to say, but fumbled: It’s not helpful to have a great Guide Book, when Guests can’t see it until they’ve already booked a reservation.
When Guests don’t know much about an area and are searching for places in town to do things, WHILE they are deciding which property to rent based on it’s proximity to these activities, is when it would be nice for the Airbnb Map to show the touristy/popular areas with a concentration of fun business and shops.
Even in huge cities, the Airbnb Maps don’t do a decent job of showing the best restaurants, etc. Why? How can we help to add them? If my Guests can see that I’m walking distance from the highest-rated entertainment venue in town, don’t you think that info would help them select a more suitable vacation rental??
No, not really. In your listing you can add details such as ‘a quarter of a mile to the conference centre’, ‘five minutes walk to the performing arts centre’, ‘easy walk to over twenty restaurants’ and so on.
Most guests don’t choose a location because of its amenities. but because of the job interview location, where their mother lives, where the office is and so on.
2 Likes
Well, if guests are interested in choosing a listing because of its proximity to certain businesses, all they have to do is look at the area on Google maps, where all the businesses that have dropped a pin appear, then zero in on the area on Airbnb to see all the listings in that area.
Airbnb only cares that guests book a place, not that they book in a specific location, and they aren’t in the business of promoting businesses, they are promoting accommodation.
And how would Airbnb know what businesses are ones that a host would recommend to guests? My guests are not interested in just knowing where restaurants are, they want recommendations for good ones and the ones to stay away from.
How would they know it’s the highest rated? They would have to have done some prior research. But you said that looking at Google maps first would be inconvenient for guests, so how would them researching “highest rated” venues first be less inconvenient?
1 Like
They can??? Thank you, I didn’t even know that. Even MORE reason not to post mine on my listings and just wait until they reserve, and send them my personalized one (mainly so they can make restaurant reservations before they arrive). Why would I put in all that hard work, just so another Host can come by and copy and paste it on their listings?
Yeah, I get that. Then why does Airbnb list ANY businesses?? You’re really missing the point.
Is it convenient for Guests to do what you suggest? No.
1 Like
Yes, see above for an excerpt.
I had thought of that but: 1) This is not rocket science. They can copy and paste the attractions, hopefully not my commentary, and 2) This is, to a degree, a sharing community/society. Some people piggy back off of what I’ve done; I piggy back off of what others have done. If you got the answer you wanted from this forum you’d be piggybacking on us. Hopefully, you’d eventually reciprocate and it’s a win-win.
I feel I’m better off if more people come to Worcester MA but candidly I don’t think my guidebook is going to create that demand. However, once they’re here, whether they stay at my listing or another, I feel my enlightened self-interest is for them to enjoy themselves here and tell others what a good time they had in Worcester. That’s in my interest.
1 Like
They don’t show up on my map.
So what I’ve gathered is that nobody knows how to do this, but everyone has suggestions for doing something else not related to my original question. Adios.
You can do this yourself by creating a guidebook. Then all the businesses that you list will show up on your map. So we know how to do it and told you how you can get ALL the businesses you want to highlight on the map ANYONE can see by clicking your guidebook.
On my map I don’t see additional businesses that Airbnb chose.
If you feel that is giving away your intellectual property, then don’t do that. But then you can’t easily give your map to guests before booking.
If you want Airbnb to put places on the map, contact Airbnb and see if you can make some deal with them.
I don’t see businesses on ‘their’ map. Maybe you can post an example?
On your own website, you can have as many locations as you want on your Google map. Is that a problem for you too?
1 Like
How would anyone know how to do something that Airbnb doesn’t offer? There isn’t any function for hosts to drop pins on the map for local businesses and attractions.
If you think it would be a good idea for them to do this, all you can do is suggest it to them.
And why are you concerned about other hosts stealing your guidebook info? They can steal your entire listing wording if they want. It’s all public, accessible to anyone.
I asked how to do it on Airbnb. Not how to do it on my website
I think what was meant is that you can do this as part of your listing just by filling the businesses that you think guests should look at.
The only thing missing is a pin that shows my location.
If I wanted – and one day I might do this – I can just copy the map that is created by my guidebook, then insert a pin (of my location) myself, and then post that as a picture as one of my photos.
1 Like
See the little icon? When you put your cursor on it, it shows just about the worst restaurant in the whole area (El Napalito), and misses DOZENS of fine establishments that should all be shown within this map area
Actually, that’s correct. I wouldn’t call it “stealing” per se, but it’s true that the businesses they show on the Airbnb map near your listing are the businesses that are included in the host guidebooks for the area.
So if you want more businesses near your listing to show on the map, you’re going to have to include those businesses in your guidebook. I’m sorry, but that is the only way.
When I first started hosting I kind of felt that way for a minute. However, when I started adding businesses to my guidebook I got pop-ups that said stuff “23 other hosts have recommended this place”. That’s when I realized there wasn’t a lot of “secret” stuff to recommend. But I do have one very fabulous under-the-radar dive bar that I only include in the information that I personally give to guests because it is not on the list of “other hosts have recommended this…”. Small victories!
Worse yet, there are a lot of hosts who aren’t local and don’t do anything in the area or know anything about the area so they just wing it and thus several things on the map are outright incorrect. For instance, there’s a Farmer’s Market that happens in McCarren Park that is shown on the map, incorrectly, on McCarren Court, a full 3 miles away from McCarren Park (where the Farmer’s Market is located, lol).
Normally you can alert Google about incorrect information and the map that Airbnb uses is a Google map but when I click on “Report a Map Error” the error is not there on the full Google map and so cannot be corrected. Airbnb is using some kind of auto-populating that overrides Google. It is though, for sure, based on what hosts put in their guidebooks so that is the way…
Map shown just for example (I’m not in Wilmington). All of the circles are things that hosts have included in their guidebooks.
1 Like