Improving your Airbnb SEO is one of the most important contributing factors to ranking highly, getting more bookings, and increasing revenue.
But it can be difficult to improve and maintain a high ranking if, in addition to all your day-to-day responsibilities, you have to:
- Constantly update your listing to keep up with Airbnb’s latest changes
- Learn the ins and outs of how Airbnb and its algorithm work
- Consistently generate high reviews
- Make sure you’re always standing out from the competition
In this article, you’ll learn all about how Airbnb ranks your listing, how you can rank highly on Airbnb’s search engines, and what tools you can use to streamline this entire process.
If you’re looking for a specific answer, use the links below to navigate through the sections:
Airbnb SEO doesn’t have to be your full-time job. Jetstream’s all-in-one solution optimizes your listing, provides 24/7 guest communication, and manages your channels so you can live your life.
How does Airbnb rank your listing?
Airbnb uses an algorithm to rank listings and provide guests with personalized search results based on factors like their criteria, demographics, and saved listings.
When ranking your listing on its search results pages, Airbnb’s search algorithm considers more than 100 factors so it can match the guests with exactly what they’re looking for.
Airbnb’s ever-changing algorithm ranks your listing by considering more than 100 factors.
While this specific ranking approach is great for guests looking for the perfect vacation rental or hotel stay, this ever-changing guest-focused algorithm makes ranking highly an uphill battle for most hosts.
That said, 4 key factors that impact your rating are
- Listing and review quality. Higher quality listings tend to rank best on Airbnb’s search pages (more on what’s a high-quality listing later).
- Popularity. The popularity of your Airbnb listing depends on how many people engage with or review it. Your messaging rate also determines the popularity of your listing.
- Pricing. Airbnb reviews the competitiveness of your pricing compared to other similar listings in your area.
- Availability. The more open dates your listing calendar offers, the more likely you are to rank highly on Airbnb.
Let’s take a more detailed look at how you can use these factors to your advantage to improve your Airbnb SEO strategy.
10 Steps to improve your Airbnb SEO strategy
The more your listing stands out, the more likely you are to rank highly on Airbnb’s search results pages. It’s true that Airbnb automatically promotes new listings for the first month. But if you want to keep ranking highly after that grace period, here are 10 Airbnb SEO tips to implement:
- Provide high-quality photos
- Optimize your listing title
- Provide an accurate and optimized description
- Communicate quickly and effectively
- Receive more 5-star reviews
- Invest in hospitality tech
- Expand your amenities
- Price your listing competitively
- Avoid rejections and cancellations
- Achieve Superhost status
Let’s dive deeper into these points and look at some actionable tips you can use to rank highly on Airbnb.
1. Provide high-quality photos
First impressions do matter. And the first thing your potential guests notice about your listing is the photography.
The best Airbnb photos curate a story and need to be well-lit and high-quality. An accurate and attractive collection of photographs is a great way to build trust and encourage more listing interactions and, ultimately, bookings.
If you’re not confident in your photography skills or the quality of your smartphone’s camera, hiring a professional photographer might be a great investment.
The first 5 photos on your listing grid have the potential to make a big impression. So make sure they’re high-quality, well-lit, accurate, and horizontal.
Pro tip: When potential guests first visit your listing page, they’ll see your first 5 photos as a horizontal grid at the top. So make sure the first 5 photos you upload are horizontal, otherwise they’ll get cropped to fit the design.
2. Optimize your listing title
Your listing title is another attention-grabbing factor that can help you get more bookings. You have a limited number of characters available when writing your title so make them count. Include descriptive adjectives and mention what makes your listing stand out.
“Choose your words carefully because you only have a few seconds to pique a potential guest’s interest. Avoid expressing the obvious, such as “London two-bedroom apartment” or “Hampshire cozy house.” Instead, include a selling element in the headline, such as “walking distance to Waterloo Station” or “peaceful countryside 15th-century cottage.” – Daniel Foley, Marketing Manager of Loanx.
Always include a selling element in your listing title to pique a potential guest’s attention.
3. Provide an accurate and optimized description
A detailed description helps guests know what to expect and allows them to envision themselves in the space.
Try to be as accurate as possible when describing your listing, location, and amenities. While remaining transparent, focus on what makes your listing unique, and don’t be afraid to share the story of your space.
Some points to include in your description include
- Special features and amenities like free breakfast, parking space, pool, and proximity to tourist attractions.
