by Jasper Ribbers | Nov 11, 2019 | Blog | 55 comments
Your Airbnb business, just like a hotel, relies on bookings. Here's an expert list of how to get more Airbnb bookings.
The number one influence in getting more bookings is…getting found.
You could have the best listing ever, with world-class, phenomenal service, but if you aren't getting seen, how will anyone book you?
Your booking inquiries correlates to the number of users that find your listing in the Airbnb search results.
They say the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google.
The same applies to Airbnb listings.
Therefore, the secret for how to increase your Airbnb occupancy is to get your listing on the first page.
To understand how you can achieve this, you need to understand how Airbnb determines these search results. Airbnb aims to show users the listings that they are most likely to book, as that’s how they make money. In addition, they promote hosts who take good care of their guests. Let’s look at this in more detail.
[call_to_action title=”More clicks. Higher occupancy.” icon=”icon-lamp” link=”https://getpaidforyourpad.com/airbnb-title-power-words-pdf” button_title=”” class=”” target=”_blank” animate=””]Want to get more clicks on your listing? Get our free list of 154 power words for your Airbnb title[/call_to_action]
How to get more Airbnb bookings: improve your search ranking
Airbnb uses a search algorithm that calculates a unique ranking for each search performed on Airbnb. They take many factors into account. Some of these are based on the guests’ personal preferences.
Related Reading: Airbnb SEO:How to Improve Your Search Visibility
Others are based on your listing and your behavior as a host and these are 100% within your control.
There are over a million listings worldwide. You can't just plop your listing on there and hope something will happen.
You can, however, be both strategic and creative and think like a business person when it comes to your listing.
The trick is to use Airbnb SEO to optimize your listing and get more views and bookings.
How to increase views on Airbnb
Airbnb takes into consideration a lot of factors.
Hosts who don’t let their calendar get a month or more out of date are 70% more likely to get booked.
A lot of these factors take daily consideration: updating your calendar daily, updating prices regularly, answering messages lightning fast. They can be considerably boosted using automated property management tools.
Why is my listing not showing up on Airbnb?
Airbnb has published some of the factors that they use to determine which listings show up. The main ones are:
- Booking appeal: Airbnb recommends that you “make the title and description attractive and informative” and “explain what makes your space unique.”
- Price: The more competitively priced your listing, the more likely guests will be to book your home. This results in greater revenue for Airbnb.
- Number of reviews: Positive reviews greatly increase the chance that your place gets booked. This is essential when you start out, having a few positive reviews versus none is a big deal!
- Trust and Verification: Add as many verifications as you can.
- Photos: These play a major role in getting your place booked, make an appointment with the Airbnb photographer is you haven’t yet.
- Responsiveness: Respond to every single message and aim to respond within one hour. I know you have to sleep sometime, you can use a service like Hospitableto ensure all messages get responded to within minutes.
- Updated calendar: From the guests' perspective, making an inquiry just to find out that the place is unavailable even though it showed up as available is terrible. Always make sure your calendar is updated by visiting your calendar on a daily basis. You can automate this using automated property management tools.
- Acceptance rate: You are free to decline certain booking requests, but don’t be too strict as this will hurt your search ranking. Give some guests the benefit of the doubt, 99% of the time it will turn out well.
- Pricing:You have to assign the right price to your property based on demand, competition and more. You can also use Airbnb pricing tools to help you stay on top of this daily.
- Cancellation: Never cancel a reservation, this causes great inconvenience to your guests and Airbnb doesn’t take cancelation lightly. Make sure you understand the Airbnb cancellation policy.
- Instant Book: Listings that can be booked without first making an inquiry get booked more often and are therefore favored by Airbnb.
- Social connections: Connect your Facebook account, Airbnb will show the user if you have friend in common.
- In addition to these factors, you should also do anything that improves your listings’ appeal or your guests’ experience. It makes sense that Airbnb looks at these factors as well, although this is not confirmed.
- Number of Bookings: A booking is always better than no booking.
- Referrals: You can request friends and family to write you a referral. This is specifically important if you have no or little reviews.
- Log in frequently: There is no harm in showing Airbnb that you’re an active host.
- Write responses to your reviews: This shows that you care about your guests and only takes a few minutes. Look for examples of guest review responses for inspiration.
How to increase views on Airbnb
Follow these three steps to improve your Airbnb search rank.
