Search by city misleading

My inquiries dropped sharply this winter so I did a search for everything in my rural city. I am in a sparsely populated rural area. My neighbors listing came up early in the results. Mine used to come up early in the results. This time Mine was so far down it was unlikely to be found. Yet other listings many miles outside of my city were coming up. A user who didn’t know better would get the impression that there were no more listings in the area. I asked the super host help desk. They said everything was ok but they added in a “standard sounding” clause about Airbnb categories not being responsible and not being something I can choose. The algorithm must be giving a higher priority to categories than to the geographic location the user specifies in their search? Has anyone noticed this and is it a change that could be responsible for the decreased page views? I am suddenly getting more inquiries from a competing site that used to be way behind Airbnb. I guess a category review is in order.

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Others here too have noticed that the Airbnb algorithms have placed their property lower than where it was. We don’t know all the factors of Airbnb’s ‘secret sauce’ algorithms though we know that they do promote new Hosts and many here have theories on how to ‘up’ their listing in searches.

I suggest – if you’re comfortable with this – providing your airbnb listing URL here. That way folks here might have some ideas, collaborate with you, take a look at what is coming first.

Your post is a great first step. Let’s see how the ‘collective wisdom’ here (or is it the madness of crowds?) can brainstorm with you together to get your listing higher in the search results!

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Something that we do know is that Airbnb favours hosts who make it easy for guests to book and hosts who don’t refuse too many requests or have other problems. (For example, if a host frequently cancels stays.)

Therefore it makes sense that the algorithm ‘prefers’ hosts who use IB because that’s immediate and hassle-free for guests. it also likes hosts who use smart pricing. (I doubt that the price suggestions are of any SEO value though),

Does your place show up when you zoom in?

@HostAirbnbVRBO and I had a bit of a ding-dong here the other day and we were actually at cross-purposes. So I want to say first, Glenn I’m not getting at you with my following suggestion or being a smart-arse. :slight_smile:

It’s a debatable issue, I know, but some believe (I tend to) that your conversion rate is a factor in your search positioning. It makes sense that if your listing is being viewed many times yet no one is booking, the algorithm sees that as a bad thing. Therefore posting your URL here could be detrimental to your positioning.

Just wanted to mention that.

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A year ago there were around 450 listings for my town, now it’s up to 1000. That’s because they’ve added towns/regions that are 20-30 miles away and lots of these show up before most of the ones in this town. A bit deceiving.

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Good point @jaquo (as usual)! I guess the question is whether the benefits outweigh this potential disadvantage. It’s impossible for me to evaluate that because I don’t know what suggestions this group will make.

One possibility @debflak is to make a post here that includes the link to your listing, but after x days, to delete the post.

Maybe others here will have another suggestion. @debflak Please know that @jacquo and most others here are more experienced than I, so if someone subsequently suggests not to put your listing up, they’re more likely to be correct than I am.

Another possibility is to post an invite to members who would be willing to take a look at your post and ask that they send you either a direct message or make comments on the forum without the rest of us seeing your link.

Some here also debate whether making changes to your listing – changing the wording, updating or re-arranging pictures and such – can ‘up’ your search rank. No one knows if that helps though usually all of us can tweak our listing in a way that helps (it’s never ‘perfect’).

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This is not a new issue. Before the pandemic my map would be so zoomed out that it included a town 50 miles away. Airbnb also said I was in Juarez, Mexico. That’s only 5 miles away across an international border but an obvious problem if a guest accidentally books a home there.

Airbnb always wants to give the guest hundreds of choices in their results so unless a guest is savvy enough to zoom in and be looking for exactly what you offer it’s going to be tricky.

You area already ahead of the game by listing on more than one site.

I’ve long asserted that the busier you are, the busier you will be. But if your calendar is blocked by bookings on other sites then Airbnb moves you down the rankings. Now there are so many listings that I suspect Airbnb rotates among the active hosts so keep them hooked in. But there aren’t enough bookings to keep everyone busy.

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Yes. This was part of the summer “update” (aka total revamp). It was stated that Airbnb is trying to spread bookings over areas that are less booked. This of course presumes that the vast majority of guests don’t have a specific area they want or need to stay in, which of course is a false assumption.

