You’ve uploaded your Airbnb listing, the pictures of your place look great, and the information is accurate – so why haven’t the bookings come flooding in? It’s hard to grab guests’ attention when you’re competing with lots of other equally desirable properties, but luckily there are a few tricks you can try to boost your search rank.
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1. Lower Your Pricing
Pricing can be one of the biggest barriers to Airbnb visibility. Guests are more likely to opt for cheaper properties, hence why the lower-priced listings are usually what is shown to them first. This may be because lower costs are one of the most significant advantages Airbnbs have over hotels. So, if you aren’t receiving many bookings, bringing your price down is the first thing you should try.
However, you don’t want to end up charging so little it’s hardly worth your listing at all, so it might be worth consulting the professionals if you aren’t sure. For example, Dubai Airbnb listing management company Frank Porter use algorithms and manual changes to ensure a property is well-priced all year, with in-house pricing specialists checking daily and updating prices when needed.
2. Optimise Your Listing
If you’re confident that your photos and descriptions are accurate and enticing (consider asking family and friends their opinions too), then make sure all other aspects are up-to-date and optimised.
Make sure your profile is filled out entirely and your host calendar is accurate. If not, certain dates might be blocked without you realising and this could seriously harm your listing potential – Airbnb has more information here.
Another thing worth doing is checking your personal profile makes you sound welcoming. This alone probably won’t impact your ranking but it could be the thing that gives you the edge over a similar listing to yours.
3. Be an Active User
You’ll be rewarded for being an active user, so try and log into your profile every day. The most important reason for this is so you’ll keep up with guest queries and be more likely to be seen as a responsive host. Reply as quickly as possible because Airbnb has stated that your response times to enquiries is something directly factored into its algorithm.
Good communication also means that guests will be more likely to leave you a five-star rating and this will give your listing a boost too. Having a 90% response rate can also help you gain Superhost status which might catch the eye of potential guests.
4. Activate Instant Book
The Instant Book feature has been designed to make the booking experience as seamless as can be, so it’s no surprise that Airbnb rewards hosts that use it with a ranking boost. Of course, don’t activate Instant Book before thinking about how it will work logistically and checking out which settings can be customised. For example, you might feel uneasy about accepting guests without seeing who they are first, but you have the ability to pre-select guest requirements. If you list on other websites alongside Airbnb, make sure your calendars are synced up to avoid double booking.
5. Promote Your Listing on Social Media
Getting as much traffic to your listing as possible will help you rank higher, and social media is a useful tool for these purposes. Instagram is especially good for these purposes as many people turn to this channel for travel inspiration – spend some time looking at the tactics of users in this space and take a look at these tips on using Instagram to promote holiday accommodation.
Create business pages on Facebook and Twitter too to maximize the free publicity you can get. Hopefully, your social media efforts will result in more clicks on your Airbnb listing, helping it climb up the ranks.
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