- Accessibility features open your listing up to more people and make those who are differently-abled feel welcome and included.
- Property quirks need to be communicated transparently, without turning guests away. If the next-door neighbor’s dog barks a lot during the morning, that’s something you need to let your guests know beforehand.
4. Communicate quickly and effectively
Communication is the number one rule of any relationship, and your relationship with your guests is no different. Everything you do to make guests happier will help you rank higher.
There are two sure ways to improve guest satisfaction:
- Improve your response rate. Anyone in the realty property management game will tell you that answering the same questions 10 times a day will quickly become exhausting. But an impeccable response rate will lead to more bookings.
- Lower your response time. Answering every inquiry within 24 hours will improve your ranking and increase conversion. If you were a guest, would you rather communicate with a host that answers within the hour or one who takes 2 days to respond?
Achieving a perfect response rate and a short response time contributes massively to ranking highly on Airbnb.
Answering every guest’s questions within hours is exhausting. Our multilingual team handles guest communication around the clock. So your listing doesn’t sleep when you do. Book a demo
5. Receive more 5-star reviews
Most travelers are unlikely to book a stay at a property with bad reviews, or even low-quality reviews for that matter. So make sure you’re getting as many 5-star reviews as possible.
We know that’s easier said than done, but here are some things you can do to make sure you’re getting as many quality reviews as possible:
- Represent your space with complete accuracy using high-quality images and descriptions.
- Make sure your space is always squeaky clean. Nothing guarantees bad reviews quite like dust and grime.
- Automate your check-in process to optimize the experience for your guests before they even set foot on your property.
- Responsive communication is crucial to receiving quality, positive reviews and it should begin the second a potential guest reaches out.
- Your listing’s location is also important in receiving positive reviews. Make sure to include some unique selling points about your property on your listing. For example, proximity to a specific landmark or specific mode of transportation.
- How much value for price does your listing offer your guests? This category has a strong influence on the overall rating so do some research into what your typical guest really wants.
Pro tip: personalize the space for every guest and make them feel like it’s theirs. You don’t need to make big changes. It’s the little things, like clearing out anything that might make guests feel like they’re in someone else’s house.
6. Invest in hospitality tech
Investing in hospitality tech and providing keyless entry and automated check-ins optimizes the guest experience before they even arrive. The entire ranking process is all about one thing: which hosts always put their guests first?
62% of guests prefer contactless self-check-in, so nothing screams “I put my guests first” more than automating their check-in process and wowing them with smart locks.
If you’re not tech-savvy, and have no idea where to start, you just need an experienced team to get you set up. For example, Jetstream partners with tech solutions like Operto Connect to give your guests more flexibility without giving you a whole new tech stack to get familiar with (but more on that later).
Investing in hospitality tech optimizes the guest experience and impacts your Airbnb ranking positively.
7. Expand your amenities
Expanding your amenities is another way to make sure your listing stands out from the crowd. 97% of surveyed US travelers noted that amenities impact their travel decisions, according to Airbnb. So make sure you’re attracting and delighting guests by providing them the amenities they want.
Some of the amenities guests look for include:
- Self-check-in
- Kitchen
- WiFi
- Free parking
- Washing machine
- Air conditioning or heating
- Gym
- Breakfast
- Smoke alarm
- Carbon monoxide alarm
97% of surveyed US travelers noted that amenities impact their travel decisions.
If you’re not able to provide a pool or a gym, going the extra mile to provide a simple, but delicious, breakfast will surely make an impact on your guests.
Pro tip: To stand out in search results, keep your amenities updated and accurate, and if you can, keep expanding your amenities to include what guests filter and look for.
8. Price your listing competitively
Pricing is among the most important decision-making factors for guests, which means it’s an important factor for the algorithm.
The difficulty with this is that many full-time hospitality professionals feel the pressure to compete with the impossibly low prices of hosts who “do Airbnb on the side.”
There’s also a lot of guesswork when it comes to setting the perfect price. How do you adjust for seasonality and occupancy rate? Should you charge less or more during specific holidays and weekends?
It’s time to get rid of the guesswork. Dynamic pricing tools save you time and money by automatically predicting and detecting fluctuations in demand to find you the right pricing. Book a demo
9. Avoid rejections and cancellations
Another ranking factor that sets your listing apart from the competition and fosters trust, is a low rejection and cancellation rate.
Rejecting booking requests and canceling confirmed reservations not only bears financial penalties for hosts but also hurts your chances of ranking highly.
That said, sometimes you can’t help but reject booking requests from disrespectful or potentially bad guests. While this might save you money and a headache down the road, it will negatively impact your ranking. Instead, you can deter bad guests from even requesting a stay by implementing background checks and using guest screening tools that integrate with Jetstream, like Autohost.
Pro tip: make Instant Book available on your property to allow guests more flexibility. Your listing will always appear first when guests search for Instant Book listings in your area.
10. Achieve Superhost status
Superhosts are experienced Airbnb hosts who consistently receive 5-star reviews. While becoming a superhost and maintaining the status is not an easy feat, it massively contributes to ranking highly.
Superhosts welcome more guests, get special recognition from Airbnb and guests alike, and can access exclusive rewards. A host can achieve the Superhost status by
- Having a 4.8 ranking or higher based on the reviews of their past year
- Completing 10 or more stays
- Achieving a 1% or less cancellation rate
- Maintaining a 90% or higher response rate
In addition to the stress that comes with being available and responsive 24/7, less detailed and inaccurate ratings can also affect your Superhost status.
“Some guests leave really great detailed reviews and do their ranking with serious consideration, but most others go through the process quickly. This results in a lot of reviews that are either lower than they really should be or that are simply less detailed. People who are traveling often don’t have the time or energy to give a detailed review, and there really isn’t much that hosts can do about that.” -Larry Snider, VP of Operations at Casago Vacation Rentals.
Pro tip: outsourcing your guest communications to our 24/7 agents not only guarantees a 100% response rate but also frees up your time to focus on providing a personalized and outstanding experience for your guests.
Airbnb SEO doesn’t have to be your full-time job. Jetstream’s all-in-one solution optimizes your listing, provides 24/7 guest communication, and manages your channels so you can live your life. Book a demo
Bottom line: in theory, there are many ways to make sure you’re listing ranks highly on Airbnb. But in practice, it’s not that straightforward.
Luckily, there are many tools out there that are specifically designed to help hosts delight their guests and rank highly on search results pages. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Operto
Operto is a guest, property, and team automation solution for hotels and vacation rentals. Operto Connect’s smart lock technology creates an automated and hassle-free check-in process and allows for a more secure experience.
When guests arrive at your listing, they’re most likely exhausted from their trip and want to start enjoying their vacation as soon as possible. By automating check-ins, you’re allowing them to do just that while making a positive impression at the same time.
Hosts can automate their check-in process and wow their guests by investing in smart locks.
Noise Aware
Noise Aware is a privacy-safe smart home solution that measures volume levels throughout your property and alerts you if noise levels go above your set threshold.
Once you’re alerted, you can notify your guests immediately, before neighbors call the police or any damage is done.
Noise Aware measures the decibel levels in your property and if they pass a set threshold, you’re automatically notified so you can remind your guests to lower the noise levels.
Enso Connect
Enso Connect is a guest experience platform that leverages smart home devices and AI communication to personalize and automate guest communications.
This solution provides a Unified Inbox so you can see all the messages coming through Airbnb, your website, chat, email, and text messages all in one place. An AI chatbot then automates communication with your guests so you have more time to focus on other tasks.
Enso Connect leverages smart home devices and AI technology to automate guest communications.
Operto Teams (formerly VRScheduler)
Operto Teams is a vacation rental and housekeeping management software that gives hospitality professionals a single point of communication when it comes to cleaning, maintenance, and management staff.
This tool saves you time and money by
- Providing a drag-and-drop master calendar that organizes tasks, employees and workflows
- Maximizing automations
- Storing all issues in one location so you can have “a single source of truth”
Operto Teams automates your workflows and saves you time by letting you view every detail in a single glance.
Wheelhouse
Wheelhouse is a dynamic pricing tool that analyzes billions of reactive and predictive data points, and takes out the guesswork from your pricing strategy.
This tool allows you to receive personalized pricing recommendations and fine-tune your pricing strategy so you never get left behind by your competitors.
Dynamic pricing tools like Wheelhouse help hosts consistently hit the pricing sweet spot without doing any of the work.
Combine all your tools in one
There are many more tools like the ones above out there, that can automate your messaging, provide guidebooks to guests, monitor noise levels, adjust your pricing, and basically take care of every single aspect of hosting.
