This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Our forward bookings have dropped off compared to the last couple of years so I thought I’d check our page rank using the destination keyword that guests use.
As usual we are always number 1 when I check as a traveller on my own devices. This could be due to caching in my browsers or Air have some tricky AI that makes every host think that they are number 1.
So I went to friends and acquaintances in our source markets and asked them to search. The results were really bad.
There are around 40 airbnb listings in our destination. We are coming in at around 43 way below listings with 4.5 for example
We have over 200 reviews and we are on 4.97
Our booking window is out to 12 months
I regularly update photos and info
It seems that all of the listings above us are more expensive. In fact on the map that pops up we don’t appear at all. We are $45 per night on average. The ones that appear are above $80 per night.
We’ve had no issues other than a terse phone call with customer support a week ago when a guest had difficulty extending her stay on the app and we had to phone support.
I guess we all think that we should be higher in page rank but this seems pretty extreme and is directly affecting our business.
are you on instant book? The algorithm appears to favour those hosts with instant Book, once again heading for the hotel model…hotels don’t ask questions!
Yes, it will show your own listing first unless you are using Incognito/Private browsing. So no need to ask friends to look.
Are you listing #43 or on page 43?
The algorithm is complex. The biggest factors in my market seem to be price and IB. Ultimately AirBnB is going to favor listings with a high conversion rate (percentage of page views that turn into bookings). What is yours at?
Yes, use an incognito browser window then you don’t have to mess around with other computers or other people.
What criteria are you searching for? A silly question but if you have set criteria for IB guests (reviews from other hosts etc.) are the people who are searching on your behalf logged in and do they fit those criteria?
Aggregate the combined wisdom of our forum. Follow suggestions and questions and act where it seems that it may improve page rank.
In my day job I build websites and have some sense of what the main search engines are looking for. I don’t (obviously) have any sense of what Airbnb looks for when it comes to page rank when no filters are applied.
Incognito browser windows may still be able to geotag your terminal so you may not get the same results as someone running an incognito browser in a different geographical location. Easy to test.
That’s a bit of a Catch-22, though, isn’t it? If your listing is way down in search results, there are way less views, so less bookings. It’s a vicious circle.
Instead of using algorithms to determine search ranking, Airbnb should just do random shuffles of listings on a daily, or even several times a day basis , so everyone gets a fair kick at the can.
That’s great! Can you let us know more about your site? Do you use it to get bookings or do you direct viewers to your Airbnb listing?
Not really, depending on your security settings. Airbnb might be able to detect your IP but why should it bother? Use a proxy and you can be anywhere in the world. We are often ‘in England’ for the purposes of watching the BBC.
You didn’t say what search parameters you are using. Airbnb wants to match a guest with a host as quickly as possible so doing a generic search of all listings isn’t the same as a guest searching for “private room or entire place, under $60, 2 people, SH, IB, Air conditioning, private bathroom, Wi-fi, beachfront.” (which is what my search would look like).
My booking rate is 1.5% which seems low and although January was my slowest month since July (when I was out of town for 2 weeks) I still had half my days booked. That may change if I get some last minute bookings during this week. My best booking rate in the last year for any month was 2.5%. I get last minute bookings and I feel that the cheaper places book way ahead of me but I just sit here and wait, sometimes until 7 pm night of. By that time I suspect I may be one of only a handful of available places. Because supply is so high people can really wait now and get nice places and I know lot of folks lower prices so it pays to wait.
The View to Contact Rate is 3.84% for one room and 4.32% for the other
The Contact to Book Rate is 75% for one room and 100% for the other. (We do Instant Book which would explain these high rates).
That’s right. My interest was in how we would rank for a potential guest who was just browsing the destination without having anything specific in mind.
I build sites for other people - not for me. I rely only on Airbnb for generating interest and bookings. I do have a Facebook Page for the listings which directs bookings to our Airbnb specific URL.
I’m not sure how many people would search in that way. I sometimes browse through the world of Airbnb looking for some unique hidden gems but when I’m actually planning a trip I can’t search that way. Too many listings, too many people who don’t IB, too many dates not available because they are booked or blocked.
If you’ve used Airbnb as a guest you know how hard it can be to search.
It is hard to guess what factors are contributing. It seems that you have IB on. Are there additional requirements that you have on IB, other than default? If so, some of those could be limiting potential views.
For instance, I there is a requirement that bundles together “guests without reviews” AND “guests without negative reviews”. IMO, this is stupid. I gladly allow guests without reviews. I would LIKE to prevent guests with negative reviews from IB - but it does not work that way.
So … I simply allow everyone to IB. And look at them afterward and msg them, to see if there are red flags.
Was the drop-off before your terse call? If so, then perhaps that is unrelated, but who can be sure. It is disturbing that a host with so many great reviews would have such poor visibility.
Ours is below what we would like also, but this time of year is on the slow side for our area.
We have two listings. Both are IB. I hadn’t realised that I had checked the “Require guests to have recommendations from other Airbnb hosts and no negative reviews.” option on one of the listings. I have now removed that. And before anyone asks how that may have affected the rankings - I failed to notice which one it was !!!
For the same reason any application captures what it needs or wants. In the case of Airbnb for example, it may be to provide prices in the local currency. In our case here in Australia, if we enter airbnb.com into an incognito browser window it usually re-addresses the URL to airbnb.com.au
When I search for my listing I use and incognito window AND turn on my VPN that changes my IP address to another (U.S.) one. I think this disguises me enough?
This is what I see in Cairns, Australia using Chrome Incognito with no VPNs, proxies or other obfuscating IP strategies doing a Miami, Florida search. No dates, no filters of any kind.
Interesting that the first listing is a 3.83 !!! Go figure. Hope they’re not on the forum??