1) Do a search on Airbnb for your type of listing
Specify type (entire house, private room or shared space) and size (1-bdr, 2-bdr etc). Don’t fill in any dates to make sure all relevant listings show up.
First, search for your neighborhood and note your listing’s position (i.e. page 2, no. 8). Now do another search for your entire city and note the position.
2) Make adjustments to your listing according to the factors mentioned above
3) Repeat step 1) once a week for the next few months
If you implement the suggestions in the article you should see your listing’s position in the search results improve within a few weeks.
Here's a fun video I created that summarizes this article.
[one]Want to get more clicks on your content? Get our free list of 154 power words for your Airbnb title[/one][one_second][/one_second]
Related Post: Hospitable vs iGMS | Which tool is really better?
Related Post:How to Start Airbnb Arbitrage and What to Look Out For
Kimberley Barker Nightingaleon May 13, 2015 at 7:05 am
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/539840
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3548475
Jasper, hi! I have done pretty much all of the items you have mentioned above, however,
when you type in buffalo,ny ( a general search) without dates and any other specifics, my listing doesn’t come
up on the first page and I don’t know why other than my zip code is not in the city proper, I am in a suburb of the city- about
15 minutes out..is that a reason why it wouldn’t come up on the first page of the general search?I have great reviews, great pictures, I do implement Instant Book and I do update my calendar everyday.. mmm.. not sure what else to do?
Reply
Jasperon May 13, 2015 at 7:23 am
Hi Kimberley, let me take a look at your listings and I’ll try to find out what the problem is.
Reply
Kimberley Barker Nightingaleon May 13, 2015 at 8:17 am
Thanks so much Jasper, I appreciate it! I have been racking my brain trying to figure it out.
Reply
Jerzyon January 16, 2018 at 3:21 am
Hi, Just connecting my Airbnb profile with FB profile boosted my listing one page higher. Thank you!
Reply
Jasperon January 19, 2018 at 2:28 am
You’re welcome!
Reply
Jasperon May 13, 2015 at 9:34 pm
Kimberley I see your listings on page two and three out of 21 for a general search in Buffalo. Total listings are 373, and your listings are positioned around the 30th and 50th spot.
When I search for “private room” I see your listings on page 1 and 2 out of 11 pages.
In other words, you’re doing pretty good in the rankings. Not sure why you don’t see your listings, make sure when you do a search to leave the dates blank.
Hope this helps!
Reply
Randyon May 17, 2015 at 12:07 pm
Hi – Just posting the links to my two rooms… it’s a 100 yr. old house that has not been “modernized” completely so there are aspects of it that may be described as “funky” (?) ….it is an eclectic space, for sure… https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2771060 & https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1467568
Reply
Bobbyon June 1, 2015 at 6:27 pm
I listed my place at pine mountain Lake in Groveland Ca, tuloumne county. I have been really frustrated with the search results, as our place doesn’t come up in a pine mountain lake search only Groveland ca. My wife and I have refered friends to check out our place at Airbnb but repeatedly they can’t find it with an open date search. I noted some new guy listed his place, had zero reviews and no bookings yet he comes up on every search.
I spoke with Airbnb about this. They also noted it did not come up in a search for pine mountain lake, but did only when you clicked and dragged the map, which then populates additional places including mine. I know we are loosing a lot of bookings because of this but Airbnb was no help. I am about to quit them and go to vrbo instead. Please help
Reply
Jasperon June 1, 2015 at 7:32 pm
Hi Bobby, could you send me a link to your listing so that I can have a look?
Reply
lAURIEon August 11, 2015 at 1:13 pm
Hey Jasper!
We are new hosts and have been pretty happy with our results so far- but we were dropped lower on the search in the last week and are not sure why,Looking for any tips you may have.
airbnb photos are not available in our area. I am on the site daily and update my calendar daily. Do you know if changing your prices to match the suggestions from airbnb helps your ranking? I have been experimenting with this.
Thanks for any suggestion you may have!
Laurie
Reply
Jasperon August 12, 2015 at 1:24 am
Hi Laurie, I just had a look and I see your listing on the first page. When you check, make sure you don’t select any dates. If you select dates when you are booked, your listing won’t show up.
Reply
margaux raineyon October 25, 2015 at 8:24 am
Hi Jasper!
