Can't find my listing (I already checked posted guideline on this problem)

[Tewodaj0]

Hi there,

I can't find my listing on the map when I do a search whle being logged out of my account. (The *exact* same search setting while being logged in does show my listing!) I already made sure I'm all good with the guidelines given on this webpage: https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/Why-can-t-I-see-my-listing-in-the-Search-Results-A-Community/t...

1. - I've made sure that my place is marked "listed" and not "snoozed" or anything else.
2. - My listing is not already booked on the search filters I set (28-29 March, private room, 1 guest)
3. - I zoomed into the map to the area whereabouts I live; I didn't zoom in too far though 
4. - Other listings are showing on the map, so it's not like I made some error that would eliminate all listings
5. - I have excellent reviews, so in case Airbnb hides listings with bad reviews, that can't be the reason.

Thank you so much for any help or insights!

Tewodaj

[Tewodaj0]

PS: I forgot to mention: My listing's name is "Charming Columbia Heights Rowhouse".

[Amenity0]

The exact same thing is happening to me. My house, "SXSW Haven: East Austin Bungalow" is listed from 3/9/17 - 3/20/17. I also followed all the instructions on that page and confirmed that everything appears listed from the administrative side.

When I am logged out, however, I cannot see it even if I am completely zoomed in on the map and have all filters set, no filters set, etc. etc.

Following this thread in hopes of a solution!

[Tewodaj0]

Hi Amenity,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I also tried out this: I had someone, who was logged into her Airbnb account, look for me, using the exact same settings I tried. She couldn't find me either. I did that thinking maybe someone has to be logged into an Airbnb account to see me. Clearly (and sadly) that's not the case. In other words, I am right now totally invisible to potential guests, whether they are logged into their account, or whether they go into Airbnb without logging in. This is a real bummer since I was excited to do much more hosting going forward, but now I can't if I am invisible...

[Robin4]

@Tewodaj0 Yeah I tried to look a little while ago, and when I narrowed the filters down to  'private room' and price range of $90-150 there were 17 pages of listings and yours did not come up in that search!

Now you have said you followed the listing guidelines and it sounds like you have but, when you go to your page go to 'dashboard' click on 'Stats' and then click on 'Views' ....what do you see? Are you getting any views up until today, and if not, when did the views stop? You have obviously been having views because you have a review for a hosting in January, so somebody must have been seeing you!

Now firstly I am assuming you have not had a communication from Airbnb that you are declining too many enquiries. Airbnb will hide your listing if they feel your decline rate is too high....but they will warn you first!

Getting onto Airbnb in the US can be a bit difficult at times so before you approach them there are a few things you perhaps should try.......

1/. I notice you do not have 'Instant Book' turned on, and I was under the impression that all new listing used Instant Book as the default setting!! I had vowed to never use instant book but when my enquiries fell away I checked my stats to find I had not had any views for a week, and when I did a search, only listings that used Instant book were showing up in a general search, so I activated it and immediately my listing came up in the first 4 in my area! It appears that ABB are gradually forcing us all to use Instant book!

2/. Try refreshing your listing....trying a new profile photo, adding or changing a rule or two will have the effect of having the system promote your listing again.....The most active listings get preferencial search placings and any activity on your listing will help with that.

Before contacting Airbnb @Tewodaj0 and @Amenity0 and possibly even @Branka-and-Silvia0 try these things first and see if this helps make you visible again.....All the best girls..

Cheers.....Rob

[Tewodaj0]

@Robin4 , @Branka-and-Silvia0 , @Amenity0 . Hi Robin, it shows "5 views, past 30 days". These could well be me viewing my own listing in the course of today's troubleshooting. As I mentioned, when I am logged in as myself, I can see my listing (but not when I am logged out, nor can another person I asked see me when she is logged into her account). The stats don't show when in the last 30 days the 5 views were made. 

You're absolutely right, I got a booking Jan 20-23. In Airbnb's complex visibility system, my place must have surfaced then because of the overwhelming demand of people to stay in DC around that time, due to both the inauguration and the Women's March on Washington. So, this seems to be conditional invisibility. 😕

Actually, after posting my question on the community forum, and before getting your reply, I did call Airbnb about this problem. The person told me I had many denials (which is their word for declining booking requests) in the past, and that's affecting my visibility today. It's true: I did do many declines, because I was on intense travel, had friends over, and during other periods didn't feel fully ready yet to host, as I was still pondering the Airbnb thing. Sadly though I was never warned during this period that denials carry a visibility penalty with them in the future. I did get messages asking if I wanted to temporarily deactivate my account, but since I didn't know there is a downside to staying activated, I didn't deactivate. 😞

Thanks for pointing to the benefits of instant-booking. The person I spoke to said that while instant-book status doesn't affect visibility per se, it increases the chance of being booked, and being booked will help me slowly reduce the visibility penalty I currently face for my past declinings. Sounds like in your experience though, insta-booking does affect visibility. Instabooking seems for me a bit too "open", and while I know I can cancel if I'm not comfortable with the person or booking, the ABB person did also tell me that cancellations have a fairly heavy penalty on visibility. So maybe I'll be a bit cautious re instabooking for now.

Thanks also for your tip #2. Today (before posing my Q on the community forum) I did in fact do a number of refreshes: Added better shot photos of the listing, improved the choice of my profile photo, filled in more of the boxes re the listing, neighbourhood, etc. I hope then that will help as you imply!

Many thanks for taking the time to respond, Robin!

Tewodaj

[Robin4]

@Tewodaj0...Hey thank you so much for your detailed response! We so often try to give advice and more often than not do not even get a reply, so when someone like you comes along, it makes advising much easier because we get a bit of background and it tells people like me whether the advice given is accurate.

So there you go, Although I mentioned the decline option I was not aware that this was actually the issue, but you have confirmed that that is why you are suffering a visiblity problem.

@Tewodaj0, although it is the rules many hosts are just like you and only find out after the event. Any form of decline is seen by Airbnb as a sin....some are unavoidale and Airbnb will allow you a bit of lattitude! But we do not know what number of declines puts your visibility at risk and it does vary! I saw an active host profile yesterday that had 6 reviews, 4 of which were host cancellations in a one month period........and this host was still visible! Try and figure that one out!

You are suffering a visibility penalty and the steps I spoke of will help you minimise that penalty. When you think about it, it is stupid! Which comes first the chicken or the egg.....how can you get bookings and raise your visibility if you are being denied visibility!!!

As far as the Instant Book is concerned, I was staunchly against it until my visibility suffered and I have now had to take it on and in some respects I am glad I have. Five of my last 7 bookings have been instant book! the up side is I do not have to be near my computer to respond, I just get an sms that says 'Congratulations, **** has booked your listing ***** date, and I can respond when convenient. I don't have to go into a 'meltdown' worrying about response times and all that.

The second thing, if you are concerned about who may suddenly turn up on your doorstep, you can always set your instant book settings to only allow guest you approve to book!

I am still not totally sold but, my first months experience with Instant book has definitely been positive.

@Tewodaj0 all the best I hope you can get your hosting back on track....I am going to include a link here to the 'How can we Help' section. It will take you to Airbnb's official rules definitions, and is an extremely valuable resource to have available. I am going to include the link as a reference to host cancellation penalties, but just type anything you are not sure of into the search bar and you will be rewarded with an answer.......and then you can become like us and answer them instead of asking them 🙂

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reserv...

Cheers.....Rob

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Tewodaj0 @Amenity0 my 3 listings also dissapeard today