Rank dropped from 27 to 143 overnight!

My ranking on Airbnb suddenly went from 27 to 143 overnight. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I have had no inquiries, emails, bookings from any guests within the last two weeks so that can’t be the reason. When I called Airbnb, the agent was just as baffled when she looked at the activity on my listing and just said it’s something in the algorhythm which didn’t help but she did agree that it was strange. Any ideas? Very depressing to have your listing sink like that overnight

I’m not sure how you got that number. Do you mean when you searched properties in your area, yours was the 143th one?

Try looking on another computer. Also try messing around with the map as well as being sure your filters are removed.

@J_Wang: Susan is using a Smartbnb daily report.

@Susan_Armstrong In general, sudden changes, in one direction or another, will often be corrected in a manner that is just as sudden. I believe, however, that the reason is very much in the absence of inquiries or bookings recently.

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So the absence of bookings is because of her drop in the cue, or not?

That questions put me in a complex position. I used to openly give advice and share what I see on this forum, but as it turns out, one of the discussions on the forum “invited” another service to launch their own competing feature.

I hope you can appreciate that I won’t share my own tips with Smartbnb’s low level copycats, and therefore, I find myself unable to share it publicly.

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Sometimes I think that I must be the only Airbnb host who doesn’t check rankings :slight_smile:

But what I don’t understand is how hosts do this (unless they are using Pierre’s service) because I would have thought that the search system varies every day, if not every hour. Because people are booking all the time, meaning that places become unavailable or cancellations happen so places become available, and because every day hosts are blocking dates, or having their listings demoted because of cancellation etc., then surely search results change all the time?

Then there are the new hosts coming on board who get the boost. Hosts who de-list their places for whatever reason. Doesn’t this mean that the overall ‘snapshot’ of any given area is constantly changing, and that therefore ranking will change accordingly? @smartbnb.io ?

I was just wondering if checking your ranking every day is a good way to drive yourself crazy :slight_smile:

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For me @jaquo, my ranking is fairly constant. The new host boost isn’t as powerful as some have stated in this forum. They filter up, and then disappear when their cleanliness or value rating is low after 5 reviews. It doesn’t drive me crazy at all. It is part of knowing what other properties in the area are being rated highly, alerts me when it might be time to tweak my listing, and allows me to see how my property is faring in the marketplace.

What? Copycats? You are joking, huh? As if there were some secret magical gimmick. Pffft I never look at rankings either. Just an FYI, but my 2 listings appear at the top of the first page on an Airbnb search every time. Have for the past two years and I don’t use any 3rd party gimmick. I’m a super ho and I’m on IB

I think that ours must be too because the bookings keep rolling in, but in my mission to be the least-stressed host on the planet, I never check rankings. :slight_smile: Although soon we will have another listing just steps away from our existing one and if I’m right. @smartbnb.io’s service allows two listings for the price of one? So I think I’m going to give it a try - everyone speaks so highly of it.

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The best way to think about monitoring your search results is thinking it is the same as a weather report.

Does it change all the time? Yes.

In some places faster than other. Pretty sure I can give a weather report for the middle of the Sahel, or Antarctica, for the next year with a good enough success rate. For the same reason, listings in NYC will vary much more than in Brussels, for example. That is why Smartbnb will “take the temperature” under comparable situations (that is, dear @J_Wang, the secret, although there is no “gimmick” to the hospitality that you provide).

It is useful? Not until it really is.

It’s been useful to spot a problem with the calendar, the location, the “optimal” duration of the booking for a listing in particular, and check the effect of a good or bad review over the listing’s placement, along with the dynamics of the market. Most hosts spend less than one minute skimming through our email to check if everything is in line.

I don’t think it’s really about the exact placement, it’s about the baseline (see what Airbnb thinks of your listing), and it’s never so much about you, it’s about the market (which is exponentially complex). Some are freaked out when they drop by 5 results, and that is not the right attitude to have. Some never check, and that means you don’t really know when things are no longer working.

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I appreciate that I knew at 7AM that my listing had disappeared for four of the 9 days that I had available. I was able to get on the phone with AirBNB and fix the problem in less than 6 hours. I might not have noticed the problem for days.

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Great explanation. Thank you.

I use Smartbnb and absolutely swear by it. It immediately raised our Airbnb ranking and have saved me many hours a week in emailing. The customer service is amazing as well. I think there is some sort of bug in the Airbnb algorhythm or it has something to do with availability as we are booked up through the third week of September.

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SEPTEMBER? Could you please raise your prices 2000% to give other Airbnb hosts a chance?

Seriously, though, the drop in ranking for September is natural. The longer the stay is from now, the more listings are going to be available on the market: you have plenty of time to fill this calendar. Obviously, there is also a seasonal aspect, so there will be a very reduced demand.

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And I am booked through the end of October… but I can not go any higher on my price. I like guests that plan ahead. I am not raising my prices… I am at the top of the charts for a shared space. I will open November - February soon enough. I will have to drop my price for that season.

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Worth checking to see that the listing is there at all. Unfortunately Air can see it and most can not in my case. Last summer we were solidly booked all summer. This year no bookings at all after July 2nd. Killer for a seasonal home!

Now listed with VRBO

Air doing NOTHING!

My ranking is the lowest it’s been since I’ve been getting the Smartbnb market reports. I’m 18th to 56th up through Aug. Previously I’ve been 1 to 15 or so. This is due to lack of activity and bookings. I have a big chunk of my calendar blocked off for repeat guest who has booked three days a week through the summer and a two week vacation of my own plus turnover days for my co-host. Despite the big drop a good portion of my available days are booked and I’m satisfied with that. Once I’m back from my vacation I’ll start working on getting the ranking back up.

Hi @Susan_Armstrong

Can I ask you how much you pay and how it raised your rankin?

Thanks

(I know I can get the information from the guy who runs it, but I prefer to ask for user recommendations initially).

Hi @Susan_Armstrong

This happened to me in November/December. I had absolutely no bookings for a month in a month which is fairly busy.

I looked at my rankings at various times of day and I too had slipped to page 15 or more and sometimes disappeared completely.

I phoned them they said there wasn’t a problem. It continued. I asked hosts in my local forum with similar places. They were all busy. I contacted them via FB. They told me there wasn’t a problem. I phone them again - no definitely no technical hitch. I had to contact them via Twitter and send screen grabs in order for them for them to accept there was a problem.

Then a week later, they hold me there was a technical problem. No shit sherlock :frowning:

It then took them a further three weeks to fix it.

With the result I had no bookings for five weeks over a busy period. No apology for this happening. No apology for not looking into it properly in the first place, no discount voucher or even tacky Airbnb products. Just Zilch.

Sorry I’ve gone off on a bit of a rant.

  1. Log in through a different search engine and check how many pages in you are listed at various times

  2. Screenshot

  3. Get others to verify it (I did this on their community forum and linked to the post)

  4. Use twitter. Tell them you know there is a technical problem which means some listing’s are dropping down the rankings get them to look into yours.

Good luck

I think it’s only $15/month but it’s totally worth it as it has automated about 90% of my emails and reviews. As I said to my husband, “this has changed my life :)” Our response rate was 2-3 hours now it’s seconds and our ranking went from mid 90s to mid 20s within two weeks. We only have one rental but the amount of time using Smartbnb has been significant.