I can’t find my listing when I search for alki beach in seattle wa. There are a few in my area but mine is not showing… Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Margaux
Reply
Jasperon October 31, 2015 at 10:13 pm
Hi Margaux, if you can post a link to your listing I’ll take a look.
Reply
Petraon December 14, 2015 at 8:05 am
Hi Jasper,
I am from Ljubljana, (Slovenia, EU) and I am new on Airbnb and I have two listing. I have been really frustrated with a search results for one listing. They were both listed on the same day, but one is getting quite well if I compare to the other.
I would kindly ask you for your help as I really don’t know what to do.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9858600?s=KkydJPyY – the listing I have a problem with …
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9872061?s=7Smzyjoh – the listing that has quite good search results
Thank you very much!
PetraReply
Jasperon December 20, 2015 at 11:04 pm
Hi Petra, thanks for sharing your experience so far. Your listings look great, the only thing I’d recommend is setting your cancelation policy to flexible. When you’re starting out, getting bookings is your first priority and a flexible policy promotes that.
As for your rankings, Airbnb sometimes features new listings in the top of the search results, to give new hosts a chance to get booked. My guess is that one of your listings is being featured and the other one isn’t. Airbnb doesn’t disclose how exactly their algorithm works, I wouldn’t worry about it now and just focus on doing the best you can with your listings.
Hope that helps!
Reply
Monikaon January 17, 2016 at 2:12 am
Hi Jasper, I’ve tried pretty much all tips but my listing is still coming further along than I would have hoped so. Any chance you could have a look at it: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/9327420
Thanks a mill !!!
Reply
Jasperon January 17, 2016 at 2:42 am
It looks good, are you getting a lot of inquiries?
Reply
Monikaon January 17, 2016 at 2:48 am
Well, no unfortunately 🙁 I’ve had 5 bookings so far (started a couple of months ago) and 3-4 enquiries. Right now, I only have two confirmed reservations for Feb/March. Perhaps it is a low season after all ? Not sure what else could I change….
Reply
Jasperon February 13, 2016 at 6:50 pm
Yeah January / February are the worst months, what you could do is list on some other platforms like Wimdu, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Homeaway or Flipkey. See which ones seem to have the most demand in your area and choose that one. I use Wimdu in the winter months to fill up the gaps.
Reply
Kristinaon April 5, 2016 at 9:53 pm
-Hello Jasper,
The problem is that after all, I cannot find my 2 apartments (listings) in search results for my neighborhood.
I joined to airbnb in the end of this February, and I had 4 inquires, and 2 bookings.
Could you please help me find my flats, and tell me what am I doing wrong? Is there some crucial mistake? Please check my apartments here and please give me a feedback. Thank you very much 🙂Kristina
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11511512?s=g_ByQgBW
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11506181?s=vWiLx9L1Apartment Karmen – Apartments for Rent in Pula
Reply
Jasperon April 5, 2016 at 10:41 pm
Hi Kristina,
I see both of your listings in the search results, so I don’t think that’s the problem. I do see a lot of improvements that you could make, I recommend ordering my listing review service on Fiverr.
https://www.fiverr.com/jasperribbers/improve-your-airbnb-listing
Best,
JasperReply
Kristinaon April 6, 2016 at 12:31 am
Thanks Jasper for your comment and help. I still cannot see my listings in the search result :/
I will order your listing review service soon.
Bye,
Kristina
Reply
Manion June 4, 2021 at 10:11 pm
Hi Jasper hope you doing great, i recently acquired an airbnb property and i under this is covid time, my property is a villa based in bali. But last 4 months no bookings from airbnb. It would be great if you could go through my listing and suggest whats wrongs.
Reply
Cliveon April 13, 2016 at 8:59 pm
Jasperon April 14, 2016 at 2:59 pm
Hi Clive,
I would enable instant book and set your cancelation policy to moderate or flexible, that should help your ranking improve.
Best,
JasperReply
Davidon June 8, 2016 at 7:59 am
Hi Jasper,
My airbnb apartment (Budapest, Hungary) listing:
https://www.airbnb.hu/rooms/11640587
Any suggestion for improvement?
Thanks,
DavidReply
Jasperon June 14, 2016 at 4:19 pm
Hi David,
your listing is pretty good, well done! You can improve a bit, I’d enable instant book and you should respond to all reviews. In addition, add some photos of your neighborhood, Budapest is a beautiful city so it shouldn’t be hard to find some great ones!
