yes you dam right. an internet course i paid money for. and plus
you are making money via the internet plat form call airbnb arent’
you? anyways…i am going to log off for now …i can’t learn anything
new here…
Yes, but I didn’t throw money away taking a class on how to do it. Your point is?
Dreams do come true.
2 Likes
And we know that Airbnb doesn’t recognize texts on pictures because Airbnb doesn’t shut down listings with an email address on the second picture, which is the common pattern for all scams on Airbnb. But that’s not high tech, OCR has been around for ages. This is just a choice of Airbnb not to perform this kind of check and let these scams happen.
However, understanding the sort of camera used is not related. This kind of data is included in the photograph metadata: Airbnb doesn’t have any processing to do on its own.
Sadly, Airbnb simply doesn’t include this in their photograph metadata.
You can do as I have done, copy the link to one of your listing’s picture and run it through a exif viewer like http://regex.info/exif.cgi. It doesn’t work on my listing’s pictures, taken either by the Airbnb photographer or my brother (giant photography nerd). Both had digital reflex cameras. Indications of the camera used seem to be simply crushed by Airbnb.
Although the fact that this is not included in Airbnb’s processed EXIF data is not a deal breaker in itself, in any case EXIF data is in no way a reliable indicator, and data can be deleted just because the photograph would not be saved correctly. Some tools can easily help you “spoof” the EXIF data.
If true, this would mean the Airbnb algorithm is super fragile and can be manipulated very easily (and programmatically) at the initiative of the host. I am dubious of any “get rich quick scheme” where the host could manipulate some things and get miraculously catapulted on the front page.
Besides, in terms of plausibility, this means a picture of a white sheet of paper with the right camera would have a high ranking. I highly doubt it would after the “new listing” boost period.
Finally, there is simply no basis for the 21 photos. Why 21? Because it’s half of 42, I guess.
Indeed, this is traditionally contained in EXIF data. However, pictures are reformatted to be easily downloaded on all devices, including those with smaller screens. Airbnb will do this once the pictures has been uploaded. Ultimately, source will never be shown and the gain of a digital reflex will be very limited over any smartphone’s camera. Not because the pictures are indeed of a different quality (they are) but because Airbnb know their guests are booking listings essentially on mobile (ie, with limited screen quality and limited data). There is little benefit to a 40Mo picture on an iPhone 4 in India: you would lose a potential “lead”.
If you need an actual tip to improve your search ranking when it comes to pictures: include 10 pictures in your listing. That is probably your case already, but Airbnb will spontaneously restrict searches on mobile to listings with at least 5 pictures, and it’s been fluctuating around 7 in the past months. This restriction doesn’t happen on searches via web. Mobile is probably 3/4 of Airbnb bookings, so, yeah, it matters.
It has worked. @anon67190644 could probably tell you more about her experience of being unlisted and then reappearing front page after Airbnb recognized an error.
Hardly a secret, especially on this forum.
Source: I run a company whose job is to help Airbnb hosts. Included in my services are daily market alerts that monitor the placement of an Airbnb listing in search results. To this date, I have 17 954 787 prices and ranking data (3.2 GiB) on my database that is used to generated those market reports. I have seen nothing to back up any premise or consequence of this post.
7 Likes
Great post, SmartAirBnB.IO
This is amazing content. This is
"WHY" i post.
I did learn something “new” from
you today, thank you very much.
Regards,
P.S. Yes. By the way, anyone can LIST and UNLIST
no need to call customer service.
Your listing will stay up there on the top spot for more
than 5 days. It will be looked at as NEW LISTING
and then drop-off from the cliff, just like it had happened
to her.
However, you can only do that 5 times with valid
reasons otherwise your listing will be penalized.
The waiting period to re-list is 10 Days.
Smart, I think I’m in love with you. 
2 Likes
Smart… Can you have more than 10?
Of course, including way more if you deem it useful.
For Airbnb’s ranking algo (on their servers), I don’t think it will make a difference whether you have 20 or 50, but the mobile apps (which is the client) will filter out listings with an insufficient number of pics (with some opinionated assumptions).
No. It makes a big difference. The more photo the better. I have done AB Testing. More photos will get you higher ranking. The optimal photo is 21. I have seen many listing one in England for example, London. Very competitive market. #1 listing host has 101 5 stars review and #2 has the same. But #1 listing has 61 photos and the #2 has 47. provided they all have hd photo quality both are “instant book”.
I thought it was to complain that someone else was “the smartest guy in the room”. Rest assured that there was no confusion.
It is hard to tell, but I believe you refer to @anon67190644’s experience. Unlisted was an inappropriate word. Her listing was listed publicly, but disappeared overnight from search results due to a change in Airbnb’s ranking algo. As far as I recall, she complained to Airbnb, which investigated and solved the issue.
A unique listing can only benefit from the “new listing boost” once. I don’t understand any of the following as it simply doesn’t relate with the “unlist/snooze/list” feature.
This is a mediocre attempt at A/B testing. If true, that would only be coincidence and not correlation. I can just say the first listing is performing better because I want it to, and you would have no way to disprove me.
First, you have host factors.
Have you checked their actual Airbnb response time (in seconds?)? Have you checked the last time they performed a calendar update? Have you checked the number of characters in any field? Have you checked in any one of them has performed any cancellation? Have you checked the actual distribution of stars in their reviews (without private info, you cannot know that there was “101 5 stars review” since you only know the number of reviews (101) and the aggregated score (5 stars means between any ranking 4.75 and 5.0).
Then, Airbnb takes into account other factors on the guest side.
Have you ever booked Airbnb before? Have you searched listings in London? What type of listings did you look? Which dates? What maximum capacity? Did you review listings? Did you review listings that were basically of the same type or capacity than the first or second listings, or any other listing?
