How Airbnb Search Works

We are often asked by both guests and property owners: “How is the position of an ad in the search results?” Each month, about a million site visitors search for rooms, apartments, tree houses, and sometimes even mattresses. Ultimately, the goal of our search engine is to link thousands of people and create conditions for travel that otherwise would not have happened.

Search is the main interface of our product, the basis on which our development is based. We are not afraid of redesigning the search page or changing the ranking algorithm, when we are faced with the goal of attracting users and making them more comfortable on the site.
')
Maxbara Charkov, engineering manager of the company, tells about how the search on Airbnb is arranged.



The main principle in the issuance of search results: we encourage owners who think and care about the guests. The owner must carefully ensure that the ad meets our rules. Properly prepared announcement (we wrote about the criteria in the previous post http://habrahabr.ru/company/airbnb/blog/234571/ ) and the host’s concern for the guests (we will tell about it below) will affect where your ad will appear in the results search. Accordingly, the violation of these rules will affect the quality of the ad and lower its position on the search results page.

Guest preferences also play an important role, so don’t expect the ad to be in the same place in the search results of different Airbnb visitors. Not everyone wants to live in a castle in the north of Ireland or in the fuselage of an airplane. Even an attractive-looking ad and the good impressions of previous tenants may not meet the criteria for new guests.

And the last factor that influences the search results is the ease of booking - how simple and reliable the booking process is.

Let us consider in more detail each category.

Ad quality

A well-designed ad naturally attracts attention. Each click on an ad is taken into account and affects the position in the search results. The frequency of booking by guests after reading the announcement also has a positive effect on search results. There are some simple tips on how to make an ad visually appealing:

• Title should be informative.
• Explain what makes your home unique, including facilities or rules.
• The best picture of housing should go first and impress on the search page.
• The price must be competitive with other ads.

Your own efforts will go to pieces if the users do not appreciate them. Therefore, it is important to monitor guest reviews. The number and quality of guest reviews may affect the position of the ad in the search. Where to get feedback if you only registered in the system? Ask your friends to write how kind and responsible you are.

Photos of housing should be of good quality and give an accurate idea of ​​the space. It is so important that in many countries we conduct free professional photography on our own.

Account verification helps build trust with potential guests. The more confirmations, the better. At a minimum, you need to confirm your phone number and email address.

Ease of booking

Guests write messages, ask questions - ignoring leads to a deterioration in the search position. Hosts must respond to booking requests within 24 hours. According to our data, those landlords who answer faster than in 12 hours receive twice as many bookings per month. Through the Airbnb mobile app, you can respond to guest requests instantly, even if you're on the go. Communication that goes beyond the "dry" answers to questions is only welcome: ask guests about plans and let them know if something has changed in your house.

We take into account the speed of the host’s response (you can consider us corrosive and boring, but with a good purpose). Travelers usually write to several hosts, so the sooner you answer, the more chances you have to get a reservation. Based on the speed of responses, a rating is compiled - a percentage that shows how often the host responds to requests and requests for booking guests. Rating responses take into account all new message threads created in the past 30 days. For the most accurate statistics, the rating is recalculated several times a day.

To increase positions in the overall rating, it is important to keep the calendar up to date and promptly reflect housing availability in it, monitor the number of bookings accepted (if it’s not possible to accept the request, it’s better to click Reject and formally reject the request than to simply reply to the guest in the message or ignore it at all) and also avoid canceling a confirmed guest reservation.

And the last criterion of this category is instant booking, which allows guests not to wait for the host’s response and worry about a negative result. For a newbie host, enabling the Instant Book option increases the chances of getting attracted first guests.

Guest preferences

Most often, guests are looking for accommodation not all over the city, but in a certain area. We use information from past queries to determine which sites are most relevant to this search. The search engine is trying to understand the preferences of the guest and the parameters of his trip, so the results may vary depending on the person or the criteria of the trip.

If the traveler has common friends or classmates with the host, the announcement of this host can be shown in the search one of the first. To activate this mechanism, you need to link your Airbnb account with your Facebook account.

Conclusion

All these practical tips are a consequence of the algorithms of our search engine. And in one of the nearest publications we will tell about the features of implementation, our “search backend”.