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I am in western Massachusetts and had someone who wanted to book ask how far I was from the mansions in Newport, walking distance? Newport is in Rhode Island 111 miles from us. Our listing came up when she searched Newport.

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Thank you for the offer. I was also wondering if the number of views compared to bookings could impact the algorithim negatively - even if I view it myself. I have changed my photos to put a winter feel photo as the cover. I’ve reviewed the amenities. I’ve followed the price tips. I may follow your suggestion yet.

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Another thought I’ve had:
I’ve had a lot of scam inquiries this year. Guests -mostly writing in Chinese- asking to stay for months and wanting to speak outside of Airbnb. I report these and don’t engage in outside contact but I wonder if these might affect the algorithim because the system still requires that I respond and sends me almost chastising emails when they find and remove the scammers.

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I agree with the conversion rate issue - (thanks for the addition to my terminology! )I wondered about this when I view my own site. I might try to share my url here if I can’t get more traction with this issue. I’m reviewing my listing and photos, etc. Reading articles they have sent me. I’ll try the zoom in - I didn’t use that.

What puzzles me is the that fact that I have one neighbor nearby on Airbnb and that listing and mine used to show up in proximity to each other. I have not cancelled any bookings nor have I had a lot of bookings through other sites - less actually from other sites up until just recently. My neighbor’s listing has stayed high in the search results but mine has dropped so low in searches by city that I am quite sure it may as well not be there (Have you heard the joke about where to hide a dead body? Page nine of google search results! Probably page 4 would work.)

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I searched by town rather than area on the map and listings many many miles outside of my town came up much higher than my own. I don’t have a lot of bookings from the competing site - very few actually. I have had a greater number of private bookings during the peak season though - return guests that book for 1 or more weeks. This could be a factor? Compared to last year my listing views have decreased by over 50% - could be a market change? but it seems rather high especially when inquiries the other site has increased inquiries.

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If your property is off the Airbnb market (i.e., calendar blocked a lot) that will for sure push you down in the algorithm. The more your calendar is blocked the more it hurts your Airbnb search results, and understandably so.

One thing you could do to increase your search rank is to accept instant bookings. But that’s a controversial subject, especially with recent changes. You might want to reach for that on the forum.

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I swore off of instant booking early on after a bad experience. I’ll check it out again to be sure. My private bookings are going up but not a huge increase. I will check that though. Thanks

I’ve had a couple of problems with this as well. Mine is a bedroom in my Host occupied home. I had one guy who wanted to come see the place. I booked an appointment with him. I arranged to have someone else here so I wouldn’t be alone when he came. He called about 5 mins before he was supposed to be here and said he had another appointment and he chose to go there. I reminded him that we had the appointment first. He wanted to come about an hour later but my friend wouldn’t be able to stay that late so I told him no. My friend left a few minutes after that and he called about 2-3 mins later and said he was out front! I don’t know if he was watching or what but it was really creepy. That was a month ago and he called on Thanksgiving night to see if the place was available. I lied and told him it was booked until June 2023. He still wanted to talk about it and I told him I was baking cookies and couldn’t talk and hung up. He called back about 5 mins later from a different phone number. I told him no again and hung up again. I’ve blocked both numbers. He was really creepy.

Oh, by the way, he sounded Asian.

You should never agree to let someone come see the place. I know there are valid reasons why someone might want to do so, for instance I can imagine a young single female looking to book for an extended period wanting to ensure that she’d feel safe there, but there are just too many risks involved in allowing a complete stranger to preview the place.

Your listing info, photos, reviews, and answering any questions they might have should be enough info for them to decide whether to book or not, and if it isn’t, tough luck.

Even if the person isn’t creepy in any way, hosts who have allowed previews in the past have said it was a waste of time- the person showed up late or too early, the host spent half an hour talking to them and giving them a tour, and the person then tried to chisel them down on the price and/or never ended up booking.

That is another level of worrisome scam!

The new algorithm prioritizes professional, i.e. large file size photos. It also rewards the frequent changing of photographs. You might try that.

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Debflak do you view your listing with the incognito button on? Go to chrome 3 dots on right corner, there is the incognito button. Then in the search area type airbnb. That is the only way to get a true picture of where you are in rank8ngs

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