Reply
Kadekon June 11, 2016 at 7:31 am
Hi Jasper, i’m Kadek from Bali, if you don’t mind please help me to check and give me your tips
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12532838?s=8&user_id=49841373&ref_device_id=6a72d740f828c89a
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12891870?s=8&user_id=49841373&ref_device_id=6a72d740f828c89a
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12881175?s=8&user_id=49841373&ref_device_id=6a72d740f828c89a
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12894858?s=8&user_id=49841373&ref_device_id=6a72d740f828c89a
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12891097?s=8&user_id=49841373&ref_device_id=6a72d740f828c89a
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12893452?s=8&user_id=49841373&ref_device_id=6a72d740f828c89aReply
Jasperon June 14, 2016 at 4:13 pm
Hi Kadek,
I looked at the first listing you mentioned. Your photos look great, but you should add better captions (see this article: https://getpaidforyourpad.com/blog/ultimate-guide-creating-best-photo-section-airbnb-listing/).
Also, your description isn’t very good, it’s very brief. You should add more detail and describe the experience that your guests can have while staying at your place.
Reply
Tiffanyon June 14, 2016 at 5:28 am
Hi,
Thanks for writing this. I just tarted airbnb and have only had 1 request. Looking to get more in. Can you help me out? I live in a charming warehouse in Brooklyn!
Reply
Jasperon June 14, 2016 at 4:10 pm
Hi Tiffany,
I recommend you start by improving your photos, you have some really good ones but the first few are not very appealing, the vertical shots don’t display well on the Airbnb website for example.
Please read this article: https://getpaidforyourpad.com/blog/ultimate-guide-creating-best-photo-section-airbnb-listing/ and follow the steps to create an outstanding photo gallery.
Reply
Kushagra Tripathion July 5, 2016 at 8:01 am
Hi Jasper,
I am fairly new to airbnb (about a month into it). Initially I got a lot of bookings and in the past 8-10 days I haven’t been getting any inquiry or request or booking. Any suggestion on how I can improve upon it.
Here’s the link to my listing:
https://www.airbnb.com/manage-listing/13044092/calendarThanks for your help in advance.
Reply
Jasperon July 5, 2016 at 3:07 pm
Hi Kushagra,
I would start with improving your photo section, your first picture doesn’t display well on Airbnb because it’s not wide enough, if you search for your listing you’ll notice the two grey areas on each side of your picture in the search snippet.
Please read this post on how to create a great photo section, just follow the steps in the article. That should increase the number of bookings.
Reply
Janice Sooon August 15, 2016 at 11:06 pm
Hi Jasper,
I am new to Airbnb and did served 2 bookings during the 1st month (Jul). However, I did not receive any booking since then. I had activated the instant booking, shorten the night from 3 to 2 and the notice to book from 2 to 1 but still didn’t see the improvement. Fyi, mine unit is 2 bedrooms and is 1 of the nearest to the city with very competitive price set. This is the link https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13467298?preview would you check for me please?
Besides, my unit is appeared mixing up with those 0-1 bedroom listing during my search without filter the bedroom. This can be a low side for me as other 0-1 bedroom listing price is almost similar to mine, and the visitor would not know mine unit actually is 2 br. Will this affect their interest to click into it too?
Thanks in advance for your advise.
Reply
Jasperon August 17, 2016 at 4:12 pm
Hi Janice, your listing looks fine, I don’t see any problems with it in the search results, I was able to find it. You can definitely optimize it though, the picture of the bed without any pillows or sheets on it doesn’t look inviting for example, some of the pics are vertical and don’t display well and some of the info under “neighborhood” doesn’t show and is replaced with “phone number hidden” or “Sensitive content hidden”. Your title isn’t very inviting, it’s very factual, try to come up with something more catchy that highlights your listing’s best feature.
Reply
Janice Sooon August 19, 2016 at 9:42 pm
Thank you so much for your advise Jasper. Will amend the listing accordingly. Really appreciate for your help.
Reply
Shannon Bankstonon August 23, 2016 at 8:57 am
Hi Jasper,
Thanks so much for all of this information. My husband and I are new to Airbnb. We love it ! We did so well with bookings when we first started, but our views have dropped off big time. I know we were probably featured as new and that has probably gone away now, but I would LOVE to get your feedback on our listing. If there is something we could do better we will.
Cheers,
Shannon B.
