5 Unique Ways to Improve your Airbnb's Search Ranking

As an Airbnb host, you might have experienced that your listing was not showing on the first few pages in your area or more frustratingly, not showing at all. It’s often not clear to hosts what influences higher listing search results but there are actually plenty things you can do to increase your listing’s ranking and therefore how many potential guests see your Airbnb. Below are five unique ideas of doing so that you may not have thought of:

More Airbnb Wishlist Saves
Although Airbnb’s algorithm is highly elusive, the company has mentioned that the more users that save your Airbnb to a Wishlist, the higher it will appear in potential guest’s search results. Make sure to ask your friends and family to save your listing to positively influence its search results.

Add a sofa bed
If you have a spacious living area, it’s not a bad idea to add a couch that can double as an extra bed. If you have a one bedroom for example and add a sofa bed, your listing would appear for guests booking for 3 or 4 guests and you can even add an extra guest fee for this. This might be more cost effective for travellers compared to a two bedroom and could be suitable for families with young kids as well.

Tick ‘Smoking Allowed’
If you allow smoking anywhere on your property then you should consider ticking the ‘Smoking Allowed’ option for your listing. If guests are searching with this amenity ticked, it means they are wanting to be considerate and avoid Airbnbs that would have an issue with smoking. Since most smokers won’t even smoke inside their own home, they often won’t mind if you have specific areas where they can smoke so just make it crystal clear on your listing and in your house rules.

Consider pets
If you have a space that is suitable for pets - for example, well fenced off and spacious - then you might consider allowing pets into your Airbnb. The demand for pet-friendly Airbnbs is double the supply so it’s a sure way to increase your search ranking and attract a different type of guest. For more information on how to set your space up for pets - see here.

Add places of interest to your guidebook
Places of interest are searchable within Airbnb and when you add places of interest into your guidebook on Airbnb, then that place will also have your listing pop up as a nearby Airbnb. This may not create a huge amount of traffic but it definitely wouldn’t hurt!

If you choose to follow any of these above tips, you will open your Airbnb up to a range of different guests that you might not have considered would be interested in your listing before. Over time your Airbnb will also gain a lot more exposure had you not implemented these small changes.