The problem is that as assets owners, you probably don’t have the time to:
- Hire a full team to integrate these tools with your tech stack and maintain them
- Learn about all these tools by yourself and run them together
If you want to consistently rank highly on Airbnb, but are low on time and don’t want 100+ different tools on your tech stack, it might be time to outsource your channel and asset management. Next, find out what outsourcing can do for you.
How to get more bookings (without the work)
Unless you’re ready to make your “hosting life” your only life, you won’t have time to do all it takes to consistently rank highly on Airbnb and give your listing the recognition it deserves. That’s where outsourcing comes in.
Jetstream is the all-in-one tool for automated messaging, listing optimization, channel management, and content distribution. Here’s how we help you spend zero time on administrative tasks, guest communications, and other jobs that take over your life.
Marketing solutions
At Jetstream, our team of expert content marketers produce curated content for your listing and handle all the ongoing optimization based on real-time data we receive from global marketplaces like Airbnb.
All you need to do is find your team of cleaning staff and maintenance experts, then focus on doing what you love.
Jetstream’s expert team works their magic to create content for your listings and optimize everything from the pictures to the amenities.
Global distribution
Jetstream offers channel management and distribution services supported by real-time sync technology. We manage your calendar and take care of distribution, so you can focus your efforts and provide the type of service that makes your listing stand out from Airbnb’s saturated market.
Jetstream’s channel management and distribution services include managing your calendar and taking care of marketing and distribution on platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and more.
On top of all that, we give you a competitive advantage by providing a single solution that integrates with top third-party tech services like Operto, Autohost, Operto Teams, and Wheelhouse.
Airbnb SEO doesn’t have to be your full-time job. Jetstream’s all-in-one solution optimizes your listing, provides 24/7 guest communication, and manages your channels so you can live your life. Book a demo
Improve your Airbnb SEO while you sleep
Hosts can increase their chances of ranking highly on Airbnb’s search results pages by responding quickly to every query, getting better reviews, investing in hospitality tech, and providing high-quality pictures of the listing.
However, operating in Airbnb’s saturated market means competing with thousands of hosts that are following the exact same steps as you are. And when there are much more pressing day-to-day concerns to deal with, putting in effort to stand out from the crowd can easily take a backseat.
That’s why asset owners are increasingly choosing to outsource property management and hotel and report management services to platforms like Jetstream, so they can maximize revenue and get their time back.
Airbnb SEO doesn’t have to be your full-time job. Jetstream’s all-in-one solution optimizes your listing, provides 24/7 guest communication, and manages your channels so you can live your life. Book a demo
Thanks to insights and inspiration to:
Daniel Foley Carter, Marketing Manager of Loanx
Larry Snider, VP of Operations at Casago Vacation Rentals
Garrett Ham, Principal broker and CEO of Weekender Management
Asako Ito, Founder at DivineLashes.
Frequently asked questions about search rankings on Airbnb
Does Airbnb use SEO?
Airbnb uses Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to determine the visibility of a listing on their platform’s search results pages. Hosts can increase their visibility by implementing an SEO strategy that meets Airbnb’s ranking factors.
How do I get more traffic on Airbnb?
Hosts can increase their traffic on Airbnb by
- Advertising their listings on social media
- Offering instant booking
- Boosting their reviews
- Implementing an effective SEO strategy
- Providing accurate and high-quality photos of the property
- Decreasing their reply times
- Targeting the right audience
- Have a flexible check-in policy
How do I rank higher on Airbnb?
Airbnb hosts can rank higher on the first page of Airbnb by
- Offering competitive prices
- Receiving more 5-star reviews
- Providing high-quality pictures of their accommodations
- Maintaining a high response rate
- Having a flexible cancellation policy
- Taking advantage of the listing description section
- Achieving superhost status
What are the best keywords for Airbnb?
The best keywords for Airbnb must include those that describe your area, location, and listing accurately. Of course, finding the right keywords can be time-consuming and often requires an expert approach that’s devised with the specific needs of your listing and business in mind. Jetstream saves you the trouble by producing curated content for your listing and handling all the ongoing optimization.
What is a Superhost on Airbnb?
Superhosts on Airbnb are experienced and long-time hosts who consistently receive positive reviews.
How much money does an Airbnb Superhost make?
A Superhost’s income depends on their number of bookings and rates. However, Superhosts receive special recognition from Airbnb, welcome more guests, and receive exclusive rewards such as coupons and additional referral bonuses.