Reply
Jasperon August 24, 2016 at 9:55 am
Hi Shannon, your listings looks pretty good, I think the lowest hanging fruit would be to improve your photo section, in particular your first picture doesn’t really display much. See here for more information: https://getpaidforyourpad.com/blog/ultimate-guide-creating-best-photo-section-airbnb-listing/
Reply
Lacy Ponteson August 27, 2016 at 1:36 pm
Hi Jasper! I have followed you for awhile . My first listing has been performing well for the last 8 months. My newest listing (listed 1 month ago), however, is not doing as well and I can’t figure out the problem. I am just not getting many views or bookings. Would you mind taking a look please? https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13764144
Reply
Larson September 17, 2016 at 8:23 am
Hi Jasper
My villa is currently managed by a 3rd party villa manager.
Not sure if we getting enough bookings from airbnb.
Heard some great booking stories using airbnb only.
Please help me?Villa came up on page 4 for Koh Samui.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5106745?guests=8&s=PPx7Xgjk&sug=51
Reply
DAVIDEon October 27, 2016 at 3:12 am
Hi Jasper what do you think about my ad in Rome?
cozy and cheap apartment in Rome for short rent holidays.
Reply
DAVIDEon October 27, 2016 at 3:13 am
Cristinaon November 3, 2016 at 5:17 pm
Hello I would love your thoughts on my Budapest Airbnb apartment. I’m not sure why I don’t appear higher up in the search results 🙁 thx! https://airbnb.com/rooms/13589111
Reply
Jasperon November 16, 2016 at 2:52 pm
Hey guys I don’t have time anymore to respond to all questions here, please join my FB group Airbnb Academy to get feedback. Thanks!
Reply
Lalion March 21, 2017 at 5:52 am
Hi Jasper! ttps://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17773278 This is my airbnb listing in Tbilisi, Georgia and it does not seem to appear in search at all, what is wrong with it
Reply
Jasperon March 21, 2017 at 6:45 am
Hi Lali, I found your apartment on Airbnb in the search results, but only after I zoomed in on your location. There’s a lot of apartments in your area, that’s why it’s hard to find you. Just follow the recommendations in this post and your ranking should improve over time. Do you have any bookings yet?
Reply
Stanoon May 11, 2017 at 12:01 pm
Hi Jasper,
thank you for useful informations.
Can you please check mine listing what can I improove? Dont have too many bookings, thanks so much.https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16685549
Stano
Reply
Jasperon May 15, 2017 at 4:17 am
Hi Stano,
Your listing looks good. I would take the caps out of your title, looks a little aggressive, try this: “★Couple’s Getaway | Close To Everything | Parking★”
Also I’d put picture 11 first and refer to this article to improve the rest of your photo section.
Hope that helps!
Best,
JasperReply
Donon June 15, 2017 at 12:22 am
Hi Jasper, thanks for this useful guide. What do you think of my listing? Any way to improve it? Thanks.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17434640
Don
Reply
Nicon June 27, 2017 at 11:13 am
Hi Jasper, Can you set variable cancellation policies for different times / seasons of the year ?
Great book BTW, any ideas how can I improve my listings ?
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/19485821Reply
Jasperon June 27, 2017 at 11:24 pm
Hi Nic,
no you can’t unfortunately. As for your listings, since you don’t have any reviews yet I’d make it as easy as possible for guests to book, you could enable IB and lower your price temporarily to get some momentum. For the long term, you could improve your pictures. Some are a bit dark, did you request the Airbnb photographer yet? Also check out this photo guide.
Best,
JasperReply
PJon November 3, 2020 at 10:26 pm
Hi Jasper, do you have any advice for long term listings? My listing must be rented for 30 days or more. What can I do to improve my SEO and what are guests looking for in a longer term rental? Thanks
Reply
Kimon February 25, 2021 at 2:25 pm
Hi, I certainly appreciate all the information you have shared with us. We have an issue where we set the pricing in the calendar and and save it but when we go to look as a guest, it is set much higher. We only have one listing so not sure how this is possible. Can you please help?
Reply
Jasperon March 3, 2021 at 2:07 pm
It’s probably because when you look as a guest, Airbnb adds all the fees to the price.
Reply
Roberton January 28, 2022 at 3:12 pm
https://www.airbnb.com/manage-your-space/54374004/details
just want to get more views and bookings
Reply
Submit a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
