I didn’t necessarily think either one was true, I was just wondering. I had (have) no idea how the algorithm works or what it takes into consideration. My mother-in-law is having fun following our listing activity and frequently searches our city 
She mentioned that it was multiple pages into the search this week and that along w/ less frequent bookings made me curious.
Ah, okay. It’s all starting to make sense.
I’m in the US… San Antonio TX
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That’s okay, neither does anyone else 
All of these things play into the algorithm, either positively or negatively, as far as many hosts are aware, but how the algorithm weights those things at any given time is a mystery.
Using Instant Book
Having Superhost status
“Tinkering” with your listing- changing a
word or two, adding a photo,
unblocking dates, changing a setting,
etc.
Declining bookings
Availabilty
Pricing
Your Overall rating
Getting or not getting bookings
Cancelling bookings
Accepting pets
Accepting children
Being disabled-friendly (like having ramps, no stairs, and so on)
Having a flexible cancellation policy
Accepting last minute bookings
Opening blocked dates
Etc, etc. and I’m sure other hosts could add much more to that list.
In other words, pretty much everything about your listing and your activity regarding it could play into the search algorithm, so you either don’t stress about it unless you just aren’t getting any views or bookings, or you experiment to see if you can influence it.
And a lot of the things that can up your search ranking are things that hosts have good reasons not to want to do. Just because you are on the first page and get steady bookings doesn’t mean those are all bookings you really want. If doing everything Airbnb wants you to do to acheive high search ranking means you end up getting crappy guests who aren’t a good fit for you or your listing, that high ranking is sort of pointless.
Eeee gads that sounded pretty bad. Just had a Hollywood actress here and fortunately none of what you experienced.
Just left yesterday and she does review her stays.
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From Chesky’s recent public discussions I suspect one of the highest impact issues is “Value”. Meaning low price and high ratings.
Our property isn’t a “value” property, and I refuse to lower the price to “satisfy” the algorithm. We still get booked by guests looking for a special place.
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After I lost my Superhost status last year (after a guest destroyed my kettle & gave me 1 star overall for charging him!) I was keen to get people to review again. After 4 X 5star reviews this year I was a Superhost again!
Anyway, recently I got all 4-5 stars for a one night stay except for ‘location’ which he gave me 2 stars for & adding ‘dull area’.
This guest stayed in his room the whole time not once venturing out at all (just a one night stay) so I was puzzled at his comment. Of course that 2 star rating dragged my average down again!!
By the way I live in a quiet peaceful cul-de-sac, very safe, quite new housing etc in a suburb.
My point is that guests really don’t understand Airbnb’s ‘rating’ system especially if they’ve just joined& never used Airbnb before!
How aggravating! Airbnb really is at fault allowing this star rating to stand, in fact I believe they should change to “location” category to “accuracy of location description”
I am one block off a beautiful south of England sea front so I just about always get 5 stars, a couple of times I have had 4 stars, presumably because the guests would have preferred the house to be right on the beach
What about guests who book a place right next to the church where they are to attend a funeral for instance? The location is absolutely perfect for their purposes but might be on a busy road. This is no reason at all to downgrade the host on “location”.
If the guest books a place without looking at the location but is then disappointed, it has nothing to do with the host whatsoever
It would lower your location rating average, but has nothing to do with the Overall star rating that appears on your listing.
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