If you build it, they will come (so they said). So you built it. You built a beautiful Airbnb, took perfect photos, wrote an engaging and accurate description, thought about every detail. But no one came. You ain’t getting views. And views means bookings. And you ain’t getting those neither. You are too low on Airbnb’s metrics. Here’s how to increase your Airbnb ranking and get more bookings:

Starting Out:

When you are just starting out, you are in a tough spot. You are an unknown entity competing with experienced hosts with proven track records. So you’ve got to elbow your way in to get any attention on the Airbnb ranking. Here’s how…

1. References

Ask your friends and family to leave you a reference. This is not the same as a review (which is what a guest writes after staying at your place), this is just your friend vouching for you. But it helps. It helps persuade potential guests that you are normal. Nice. Legit. If they have visited your Airbnb and they can comment on the space too, so much the better. Ideally ask people who have a history on Airbnb and are themselves a host or guest. This simple act alone will help your Airbnb rankings climb from newbie depths.

2. Have a cheap nightly rate

Set yourself well below your competitors in terms of price to begin with. As much as 50% lower. You won’t like doing this. It will hurt your pride. The perceived risks of Airbnb will no longer feel worth the rewards. Do it anyway. Bite the bullet. You can raise your prices once you’ve got some great reviews. Lower rates equal higher views and more bookings which in turn provides better Airbnb ranking.

3. Have an open calendar

Airbnb prioritises committed hosts. You will get better bookings if you have an open calendar completely available for guests to book. This is a shame, because this favours professional hosts and not people who want to share their own space as and when is convenient for them (which was the original purpose of the site). Airbnb is great way to make money from your own home whenever you go on work trips or take a vacation, and in fact that’s how I started out. But if that’s all you do, you are not a pro – and Airbnb ranking favours the pros.

Check you calendar every day. I’ve heard it helps. The idea is that Airbnb wants to avoid situations where guests have bookings cancelled because a host didn’t have a proper grip on the calendar. I think this logic is flawed, but checking the calendar daily seems to help so I do it anyway.

4. Have no nightly limit

Like 2 above, this will hurt. It seems like too much effort to have a guest for only one night – all that cleaning. All that laundry! But if you’ve automated and outsourced your Airbnb, this shouldn’t be too bad.

Whats worse is the opportunity cost. If you get a booking for Friday night only, bang goes your chance for a weekend booking or even a full week. So be selective. I only allow single night visits when I need to fill gaps between stays – e.g. If I have a booking from Tuesday to Saturday, and another from the following Wednesday to Friday, I’ll open up the days in the middle to single night bookings.

5.  Drive traffic

Use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, even your own website (hence why I have the Stay at My Place page on this site). I will be writing a guide to marketing your Airbnb on here soon, but in essence your aim is to get eyeballs on your Airbnb page. The more people you get looking at your listing, the more Airbnb’s algorithm takes notice and pushes you further up the rankings. Views beget views.

Maintaining Ranking

When you start out on Airbnb you get good juju. Airbnb gives newbies a chance, and a little rankings boost. But if you let it slide, they will drop you. Don’t lose momentum. To keep your Airbnb ranked as high as possible, I suggest the following:

1. Be a great host

This should go without saying. But it’s so important. Be the best host you can be. Offer all the amenities guests expect of you. Reply quickly. Be a generous host.

2. Get reviews – killer ones

Great reviews should come to great hosts. But sometimes you need to ask for them.  Once guests check out, I message them saying how great they were and how grateful I was they took such good care of the place. I do this even if they weren’t that great (!) because I’ve noticed some people will leave a bad review of a host if they expect a bad one as a guest. But if I think they didn’t enjoy themselves, if they were odd or weird guests or something went wrong, I would avoid this so as to discourage a bad review (not that I’ve had one yet!).

3. Avoid stopping and starting

This one’s a tough one. Again, if you are doing this in your own home when you are away, it’s your only option. But if you close your listing down, you will be starting from scratch again every time you open it back up. Here’s how my views looked after a long hiatus. Not pretty:

They only way I got them to climb back up again was through some drastic price cutting.

But there it is. My tips on how to increase your Airbnb ranking and get more bookings. I hope you find them useful.

If you haven’t made the plunge and become an Airbnb host yet, DO IT. You won’t regret it. It’s been a blessing for me. You can sign up here to become a host*. If you need help getting going, read through the articles on my blog or ask me directly using the contact options here.