And then you have factors in relations with the listing.
This is where your “the more photo the better” comes up. You also have other indicators: has the listing’s location been edited by the user? Is it new? What is that listing’s conversion rate?
I could go on. I am building a service to test those hypothesis. Saying one factor is the discriminating relevant factor is laughable without 1/ making hypothesis 2/ have a control 3/ test on a large sample.
From your experience only, and without machine access, there is simply no way for a human to come to the conclusion that the number of pictures (something that has little do to with a listing’s ability to generate bookings) is the one criteria that differentiated those 2 listings.
10 Likes
Thanks for clarifying; I was confused.
I have the same very problem - my listing will not show in search and it started sometime in October, as a result of this issue I haven’t received a single booking request in over 2 months, which is uncalled for as my listing is quiet desirable and is normally gone within a couple of days. I only host sporadically when need to go away, and like I said before I would open my listing for a couple of days and will get booked for exactly the dates I need. But starting October not a single request!
I of course have contacted the support via various means myriads of times and the answer was - there is no issue, you listing is perfectly discover able. But it’s not, tried different filters and from different locations - it doesn’t show no matter what you do.
I am very very frustrated and have run out of the ideas of what else I can do.
May be I should close this listing and open a new one from scratch? It would be a shame to lose all these good reviews, of course…
Your case is quite curious to be honest. Can you try and run a report on https://smartbnb.io/report? Among other things, this will also simulate searches for dates that are available on your calendar and find your placement in search results.
1 Like
Hi,
I just ran the report, not sure how to read all the info, but I got this http://take.ms/Bwe1k
The last time I communicated with Airbnb they told me the problem was in the setting I had on that would only allow guests with recommendations to book. Therefore it wouldn’t show up for not logged in users or the ones that don’t have any recommendations.
Ok, so I went ahead and turned the entire IB off. Of course it didn’t change anything, listing still not showing. But when I replied to their email, the case had been already closed. I tried to open a new one, but they closed it without giving me any assistance. The entire experience has been super awful
Another curios thing is that last time when I opened the case, my question for some reason got re-directed to the community and some expert replied to it saying that they were able to discover my listing. So I repeated the search she made exactly, and of course the listing was not there, replied to her asking how on earth was she able to find it, no reply.
I am really going nuts with all this, feel like it’s some sort of conspiracy )))
I went 90 days with mine not showing. Called every day for 90 days. Twitter helps a lot. Also tweeting top people like Brian Chesky.
Even with vp involved, they still couldnt find it!! Turns out they had "seletced to help me get longer stays by OVERIDING MY 1 day minimum by writing a new,algorithim set at 5 days!!! Of course, this did not show up in minimum day setting, because it was a SECRET algorithim . In three years no one had EVER stayed more than 3 days!!! I was FURIOUS. I lost about $10,000. They gave me $200 coupon for my trouble. Told me it was not a computer glitch, just an algorithm set badly. On all four of my listings!
Meanwhile, during those 90 days I used my sons account to get bookings.
1 of my 4 listing sis not showing, getting the same response from airbnb that it;s fine at their side. I’ve sent screenshots, of me logged in and out, and from a friends account none of us can see the listing and there are only 4 homes available in my area for that time period.
I’m really upset, I wondered if creating another listing and removing that one would help?
Any idea why the engineers were not able to find this algorithim. You would think if your settings are fine, then they would immediately go look for this secret algorithim right away. I keep telling Airbnb that they have inserted some algorithim in my listing and all they keep doing is searches and say they don’t understand. I am just not following this. Some employee there is responsible for inserting secret algorithims so why is it so difficult to search for this?
I am having the same problem. My listing is not showing up in a basic search. I have been on the phone with scripted customer service reps who don’t really seem to understand that I understand the basics. This is a complicated algorithm issue, I think. They finally passed it on to the expert tech team and they reported back that they see my listing and everything looks fine to them. UGH. Here’s what I see (or more accurately, do NOT see): If I search for open dates in my town I get two pages of listings, approx 35 places of mixed use; entire homes and private rooms. Mine does not show up in those two pages. If I move the map a little or zoom, then sometimes my listing appears. Almost always, when I fine tune the search to specify “entire home” up pops my listing. The thing is, there are other listings that appear each time WITHOUT the map movement, zooming or specifying room type. They’re visible ALL the time. Because of this quirk, I have lost bookings over the 4th of July period and my entire month of August is completely void of bookings. I have 19 five star reviews - 100% everything. I can’t seem to get anyone at Airbnb to understand what the problem is. I am going to do a screen cast next and see if that makes it clear to them that my listing is absent from a search that should include me. Any suggestions? I would be so appreciative.
AirBnB is definitely doing this deliberately. What’s their objective? Getting you to lower your prices. This increases their run rate, as it attracts new guests from competing platform, including traditional hotels/motels etc. I’ve got mobile screen recordings and general screenshots of this occurring to our listing. When you call, message, they just give the same generic excuses. They never EVER explain why it’s happening. The platform is a rort!!! We kept lowering our prices, for many months, till I started watching our listing closely, and discovered we were very often being left off the 1st page or 2 pages and the maps, even when they would say only 10-15% of listings left for this area. They often fill the search results with listings from surrounding areas. All to scare you into reducing price.
Did you share any screen recordings of this issue with them? How did they respond? I find they say they will escalate, then nothing. I’ve today threatened to bombard their FB, Twitter, and even sending a detailed outline to local Australian media. This is not only a rort towards the hosts, it also is misleading to potential guests, as they’re not showing “all” available listings at any given time. Extremely UNETHICAL!!!
Your listing appears number 1!!! That’s a real big red flag right there!!! They’re lying through their teeth!!!