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Final update: I spoke to a new rep. yesterday who re-confirmed for the most part what I had been seeing with sometimes showing in search results. He said he could send an email to another dept. but there is no direct number or direct email. And he said he has no timeframe of when a rep. will get back to me. I asked him what my next steps are when the rep. doesn’t call back, and he said to call customer service again…lol. Then I asked what will be done differently, as right now no one has been willing to help. He hung up on me.
Then last night an Air rep. called and I missed the call. She sent an email to have a phone call today. She just called, and said there is nothing they can do. She said that I show up in every single search she does. I said “oh that’s weird considering yesterday’s rep. confirmed my findings, other superhosts have confirmed my findings, and I just tested again today to reconfirm. Yet the only people who claim to ALWAYS see my listing are reps. who work at Airbnb.”
Then later in the call she did agree that I don’t always show up but there is nothing she can do. I told her I could understand if my area had 1,000 listings and only 300 could be chosen. But the fact that 18 show sometimes means there is no reason my property is being hidden.
So then she said the one thing she could do for me…(here I am thinking she will offer me a gift certificate or somethiing)…is she can send me an email with tips on social media, etc. and how I can improve visibility for my listing…lololol - Seriously!!
Airbnb wants me to send guests to Airbnb to help them out?? - hahahhaa!!
Lol! Oh yes she did…and used the term “improve visibility” - I only wish I was making this up. Shaking my head…
And get this - the very first rep. I spoke to advised me that if I have guests wanting to book (and I am not showing in searches) then I just send them a direct link to my Air listing and have them book that way!!
They are so arrogant that they think I am going to send my repeats or new guests to book through Air!
I just got off the phone with Air after noting that my listing was not showing when city, dates, number of guests and “entire home/apt” were selected–no other filters. However, when I filtered for SuperHost, we were in the middle of the pack of the search results. When other amenity filters are selected, we also appear, as well as when neighborhood is specified.
The person I spoke with, without saying it outright, intimated that we already have an advantage as superhosts and that we may not show in search results for every person searching. They try to match search results to the person searching, therefore, we may not appear for all searchers.
FYI, in case this helps someone else figure out when they don’t appear in search results.
Looks like they are doing what others predicted in following VRBO, etc - they are hiding listings to distribute bookings across more hosts.
I only had one booking through Air for the entire month of Nov. I dont have a single booking at this point for Dec, Jan, Feb. This has never happened before.
We currently have our first guests after going 1-1/2 months without a booking. This is our first off-season so didn’t know what to expect. Could also be because we’ve lost the new host boost or because no one can see us!
I had to search 4 times even when zoomed in on my street in order to find my listing. And then they claim there are only 11% of listings left available.
All I know is that I am not going to be able to stay with this if my winters are empty and I have practically full booking spring and summer.
@SuiteInSeattle It may be time to move this issue over to the Community Board which is monitored by Abnb if a subject gets enough likes. If I dont comeup even when I move the mapto directly over my area, what is Abnb doing for me? I have all 5star reviews, I am very heavily booked during the season and am in a very desirable neighborhood. There is no reason to hide anyone’s listing at any time as far as I am concerned. I do not rewuest coing up first, but surely somewhere in 15 pages…
I agree, ajmartin! I’m a newish host and haven’t posted anything on the community board.
I have been thinking about how Air has claimed as a defense in litigation that it’s just providing a platform for guests to find hosts and hosts to find guests. But they are actively manipulating search results to maximize their profits and further their concern. I think they’re on a slippery slope there.
Unbelievable! So I received an email notification that there was a login attempt to my Twitter account - the one I solely created just to contact Air regarding the search results issue.
Well I finally did receive a reply from them (just didn’t realize it) and they most definitely are trained to deny any issues exist. And it’s the reason the case workers will blatantly lie in their follow up emails. This is what the Twitter person wrote:
“We apologize for the frustration this has caused. We have updated your case and see that your case manager has let you know that your listing is indeed appearing in your search results. Our team of case managers will be in a better position to help with this. We seek your understanding in this situation. Thank you.”
OMG…I guess you people Do Not Understand what is Search Engine Optimization. AirBnB is a Geo-Hospitality Search Engine Optimization company just like “Google”, except the product is hosting and not advertising.
It has search ranking on listings of your place just like Google has search ranking on Keywords Terms and the Long Term Keywords. It has search formula just like Google’s define search algorithm.
Why should Ichen’s listing shows up? And why should your listing show up #1 or #2 or #3 or #4 or top 10…in your city with at least 500 host doing the same thing - hosting. No way! If your listing in a city does not fall into AirBnB ranking “criteria (algorithm)”, your listing just “won’t show up”, PERIOD. Calling customer service will not get you any where because the RANK or POSITION is run by MACHINE. AirBnB can’t and won’t MOVE your position to a higher level position because of whatever.
I can give you TWO big Tips:
One of the Biggest increase in ranking is Using Photos taken with DSLR Camera (high resolutions) with 21 Photos.
Second Biggest increase in ranking is INSTANT BOOKING WITH NO FILTER.
Ok students. That is all for the day. Yes. Of course, I rank #1 in my City EVERYDAY when my calendar has no BOOKING. I checked everyday (my area has 300 hosts looking for guest daily) using another computer to check without logging into my AirBnB account.
Good Luck.
P.S. Yes, photos taken with iPhone or travel camera photos ARE ranked lower or lowest class in ranking. 5 Star reviews accounts for 10% of the ranking calculation.
@airrhost Oh do give us a link to your listing, so we can learn from how you have been doing things, I know you mentioned in your other thread that you started hosting last month, but it seems we long established hosts have much to learn from you .
Good question - and the answer is no
As we know, the system doesn’t recognise photographs that have wording on them so it would be very clever if it could tell what sort of camera was used.
