Some of my listings don't appear in search

[Herwig0]

I'm a property owner and property manager and a happy Superhost since 4 month. All my properties (10+) are located in Ericeira, Portugal, all are rated 4* or5* (otherwise I wouldn't have the superhost status)

my question: how comes that some of my properties don't show when I search for "Ericeira, Portugal"?  I'm missing at least 3 properties and manually went through all 306 listed properties twice to double-check. I did the search logged out and logged in, same results (different positions of the properties, so)

thanks for some insights

Herwig

[Emiel1]

Hello @Herwig0 ,

As you can see all 12 listings are active and integrated in the system:

https://www.airbnb.com/s/homes?host_id=2774672

Please provide an example of 1 of those listings (the direct link)  you can't find, so we can try it.

Best regards, Emiel

[Herwig0]

Hi @Emiel1, thanks for your response. Yes I know, also if I use the below link, all properties show:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/2774672/listings

but if I'm using this one (you need to go through 17 pages) several properties are missing:

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Ericeira--Portugal (306 results)

how comes?

[Emiel1]

Hello @Herwig0 ,

Yes, but to investigate WHY a property is missing, please do give an example of 1 of the 12 listings which is missing, so we can check. You can not expect from us to go through all the pages. Best regards, Emiel

[Herwig0]

@Emiel1thanks for your time, if I type the direct link of any of the properties, they obviously show. My question was why some properties don't show in the listing when searching for Ericeira, Portugal

this one doesn't show in that listing of 17 pages, 306 properties, 3 minutes to walk through all of them:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10919044

also this one: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18870271

or this one: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2563322

thanks

Herwig

[Helen3]

Sounds like this is one for Airbnb. Why not give them a call.

[Emiel1]

Hello @Herwig0 ,

i only looked at 10919044. It does show up in search results, if you zoom in on the map it's even on the first page ! When searching " Ericeira, Portugal" Airbnb only shows about first 300 listings, to limit the primary search. People are expected to use filters or zoom in the map. So nothing wrong with this listing, it's just not (yet) in the top 300. BTW  On bottom of page it says:

300+ (plus!) rentals. 

Best regards,Emiel

[Herwig0]

@Emiel1I understand that. But why are other properties listed in the top 306 (at this generic search), with less credentials (star rating, superhost, etc..) or is this just a rotating system? What do I need to do to get into this top 306, or is it completely irrelavant, once you search for a certain date, number of persons, oceanfront, pool etc. ? Is for exapmple how much money airbnb made with a certain property factoring into that ranking? page-views, wish-lists, etc....

I don't want to be a pain in the ass, but I'd like to to understand the system's alogarithm.

best regards from Ericeira

Herwig

[Matthew285 · Accepted solution]

@Herwig0, we *all* would like to understand the system's algorithm for how it ranks listings in the search results.

None of us have that information, and AirBnB has never given a definite explanation as to how it works (possibly because they are constantly making adjustments to it). 

You may have seen other posts where I shared what little authoritative information I have been able to compile from AirBnB public postings on the topic. I can include it here just for convenience:

Here is AirBnB's information page about it:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/39/what-factors-determine-how-my-listing-appears-in-search-resul...

Here is one AirbnB blog entry about search matching:

https://blog.atairbnb.com/how-search-makes-the-best-matches/

Here is a very informative AirBnB blog entry about how to rank higher (I think this one is the best):

https://blog.atairbnb.com/search/

Finally, here is a Reddit post where someone did a small bit of analysis about search ranking:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/6113kx/ranking_of_listing_factors_correlating_to_search/?st...

If you don't have time to read all the links, here are some highlights (in no particular order):

1. Instant Book: Very Helpful
2. SuperHost status: Not supposed to be a factor.
3. Being the kind of host that *is* a SuperHost: Definitely a factor.
4. Tweaking your listing every day: Not Helpful
5. Being put on lots of people's Wish Lists: Very Good
6. Getting clicked on (views): Good
7. Receiving inquiries: Good
8. Competitive price: Very Good.
9. Declining people’s booking requests: Bad
10. Positive Ratings from Guests: Good
11. Having lots of reviews: Good
12. Being a new listing: Very Good
13. Being responsive to guests: Good
14. Cancelling a confirmed booking: Very Bad

Also: be aware that the way the search results are ranked can vary from one guest to another. Just because you are high or low in the list for one guest doesn’t mean you will be in that position for ALL guests.

[Herwig0]

@Matthew285thanks a lot for that great information. One quick question concerning

point 9 - Declining people’s booking requests: Bad

Sometimes people put any dates just to be able to have a chat. I don't like that and normally decline with the reason "the dates differ from the dates they actually looking for".

Does this still count towards BAD? Should I simply pre-approve the dates anyway?

also related, but never experienced: what if I don't trust someone (like low * rating), is declining counting towards BAD?

[Matthew285]

@Herwig0 when you say "Should I simply pre-approve the dates anyway?" that indicates to me that the thing you are asking about is an Inquiry (as opposed to a Reservation Request).

You neither have to Pre-Approve or Decline Inquiries. All you have to do is respond via an AirBnB message and you have fulfilled your obligation as a host, and you maintain your Response Rate.

The annoying notification about the Inquiry will stay up for about a week, but you can ignore that.

Declining anyone counts towards "bad", but the declines only matter in comparison to other nearby hosts. As they say in the blog: 

"We’re most interested in how you compare to other hosts, rather than just counting your rejections."

So as long as you are declining a lower percentage of people than your nearby hosts, it should not hurt you.

[Mike1034]

There are following issues when your listings are not shown up

(1) The dates requested are not available. e.g. one of the dates is blocked for the period

(2) One of the search filters you have during the search may filter your listing out.

(3) If you are a host and logged in your account, you do the search for your own property, it will not be in the search result. Please try to log out your account and do the search.

(4) AirBnb's search engine issue with the location zooming.

Here I elaborate a little more about (4).

AirBnb still has this location issue especially for the areas with less listings. The search zooms out the map trying to include large number of results. What I meant large number is that it shows on the dashboard page after you enter city and dates. Normally they want to show at least over several hundreds of results. This will help them to look good to the travellers.

If you are a host and try to make sure your listing(s) appears in the search results, you may need to zoom in where your property is located. You may have to zoom in so that the map only shows a very small area in order to see your property on the returned search results if you are not the lucky ones.

Actually it is a big issue for a traveller who wants to find a house in the destination city. In the searched results list, property records don't have city name of distance to the city center he enters. A traveller does not know where the property is actually located without selecting it and see the details on the map section. It slows down a traveller to find a property he likes to stay. 

My suggestion is to ask AirBnb at least a distance to the location city center a guest entered and the city name if it is not the city a guest entered to the returned search results. This will help guests to speed up with their searches.

I suggest that we all take an action to send the feedback to AirBnb through their feedback page. Then they will start looking into into this issue. Here is the link

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback